Misconstrued lyrics

[waddledee524]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 5:03pm

(I don't know if this has been a topic before, but I couldn't find it in recent pages.)

Are there any lyrics from musicals that you've completely misinterpreted, or could be construed the wrong way? Not like misheard lyrics - I'm talking about lyrics that you heard correctly, but thought they meant something different.

Example:
In Annie, at one point she goes "Could someone pinch me please?", and then a maid does, and Annie goes "Ow!" and then another lady says, "She didn't mean it!"
I always wondered when I was a kid: did Annie not mean for someone to pinch her, or did the maid not mean to pinch her so hard? That sounds extremely dumb now, but it always used to bug me.

Another example, this time from RENT:
"My only goal is just to be / without you" from Finale B. Now, I know what they really mean, but still. My only goal is just to be without you??

Excuse me if this is completely incoherent. I'm really tired.

[ILoveMyDictionary]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 5:32pm

oh wow. This is going to bother me now, about the Annie one. I'm sure there has been some lyrics I misinterprited but I can't remember now.

[NativeNewYorker]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 5:39pm

Before I ever saw Fiddler on the Roof, I would hear "Is there a canopy in store for me" and think it meant, "Now that you're getting married, will you have a sparebed for me when I come to visit you?"

It wasn't until I finally saw it and saw the canopy at the wedding and went, "Ohhh!"

[jasonf]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 7:49pm

There are a couple of them that I always wondered about, though trying to think of them now...

The one that pops right into my head from Guys and Dolls: "but it's better than even money" -- although I always figured it was the gambling term "even money" like 1:1 odds, it can also be read as "what's it better than? It's better than even money!"

The other one that always bothers me, and though people have tried to explain it to me I have yet to hear an explanation I fully buy: In West Side Story, Anita sings "A boy who kills cannot love, a boy who kills has no heart." Does she not know that Bernardo killed Riff? If I remember right, Tony DOES tell Maria that Bernardo killed Riff - after her whole "Please let it not be true and she starts yelling Killer killer - doesn't Tony tell her that Bernardo killed Riff? If so, why would she let Anita (who I think knows also) say that without throwing it back in her face? I know Bernardo is Maria's brother, but that lyric never rang true for me.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 7:58pm

I've seen two different productions of Annie. Both times Grace tells the servant that Annie didn't mean for someone to truly pinch her. I suppose it could be played the other way too.

[Marguerite Chauvelin]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 8:29pm

"She didn't mean it!"

For some reason, I know if I was in that show I would accidently follow that line with "Anybody want a peanut?"

[jasonf]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 8:36pm

Inconceivable!

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/20/06 at 11:29pm

"Don't Cry For Me Argentina" has been the song that always puzzled me. Before the movie came out (and before I knew anything about the show), I thought Eva sang it to the massess shortly before she died, toward the end of the show. When I saw the film, I couldn't fathom why she would sing "Don't cry for me" at what appears to be her height of glory. Why should the people cry, I wondered? Because of this, I never liked the placing of the song. [Alan Jay Lerner had the same complaint, apparently.] Then a few years ago, I read somewhere that Eva is actually saying "Don't call for me." Cry can also mean a loud call or shout. Before Eva steps out onto the balcony, the crowd is crying/calling/shouting her name. Thus, Eva is assuring them that though she has risen to tremendous heights and is dressed in rich attire, she is still of the people and there is no need for them to cry/call/shout because she hasn't left them. At other times, during Eva's funeral and final broadcast, "Don't cry for me" is its common meaning. In the former she is telling the people not to weep because she has left them, and in the latter she is telling them not to weep because she is going to leave them, physically. Also, when when "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" is taken out of context, it sounds like Eva singing from the grave, recounting her life story. In this case, cry seems to mean weep.

Updated On: 6/21/06 at 11:29 PM

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 6/21/06 at 12:29am

Speaking of EVITA, the commercial for the original production showed a scene of Lupone singing BUENOS AIRES ("Stand back, Buenos Aires/Because you oughtta know whatcha gonna get in me/Just a little touch of star quality.") But because of Ms. Lupone's garbled diction, I heard: "Stand back, Buenos Aires/Because you oughtta know whatcha gonna get in me/Just a little torture, that's what I need."

I figured South American fascism, why not?


Jerusha Bromley
Walpole, Massachusetts

[gumbo2]

Posted: 6/21/06 at 12:38am

Once Upon A Mattress...In A Little While. In that song the lyric goes...

In a little while, just a little while,
You and I will be one two three four,
In a little while I will see your smile,
On the face of my son to be forever hand in glove...

So why the hell are they counting to 4?

My director explained it as 1=me, 2=you, 3= the baby on the way, 4=for, as in for in a little while...a continuation onto the next line. I'm not sure if I buy it, but either way it's sort of bizarre.

[thejcm]

Posted: 6/21/06 at 2:12am

For the longest time I thought in RENT during Light My Candle,the line is:

Roger: Cold hands.
Mimi: Yours too...big, like my fathers.

I always heard:

Roger: Cold hands.
Mimi: You're stu...pid like my father.