On October 28^th, 2013 the day following the death of rock- pioneer Lou Reed, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi of the Vatican decided to honor Reed by tweeting his “heartfelt” lyrics. Reed’s life was full of making music, with his most popular song “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” and being lead singer for the Velvet Underground. Reed had died the day before from what’s believed to be liver failure.

Ravasi tweeted lyrics from Reed’s song “Perfect Day”: “Oh, it’s such a perfect day/I’m glad I spent it with you/Oh, such a perfect day/You just keep me hanging on.”

Shortly after sending that message to the public, feedback started to pour in. As assumed, the song sounds like a love story, but Reed was really referring to heroin, as he did have a drug addiction for quite some years. Although, Ravasi was not aware of this, it really was an honest mistake, which people everywhere can admit they have made. Shortly after the tweet, Cardinal Ravasi tweeted a bible passage about “illusions,” as to how he was aware of the mistake.

Lyrics are always being misinterpreted by listeners. The artists that create the music are really the only ones that can confirm or deny the assumptions fans have about their lyrics. Clearly there have been more instances than this, but this situation just shows how deceiving the words of a song can be.