I wrote this article for the Unbreakable fanzine issue that never came to be. It's about an old archived thread back in the day. here are plenty of funny ones:
"Screwed Up" Is An Understatement
"You do understand when Bad was out no one even had computers, let alone access to google. lol. And MJ was one of the artists who did not put the lyrics in the "cassette" covers did anyone else do this back in the day: listen to the song one line at a time, write down the lyrics, pause and rewind til you thought u had it right. only to find out years and years later, when google was available, that u were totaly off. "
-- Msut Fight
"English not being my native language you guys can guess how I was like about some of the song titles on Dangerous. I was 12 and had been studying english for 4 years.
Jam (strawberry or blueberry?)
Why you wanna trip on me (trip? where are we going? to paris or japan)
In the closet ( OK; actually the lyrics gave enough hint that it mean something more)
She drives me wild (same explanation as in ITC)
Lost In Translation or what?"
--raingirl
So here you are, the average Michael Jackson fan, putting the Thriller album in your CD player. You switch to "The Girl Is Mine" track and start humming a bit to it. Soon, you find yourself singing to it. However, you haven't "Googled" the lyrics to this particular song so, naturally, you end up singing, "I love you and Leslieeeee!" instead of "I love you eeendlessly". Understandable, right? A situation like this causes for a good, hilarious discussion, just like BlackHatCoolCat started, in the "Screwed Up Lyrics! (What Did You Think He Was Singing?)" thread.
Michael Jackson fans have tried to decipher the "Michael Jackson Language" or "Michaelnese", as The Bird had called it. Some people have yet to translate the word "Shamon" yet. But even those who have been fans for the longest get a bit tripped up on some of the words in Michael's songs. The "Screwed Up Lyrics!" thread really got underway when Elusive Moonwalker stated, "For years I thought 'Annie are you okay' was 'Annie are you walking'!" But Danaluvsmj heard "Eddie are you walking" out of the same song. Everyone chimed in their agreement with either one of those statements. The thread remained pretty stable until Loner said she thought Michael said "Screw the world!" instead of "Show the world!" in Cry. Of course,the fans found that pretty hilarious.
"OML!! I had never noticed this before, and y'all had gotten me curious, so I just listened to 'Cry' again, listening for these words. WHEN I HEARD THEM, I LAUGHED OUT LOUD! The whole office around me turned and looked. I can completely see why there is confusion-- Not only could he really be saying 'screw the world', but he says it so loudly, with such feeling!! He really wants us to screw the world!"
--CarolinaSweetheart77
Now the craziness begins. Many fans expressed how they usually just sing mumble jumble to Michael's songs as Brittany did:"For the longest time, I had sung along to Billie Jean like this: Billie Jean is up and over... she just a girl who cleaned an all udda roun. but the chid is ulpma one. "
The thread got extremely hilarious with each post. Just try to imagine Michael Jackson singing some of these lyrics to Black Or White:
"It's black, it's white, it's tough for you to be black, yeah, yeah, yeah....????? That's what I usually sing...is that right? If it is I'd have to agree with Michael..." --Reecieboo23
" RIGHT: They print my message in the Saturday Sun. I have to tell 'em I ain't second to none. WRONG: They put my message into Saturday some. I have to kill 'em, I ain't suckin the nun." --IAM_MsJaxon
We move on to the song Don't Stop Til You Get Enough. We all must admit this song's chorus is very hard to understand with just listening by ear. Therefore,we had all kinds of theories on what Michael might be saying:
"keep on with the post box, dont stop till you get enuff" --Off_The_Wall
"Keep on with the posters, don't stop til u get enough"--JennyJackson
"Keep up with the phone calls, don't stop till' you get enough."--Season73
So have the Earth Song next. Now, I'm not going to get mad at those who misheard Michael at the end. We can't possibly hear over the choir singing "What about us", right? IAM_MsJaxon's (the poster who made the greatest contribution to the thread) interpretation left everyone literally laughing out loud.
"What about the bleeding Earth, can't we feel it's wounds
What about Africans. I ain't even knew
What about nature's worth. It's our planet's womb
What about Lincoln's woods. Ain't that by the school?
What about cryin whales. We're ravaging the seas
What about flyin clowns. Happy can't ya see"
In Morphine, Michael switches from his angry vocals to a soft sweet melody....which no one could understand:
"I thought he was singing: 'Debbie Rowe, Debbie Rowe oh my I need my Debbie Rowe!'"--Kay Simmons
" I thought for a while that he was saying ' Do it all, do it all, Oh god it's taking, do it all' "--Helen_S
"It sounds like hes saying 'Did me wrong, did me wrong, oh god hes taking did me wrong'"--Funky Monkey
This long thread began to wind down with BlackHatCoolCat stating: "In ABC 'T-t-t-teachers's gonna show you (show you, show you) how to get an A!' -NOT- 'T-t-t-TITO'S gonna show youuu!!' " But when you thought it was over, Little_noni said, "Actually a friend of mine, thought the opening line of that song(the Girl Is Mine) was: 'Every night she washed my inbetweens!' LOL" All the female fans liked the sound of that.
This thread goes to show that every time you sing along to your favorite Michael tune, you just might not be singing it right. One fan asked me "What does Michael say at the end of 2 Bad's chorus?" I told her what Helen_S said, "Why don't you screen this honey!" That's what I've always heard. I hope that's right!
:lol:
