Sing Along With Joe: Cocker’s Misheard Lyrics
by Best Classic Bands Staff
Shortly after Joe Cocker‘s death in 2014, we discovered a lighthearted piece of exceptional skill. A video editor shows – via closed captioning – the misheard lyrics from the Englishman’s August 17, 1969 performance of “With A Little Help From My Friends” at Woodstock.
You know the lyrics well from having heard the Beatles’ original countless times from their 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. But Cocker’s performance at the 1969 festival are a bit hard to understand.
So Cocker’s “I will try not to sing out of key” becomes “I will try not to sing on a Kia.” OK, that’s pretty straightforward. But when the spasmodic performer starts to riff, we get “Don’t you know I got a leg, I gotta gotta Laz-Z-Boy I’m afraid” and “Probiotics changed the way I feel now.” The editor adds clever graphics including images of Fred and Wilma Flintstone and former couple Ellen Degeneres and Anne Heche to accompany the British singer’s misunderstood words.
Born to working class parents on May 20, 1944, Cocker crafted his distinctive sound (and spasmodic performances) in inner city pubs and clubs prior to his iconic set at Woodstock. That moment kicked off five decades of music and influence – 22 studio albums, 10 live albums and 68 singles. He created popular interpretations of Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright,” The Boxtops’ “The Letter,” The Beatles’ “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” and Billy Preston’s “You Are So Beautiful,” among many others.
Related: Review of the 2017 documentary Mad Dog With Soul
His sole #1 U.S. single was his 1982 duet with Jennifer Warnes on “Up Where We Belong” from the An Officer and a Gentlemen sountrack.
Cocker died of lung cancer at 70 on December 22, 2014. His talent lives on in this Classic Video…
After decades of eligibility, Cocker was finally nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025. And after being ignored for so long, he’s pretty much a lock to get in. In a letter dated February 25, Paul McCartney went to bat for the performer who he describes as “a great man and a fine singer,” adding that “he deserves to be amongst such illustrious company.”
With that kind of endorsement, consider it a done deal when the Class of 2025 is formally revealed in late April.
Related: Remembering Joe Cocker; Rock’s soulful interpreter
Cocker’s recordings are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
- Jesse Colin Young, of ‘Get Together’ Fame, Dies - 03/17/2025
- Steve Miller Band Sets 2025 Tour - 03/17/2025
- John Lennon and Yoko Ono ‘One to One’ Concert Documentary Coming - 03/17/2025
3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationtrust me….if you are the right age and classic rock-oriented then this video is one of the funniest things you will ever experience in your life!! I laugh til I (honestly) cry…….
Now how about a followup video of the same performance, with closed caption of what he was really singing? A sort of clearing of the palate after *that*…
I could hardly breathe watching this.
“Scuse me . . . while I kiss this guy!”.