Yesterday morning I was driving to work when I experienced a mondegreen.
"What is a mondegreen?" you ask.
It’s a place where you mishear a song lyric.
The name "mondegreen" is itself a mondegreen.
The 17th century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O’Murray" ends with the line "They hae slain the Earl o’ Murray and laid him on the green." But this line was misheard as "They hae slain the Earl o’ Murray and Lady Mondegreen."
Hence the name.
A famous recent mondegreen is mishearing the Jimi Hendrix lyric "Excuse me while I kiss the sky" as "Excuse me while I kiss this guy." (Whoever heard that must have been in a purple haze.)
My all-time favorite mondegreen is one I read about where someone’s grandmother misheard the lyrics to the Beatles’ song "She’s Got A Ticket To Ride" as "She’s got a tick in her eye." Granny kept asking "But why would anyone want to sing about that?"
So yesterday, I was driving to work and listening to the album
which is a really great early 1970s album. (Greally toe tapping music with insightful, though not always fully moral lyrics; one song I refuse to listen to utterly.)
One of the songs on the album is haunting "Unfaithful Servant," and lately I’ve been trying to figure out the lyrics to it. This morning I mondegreened the first two lines as:
Unfaithful servant . . .
I hear you even sin in the morning.
"Wow," I thought. "That would be pretty unfaithful . . . not even waiting until afternoon to start sinning. What a great line."
Unfortunately, unless other people on the ‘Net are mondegreening it differently than me, the actual line turns out to be:
Unfaithful servant . . .
I hear you leavin’ soon in the mornin’ [SOURCE].
Which I must admit fits the theme of the song, which is of a servant leaving the country house where he has worked for many years after an unspecified act of betrayal against the lady of the household. The last stanza is:
Goodbye to that country home,
So long to a lady I have known,
Farewell to my other side,
I’d best just take it in stride.
Unfaithful Servant, you’ll learn to find your place;
I can see it in your smile,
and, yes, I can see it in your face.
The mem’ries will linger on,
But the good old days, they’re all gone,
Oh! Lonesome servant, can’t you see,
That we’re still one and the same, just you and me.
Haunting stuff when you hear it set to music.
Share your own mondegreens in the comments box.
I LOVE the Band. This is there best one. Music form Big Pink is great too. Which song is it that you won’t listen to?
My favorite: “The Night the Drove Old Dixie Down.” Absolutely the best 1970s song about the fall of Richmond in 1865 written by Canadians, hands down.
The mondegreen my brother and I settled on c. 1983, from the Police’s “Every Breath You Take”:
How my poor heart aches
heard as…
I’m a pool-hall ace…
I always thought this line of Drift Away by Dobie gray:
Give me the beat boys to free my soul
was:
Give me the peoples to free my soul
Which really made no sense, especially when I found out what the lyrics really were.
And if you like this album…
Try Music From Big Pink and The Basement Tapes, two albums that put The Band (aka Dylan’s backup band, The Hawks) on the map.
Mannfried Mann’s Earth Band’s “Blinded by the Light” is chalk full of these mondegreen things.
When my brother and I were young we used to annoy our parent’s on long journey’s, singing Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’..
“Sparing his life from his mum’s sausages”
which of course, translates to
” spare him his life from this monstrosity”
blissful day’s of innocence!
God Bless.
+J.M.J+
So which is the song you won’t listen to?
Another site with misheard lyrics is http://www.amiright.com/. Lots of other fun stuff about music on that site as well.
I’ve misheard many lyrics in my life, but the only one I remember offhand is from the theme song to the 70s sitcom “The Jeffersons”. I used to watch it as a kid, and thought the song went: “As long as we live/ You’re chewing me, baby/ There ain’t nothing wrong with that”!
(Actually, the middle line is “It’s you and me, baby”) 🙂
In Jesu et Maria,
One of my brother’s used to think Dan Fogelberg’s song, “Run For the Roses,” included the lyrics, “It’s bleeding and it’s draining, and it’s something unknown.” (Kind of gross, I know.)
The correct lyrics are, “It’s breeding, and it’s training, and it’s something unknown . . .”
My brother once got so angry that he came near to punching my lights out at church for mocking his mondegreen.
