Grumpy Old Man - whatever happened to the skidoo and settee

But then again, maybe they never did, although it's different these days.

While now I struggle to hear anyone or anything specific in a crowded, noisy room, I used to battle to decipher the lyrics of songs that I heard on the radio.

Thankfully, the advent of the internet has made it possible to look up correct lyrics, not like when I was a youngster and got into a heated argument with a friend over the words of a Daddy Cool song.

He insisted the words were, "Come back again, I'm just crazy about today," while I was certain the final words were "I'm just crazy about you babe."

I think I got that one right, but imagine my surprise when I turned to the internet to find out Alanis Morissette had been singing, "Did you forget about me, Mister Duplicity?"

For years I struggled to decipher her words, and came to the assumption it was, "Did you forget about me? The Skidoo? The settee?" - guessing that they had bought a skidoo and settee together.

Then there is Laura Branigan's song Gloria - I had to look up the lyrics to that one as well.

And I found out it was, "Gloria, don't you think you're falling" and nothing to do with flatulence.

There was also a reference to living under an alias, not an idiot.

And Bon Jovi sings, "It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not" with no reference to being naked.

In my defence many of us have struggled over the years with misheard song lyrics.

But what chance did we have in the pre-internet days, when we had to deal with really weird lyrics in hit songs?

Like Manfred Man's Blinded By The Light, which follows up its key line with "Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night".

What the heck does that mean?

I know a person who though it was "Wrapped up like a goose" not "revved up like a deuce".

Then there is the Steve Miller Band's The Joker, with it's line "I speak of the pompatus of love".

Pompatus? What one earth.

Or the Eagles' Hotel California, which speaks of a "warm smell of colitas rising up through the air".

Apparently colitas is a slang term that could refer to buttocks, although more likely talks of the buds of a cannabis plant.

Is it any wonder so many of us struggled to sign along with our favourite songs back in the day?