The lost sense of song lyrics

I’ve been doing some homework in preparation for seeing the “American Idiot” musical on Broadway.

I’ve printed out the lyrics to the songs in the musical as a study guide to help me understand the story on stage.

I’m not that dense when it comes to the thread of a production’s story. My problem is that I have a hard time lately picking up the lyrics of certain rock songs.

The the music of “American Idiot” by the punk rock band Green Day is about as hard as it gets for me.

I don’t have a problem with other musicals -- “Camelot,” “South Pacific,” “Music Man,” “Wicked,” even “Tommy” which orginated from the rock opera by The Who.

But Green Day is a challenge.

I hear the music, but my aging sense of hearing doesn’t let me pick up the lyrics.

In fact, I have a long history for mis-hearing what’s sung or said.

There was the Christmas several years ago when my sister opened a gift. I wasn’t looking at her but I heard her say, “Oh good, a Yoda hat.”

Huh? What an odd gift, I thought turning to look.

It turned out the gift was a yoga mat.

For the longest time, I thought the line from the Beatles song “I’ll Follow the Sun” was: “One day, you’ll look, to see a gun...”

Turns out in their British lilt they were actually singing: “One day, you’ll look, to see I’ve gone...”

Popular culture is filled with misheard lyrics, so I’m not the only one.

John Fogarty, when he was with Clearance Clearwater Revival, famously sang: “There’s a bathroom on the right” when in fact it was “there’s a bad moon on the rise”.

So I’m not taking any chances when it comes to “American Idiot”.

When they sing “One, 21 guns …”, I don’t want to be hearing “One, 21 puns....”

When they sing “Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me; ‘til then I’ll walk alone” I don’t want to be hearing “Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me; ‘til then I’ll walk on home”.

It could just completely skew the whole meaning of the performance.