The Misremembered Lyric

I was driving in my car this morning listening to some Linkin’ Park, and realized that I was singing the wrong lyric in the bridge of “Papercut“. Here’s the way it’s supposed to go:

The sun goes down I feel the light betray me The sun goes down I feel the light betray me

What I actually sang was:

The sun goes by I feel just like Dick Cheney The sun goes by I feel just like Dick Cheney

Analyzing it in my car, I thought “I feel my life is changing” would fit, too. And what a great social commentary on how Dick Cheney felt after he accidentally shot his friend in the face.

Now, I realize that Linkin Park isn’t known for their political lyrics — that would be Green Day — but more for their angst-ey, “I’m an awful person want to kill somebody chasing me can’t help feeling like my criminal past is lurking behind the conflict with my father” kind of lyrics. Besides, Hybrid Theory came out in 2000 (and I still think of it as a “new” album… man, I’m getting old!) while the Cheney incident was in 2006. That means that at the time “Papercut” was recorded, George Bush Jr. wasn’t even in office yet. Nevertheless, this is still what I’ve heard and sung for months. I’ve only been listening to Linkin Park for about a year, though. The paranoid inside of my head, of course, knew all along that it was the wrong lyric, but thought it was funny anyway.

This made me remember other lyrics I got wrong, but thought they were better wrong. The funniest example was “Kyrie“, released by Mr. Mister in 1985. This was also the same year that Back to the Future was in theaters, everybody hated the New Coke, hijackers and terrorists were blowing up airplanes left and right, and the Challenger was going to blow up in January of 1986.

The actual chorus to the song goes like this:

Kyrie eleison down the road that I must travel Kyrie eleison through the darkness of the night Kyrie eleison where I’m going will you follow Kyrie eleison on a highway in the night.

Now, the song is actually kind of deep if you’re Catholic. According to this Straight Dope article, “the Kyrie eleison (Greek for “Lord, have mercy”) is a song by which the faithful praise the Lord and implore his mercy.” There are some other interesting historical bits, but I’ll leave those to you to read. Basically it’s a song asking for the Lord’s help on the author’s journey. But doing so in a kickass fashion, with a great groove, rocking baseline, fat synthesizers, and huge chorus.

Now, in the summer of 1985 when this became a hit, I was twelve years old and had just finished a traumatic sixth-grade year. After going to Darnestown Elementary, I was heading to Ridgeview Junior High School, and had learned pretty quickly that as a tall, gangly, and socially-inept youth, I was a prime target for bullies and harassment. My older brother, Brian, had reacted to a similar situation in Junior High by carrying knives to school to defend himself, and thereby getting himself expelled. I knew I didn’t want to take that road, but I heard this great song on the radio that made me smile because it was just so damn cool. I spent the summer dreaming about the song and using graph paper to draw pictures of the object of my affection.

The song was “Carry a Laser”. How much cooler that is than “Kyrie”, anyway?

Carry a laser down the road that I must travel Carry a laser through the darkness of the night Carry a laser where I’m going will you follow Carry a laser on a highway in the night.

This was particularly awesome because “The Terminator” had just come out a few months earlier, and I’d managed to sneak in to watch it with some friends. I think I saw it with Laurie McDermott… that girl was the teacher’s pet, but a real hellion underneath that modest exterior. Anyway, I saw myself as Kyle Reese toting a laser to blow away the robots chasing me.

And if worse came to worst, I was sure I could modify that laser to provide more light for that highway in the night. Surely a twelve-year-old could MacGuyver that.

There are other examples that are cooler, but that will do for now. I gotta get to work.