Lady Mondegreen
February 3, 2015 6:35 PM Subscribe
There's another possibility for "why do mondegreens happen" - people mumble.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:46 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:46 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
The girl with colitis goes by..."
posted by Auden at 6:51 PM on February 3, 2015 [10 favorites]
The girl with colitis goes by..."
posted by Auden at 6:51 PM on February 3, 2015 [10 favorites]
It's fun to sing, "drain the horsie" instead of "drain the whole sea" (hozier, take me to church) when you're driving around in your super sweet '99 escort zx2 with the busted cassette player. I don't mishear this lyric...I just think it's fun to make up my own.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 6:54 PM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 6:54 PM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
For years, I thought the chorus to a particular White Zombie song went "Don't shoot me, 'lectrocute me! Don't shoot me, 'lectrocute me!" Then I finally heard the title of the song - "More human than human", of course. Now when I hear the song I can actually make myself "hear" the lines either way, switching back and forth between the two.
posted by Curious Artificer at 6:59 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Curious Artificer at 6:59 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Here is my new favorite. The Allman Brothers Band website has a lyrics section, where it gives the first line of "Done Somebody Wrong" as "The barrelhouse told me...", but I'm pretty sure the line is "The bell has tolled....my baby took that train and gone"
A barrelhouse is an old name for a rough tavern, perhaps on the frontier. So maybe the singer was informed of his lover's travel arrangements while drinking there, but judge for yourself.
posted by thelonius at 7:02 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
A barrelhouse is an old name for a rough tavern, perhaps on the frontier. So maybe the singer was informed of his lover's travel arrangements while drinking there, but judge for yourself.
posted by thelonius at 7:02 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
I still choose to hear the lyric from "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" as:
A werewolf has my Arabian drums
Because that does seem to be a bit of a predicament, does it not?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:06 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
A werewolf has my Arabian drums
Because that does seem to be a bit of a predicament, does it not?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 7:06 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
So a bunch of us had gathered for a round of an all-night trivia contest I used to do, and we were trying to think of a team name when a couple of our teammates showed up, singing what they THOUGHT was the opening verse of Song 2.
As you can hear (well, maybe), the verse actually begins, "I got my head checked by a jumbo jet". That is not, however, what THEY were singing. But their mis-hearing ended up giving us our team name - "I Got My Head Shaved By A Zamboni".
We came in second and everything.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:08 PM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
As you can hear (well, maybe), the verse actually begins, "I got my head checked by a jumbo jet". That is not, however, what THEY were singing. But their mis-hearing ended up giving us our team name - "I Got My Head Shaved By A Zamboni".
We came in second and everything.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:08 PM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
Years ago, back when the graphical browser was young (so, mid-nineties), I ran a Mondegreens-centric website called "The Ants Are my Friends." (If you want to see some TRULY Mosaic-flashbacky html, check it out at The Wayback Machine.) I accepted submissions from anyone who happened by. It was very easy to tell who honestly misheard lyrics and who was making things up for fun, so I got a lot of crappy emails from people whose "misheard lyrics" I refused to post (whatever).
The mishearing of lyrics can come about in so very many different ways for so very many different reasons, but I think my favorite road to a Mondegreen is when someone first becomes acquainted with an older (to them, anyway) song. So, this person knows a whole lot of stuff that happened after the song was popular, but in their chronological expierience, that stuff pre-dates the song. This is why my all-time favorite submission (and there were a LOT of them) was:
The mishearing of lyrics can come about in so very many different ways for so very many different reasons, but I think my favorite road to a Mondegreen is when someone first becomes acquainted with an older (to them, anyway) song. So, this person knows a whole lot of stuff that happened after the song was popular, but in their chronological expierience, that stuff pre-dates the song. This is why my all-time favorite submission (and there were a LOT of them) was:
“Kathy, I’m lost,” I said, thought I knew she was sleeping.posted by tzikeh at 7:39 PM on February 3, 2015 [13 favorites]
“I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why”
CAPTAIN PICARD ON THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE
They’ve all come to look for America
I don't care that I know better; I *still* sing "You moo me up 'til the sun comes up" whenever I hear "You Make Lovin' Fun".
posted by snortasprocket at 7:52 PM on February 3, 2015
posted by snortasprocket at 7:52 PM on February 3, 2015
If you're a baby boomer this is known as the "Wrapped up like a douche" phenomenon.
And yeah, when it comes to songs in particular, it's either bad pronunciation or an awkwardly worded lyric. (30+ years later I only realized that "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" had a line about a howling old owl in the woods -after I heard Sara Bareilles' version.)