But then I committed my own embarrassing mondegreen. The theme song to “Flash Dance” has the lyrics, “Take your passion and make it happen.” I used to be mortified that they would actually play such a filthy song on the radio — because I thought the lyrics were, “Take your pants down and make it happen.” (Hope that’s not too risque for your weblog — I really am very, very embarrassed that I ever misheard those lyrics that way.)
As for “Blinded by the Light,” even the correct lyrics don’t make any sense, so it’s hardly to be wondered that everyone mishears that song.
And we have Bruce Springsteen to thank for those Blinded by the Light lyrics. Anything from Greetings from Asbury Park is pretty wordy & kinda silly.
And, Jared, until this moment I did not realize that the lyrics to Flash Dance are not really “take you fashion & make it happen”! I always thought it was a very shallow song. Oops!
Early REM is my favorite for this stuff. Pick almost any song since Stipe wasn’t singing anything much that made sense, & that was kinda the point. Back then, 1981-1988 or so, they were totally against printing any lyrics in their albums. I read an interview with him a long while back in which he said that fans used to send him letters containing what they thought he was singing. He’d actually sing the ones he liked during shows! Life imitates mondegreen! Gotta love it.
One mondegreen that is recognized by the performer is on a John Prime album. He said that one time a woman came up and asked for his “happy enchilada song”. He said I don’t have a happy enchilada song. She said sure you do “It’s a happy enchilada and I think I’m gonna drown”.
The line is it’s a half an inch of water.
Favorite Christmas mondegreens, if they qualify: the ‘three Kings of Orient Tar’ and ‘Round John Virgin’
as my dh sings “oh, I’m all outta love” (aka ‘whole lotta love’ from Led Zepplin)
Dan Jasmin, above, wrote that he “always thought this line of Drift Away by Dobie gray:
Give me the beat boys to free my soul
was:
Give me the peoples to free my soul
Which really made no sense…”
Well Dan, my kids love that part of the song, but they belt out:
Give me the Beach Boys to free my soul…
Go figure!
In the song “Don’t it Make You Wanna Go Home” (I think that’s the title.) there’s a line that says “There’s a dragstrip down by the riverside where my grandma’s cows used to graze.” My brother misheard it as “There’s a dragstrip down by the riverside where my grandma’s cows used to race.” I guess it kind of makes sense, but there probably aren’t too many spectators for cattle drag races!
Video killed the radio store
Makes perfect sense! 🙂
SchuBob reminds me of another artist-recognized mondegreen. Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket told a story when I saw them once that, at another show, a fan requested that they play the “burrito supreme” song. He said it took him a while to figure out she wanted to hear thier song Good Intentions which includes the line “give us reprieve”! He said he thought “burrito supreme” might be a better lyric!
Hang on Snoopy, Snoopy hang on
Coworker convinced that Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” went like this: “might as well face it, you’re a d—head in love” – which is awful but I get a guilty chuckle when I hear the song. Sorry if I’ve offended anyone.
I was well into my twenties before I realized that the old folk song did *not* say:
You take the high road
and I’ll take the low road
and I’ll get to Boston before ye
The classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song, ‘Bad Moon’, has the line:
. . . there’s a bad moon on the rise.
Which for years I thought was:
. . . there’s a bathroom on the right.
Then of course there’s the Paul McCartney & Wings tune, ‘Band on the Run’, which I always thought was:
. . . band on the rum, . . . advertising the band’s love of alcohol.
Oh, and the Beatle song (‘Follow the Sun’?) with the line:
One day, you’ll look, to see I’ve gone . . .
Which I always thought was:
One day, you’ll look, to see a gun . . .
An oblique reference to a pending, or at least desired, revolution, I thought.
I don’t know if I miss typed it or if it was a mondegreen. The man’s name is John Prine.
I’ve only listened to him since the 70’s.
http://www.ohboy.com
+J.M.J+
Speaking of “Bad Moon Rising” and life imitating mondegreens, John Fogerty admits to sometimes singing “There’s a bathroom on the right” when he plays that song in concert. He evidently finds that mondegreen amusing.
I’m still trying to remember more misheard lyrics from my childhood, but I think I’ve blanked them all out of my mind from embarrassment!
