I just realized that Rod Stewart was singing about playing pool - not frying food

[SamAdams76]

For years and years since about 1971, I've been listening to "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart. Well, not every minute of these past 49 years but at least 500 times I've heard that song either on the radio or from my music collection.

Not even my favorite Rod Stewart song but I've heard it probably the most out of the Rod Stewart songs on account of it being so popular and all. ("In A Broken Dream" is my favorite Rod Stewart song and he recorded it with a band that called themselves Python Lee Jackson).

So anyway, I've heard the song a bunch of times. And there is a verse in that song that I always heard like this:

I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school
Or steal my daddy's cue and make a living out of frying food
Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helpin' hand

At least, that's the way I always heard it. But thanks to the Internet, I happened to look at the lyrics tonight and saw that the lyrics referred to "playing pool" and not "frying food"

Then I go to listen to the song again and I still hear "frying food" instead of "playing pool."

You should give it a listen for yourselves. I'm sticking with frying food - I don't care what the lyrics say. I think they call that a mondegreen.

Besides, Rod Stewart looks a little like Gordon Ramsay. I think they call that a doppelganger. So I say frying food - not playing pool.

[GnuThere]

Count the head lice on the highway.
(Elton John)

[pnut22]

Reminds me of my adult son. It was really cold and I said it was going to be a 2 dog night. I swear I saw the lightbulb go on over his head. (He likes Three Dog Night)

[moehoward]

I’m horrible at lyrics. I spent years singing the wrong stuff. But that is CLEARLY “playing pool”.

[dfwgator]

Rod has aged well.

[bleach]

Rod’s Mercury years Box set is his best era. Faces were good, but Rod’s early solo wins. I still remember hearing Maggie Mae for the first time out of the AM radio of my 67 Camaro. A gravel road and a gravel voice . BTW the Python Lee Jackson track is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZEHenH-KFM

[lee martell]

Actor Sean Penn (the ex-husband of Madonna) could play
Rod in a movie. They both have that big schnoz.

English actor Gary Oldman (was in movie about Beethoven)
also resembles Rod.

[exDemMom]

I always heard it as “playing pool.”

But there are other songs where even after I see the real lyrics, I still hear something different. Like that Fleetwood Mac song, “Edge of Seventeen”, where they sing about the one wing dove.

[Autonomous User]

Why would you need a cue to fry food?

I know right? Everyone knows they are used as a fancy pot passer

[deadrock]

I believe that is a mandolin.

[shadowlands1960]

Mandolin.

[SamAdams76]

Back when I was growing up, "taking a cue" had a different meaning. It was an idiom that implied that one should "take a hint."

To take a cue: To model one's actions based on the example or influence of someone or something else.

Example, "The salesman controls the timing of a sale, but he should take his cues from the buyer."

[dfwgator]

If you saw the movie “Casino”, they prominently featured Rod with The Jeff Beck Group on “I Ain’t Superstitious”, that was a badass vocal performance.

[shotgun]

My favorite made up lyric from that song:

I got a d!#k down to here and they call me donkey kong..

[Pollard]

Pink Floyd - Money

For years I thought is was

I like first class traveling, sex and ..

but it’s

I like first class traveling section

[Tunehead54]

I know this is going to be “’Scuse me while I kiss this guy” - Hendrix

Eldest daughter asked me about that once. ;-)

[lee martell]

A Mandolin! Yes, I could see that now.

[FreedomPoster]

Definitely from when Ron Wood was one of the Faces, before he left for the Stones.

[bleach]

Gary did an excellent job as Sid Vicious.

[dp0622]

Ah, I cooked a plate of lasagna once with a pool cue.

Tasted to chalky

[sevlex]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen