Re: Athena lyrics...again

[Michael Shannon <mes31@cornell.edu>]

> From: Beau McCrury <Beau.McCrury@ucop.edu>
> 
> Hi all,
> I was listening to Athena over the weekend and was wondering
> if I could revisit the discussion a bit about lyrics.  It
> was discussed on this list that the word in the phrase
> 'She's just a girl, she's a ____' is bomb.  Are you sure?
> To my ears I always thought it was whore.

According to the liner notes, the word is, in fact, "bomb". (I think
this was pointed out last time around, but my memory isn't so hot these
days.)  I also checked the lyric link on The Hypertext Who web site, and
that returned the same answer.  I never really questioned this because I
checked the liner notes the day I got the CD--like you, I heard what I
thought I was supposed to be hearing.  But I decided to go back and
listen again, just to see if you were crazy...but I don't think you
are.  While I think it's still safe to assume that the lyric is "she's a
bomb" (since that's what it says in the CD), I'd be hard-pressed to
prove it in a court of law.

I guess you could probably hear just about any word you wanted to in
that refrain, because it's pretty darn unintelligible.  As for your
point about how lyrics have been sung differently than they were
published in the past, I can't quarrel with you there either--I've
noticed this on countless albums.  Unless some higher Who Power than I
(I must admit that my Who knowledge is still fairly limited) knows more
on this point, though, I still think we've got to trust the liner
notes.  Pete and Roger should be considered innocent until proven guilty
(of changing that lyric)...

Cheers,
Mike