As for risque mondegreens, the all-time champ must be the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” – which is actually a quite tame, G-Rated song, despite the fevered imaginations and dirty minds of a few mid-60s adolescents, whose hand typed “lyric” sheets led to the famous FBI investigation.
In Jesu et Maria,
My family is notorious for manking mondegreen lyrics! In my circle of friends we call them “Jesus rolled His eyes” songs – a reference to a misheard Ted Nugent lyric “before you roll the dice”. The best mondegreen I’ve heard in my life was to Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire.” When I was growing up my friend Melissa’s little sister Julie would belt out, “Goodness, gracious, Grandpa’s on fire!” Still makes me laugh whenever I hear that song!
My favorite is from my son.
We used to visit my late parents on Marco Island in Florida a couple of times a year, and many times several of my myriad sisters would be there, too. We’d all attend Mass as a family.
One Sunday the psalm was “All the ends of the earth have seen the glory of God,” and my son (then about age four) had a mondegreen. All the way home from church he sang at the top of his lungs, “All the aunts of the earth have seen the glory of God!” Made sense to him, being surrounded by all of his aunties!
‘thann
I pretty much butcher every song. I can’t think of those guys’ names with the long beards and guitars,(you know, “Pearl Necklace” and “She’s got Legs” but they had the lyric:
“slip inside my sleepin’ bag” and I thought it was:
“super sonic sleepin’ man”
It’s driving me crazy that I can’t think of their name! Any help here?
My son who is six can’t even hear prayers correctly. When we pray, “pray for us sinners,” he thinks we are saying, “pray for us SOONERS.” We are big OU fans……
By the way…how can I forward Jimmy something? His e-mail icon doesn’t work when I click it. Can anyone give me his e-mail address?
“It’s driving me crazy that I can’t think of their name! Any help here?”
ZZ Top, by any chance ?
God Bless
I don’t think I have an e-mail icon, but my e-mail address is jimmy01@cox.net.
My personal mondegreens are from Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville.
I always thought it said, “…searching for my last chigger and saw.” (I think it’s “searching for my lost shaker of salt.”)
Also, “Some people say that it’s a woman to blame, but I know….it’s my own grandpa.” (supposed to be “It’s my own dam* fault.”)
Here is a compilation of mondegreens I’ve heard for Kenny Roger’s song “You’ve Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me, Lucille”
“You’ve picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel.
Four hundred children ’bout to c%$p in the field”
My mom’s name is Lucille, and whenever I get a little frustrated with her, I can’t help but call her Loose Wheel. (Only in my head – never out loud.)
My fave from a relatively recent song, Train’s “Drops of Jupiter”:
“Did you make it to the Milky Way
To see the lights are faded
And that heaven is overrated”
became “And Van Halen is overrated”.
Another art imitating life one — it’s my understanding the band is a bit enchanted with this one and sings it that way sometimes.
The funny thing is that “She’s got a Ticket to Ride” is actually not that at all. If you listen closely, it’s “She’s got a Ticket to Rye”, no ‘d’ there at all, and in fact that’s how the song was meant to go. But it was changed when it was pointed out American audience wouldn’t know what ‘Rye’ was.
Good one, Kath! And Ruthann reminds me of a friend of mine tells.
My friend Becky went to visit an old friend & her family who had twin daughters. While driving around town, their mother would ask the girls, around 5 at the time, to point out to Becky places they know & what they did there. “That’s our school, out teacher’s name is . . .” “That’s out Gramma’s house, she bakes us cookies!” Things like that. Then they came to their church & one of the girls said, “That’s our church where we sing songs about Cheeze-Its’!”
I laugh out loud every time I think of that story!
I’ve got another one.
My friend hails from a small town in Michigan named Fowler. In the song “On Eagle’s Wings” he thought that the line, “The snare of the fowler will never capture you” changed from town to town, depending on where you were singing it. For example, “the snare of Ann Arbor will never capture you”. If you know your geography this can get pretty funny!
Do Americans know the Guy Fawkes Night rhyme “Remember, remember the Fifth of November: gunpowder, treason and plot”? A small friend passed it on to me (we were both about six)as “the gunpowder trees and the plot”. I still think this is much better.
Meg Crane