And then there's Sondheim's famed mocking of his own early work: "Everything's free in America for a smaffee in America."
posted by NorthernLite at 8:48 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
And yeah, when it comes to songs in particular, it's either bad pronunciation or an awkwardly worded lyric. (30+ years later I only realized that "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" had a line about a howling old owl in the woods -after I heard Sara Bareilles' version.)
And then there's Sondheim's famed mocking of his own early work: "Everything's free in America for a smaffee in America."
posted by NorthernLite at 8:48 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
My sister was the queen of this.
She would happily sing 'stummy-o!' along with the Rolling Stones despite me pointing out that the line, and indeed the actual TITLE OF THE SONG is "Start Me Up."
In "I Want a New Drug", when Huey Lewis sings "I'm alooone with you..." she would inexplicably sing 'Pamela...with you.'
Aside from my sister, the best was my friend's Hungarian mom, who would sing the chorus of Chic's Le Freak as 'Aaafrica!'
posted by chococat at 8:56 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
She would happily sing 'stummy-o!' along with the Rolling Stones despite me pointing out that the line, and indeed the actual TITLE OF THE SONG is "Start Me Up."
In "I Want a New Drug", when Huey Lewis sings "I'm alooone with you..." she would inexplicably sing 'Pamela...with you.'
Aside from my sister, the best was my friend's Hungarian mom, who would sing the chorus of Chic's Le Freak as 'Aaafrica!'
posted by chococat at 8:56 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
Just like a runny sack, be my little baby.
posted by emelenjr at 9:19 PM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by emelenjr at 9:19 PM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]
You don't need a pinhead just to hang around,
But if you've got a nickel, won't you lay that money down?
posted by mogget at 9:30 PM on February 3, 2015
But if you've got a nickel, won't you lay that money down?
posted by mogget at 9:30 PM on February 3, 2015
I love The Kills' Black Rooster because of this. I've resisted looking up the actual lyrics for years because I like how it has that perfect "I think maybe I'm wrong. I could be right though" weird-but-plausible effect all throughout the lyrics . Anyway, if I'm wrong I don't want to be right.
posted by ctmf at 9:45 PM on February 3, 2015
posted by ctmf at 9:45 PM on February 3, 2015
It started with a whisper, and now it's in her kiester.
Song 2: I always hear "I got my head shaved by a chummy Che."
Also I heard I can't believe we'd ever got 40 cents, we were merely freshmen. for years. Had no idea what that song was all about until that post here about 90's alt rock dredged it back up from the memory hole.
posted by mcrandello at 10:30 PM on February 3, 2015
Song 2: I always hear "I got my head shaved by a chummy Che."
Also I heard I can't believe we'd ever got 40 cents, we were merely freshmen. for years. Had no idea what that song was all about until that post here about 90's alt rock dredged it back up from the memory hole.
posted by mcrandello at 10:30 PM on February 3, 2015
And this would be the phenomenon why I gave up trying to parse sung lyrics without the liner notes.
I have ALWAYS suffered from Mondegreen. I can not parse sung lyrics. AT ALL. I spent 15 years studying music and I always said to myself "I don't care what the words are, it's the note and harmony that matters", because I could NEVER understand sung words.
I love opera for this, actually. You cannot tell me you understood the words. They will stretch out the vowel of a singe word for 2000 fucking measures and arpegiate the shit out of that single fucking vowel and then finish the fucking 2 syllable word with a shortened consonant and you tell me you understood the word? Fuck you. That wasn't a word, that was a warble.
Sigh.
I am lyric impaired. I admit it. So help me. Yet "Louie, Louie" made sense to me.
posted by daq at 11:16 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have ALWAYS suffered from Mondegreen. I can not parse sung lyrics. AT ALL. I spent 15 years studying music and I always said to myself "I don't care what the words are, it's the note and harmony that matters", because I could NEVER understand sung words.
I love opera for this, actually. You cannot tell me you understood the words. They will stretch out the vowel of a singe word for 2000 fucking measures and arpegiate the shit out of that single fucking vowel and then finish the fucking 2 syllable word with a shortened consonant and you tell me you understood the word? Fuck you. That wasn't a word, that was a warble.
Sigh.
I am lyric impaired. I admit it. So help me. Yet "Louie, Louie" made sense to me.
posted by daq at 11:16 PM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]
When Joe Cocker died just a short while back, this video was floating around the webs. It's a classic...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:12 AM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:12 AM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
Dirty deeds in a dunder jeep.
posted by mirepoix at 12:45 AM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by mirepoix at 12:45 AM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
Yes, Dirty Deeds. When I was 5 I thought that one was "Dirty Jeans, Dungarees!"
Flapjax, that whole series of videos... Once I see the mis-captions, I cannot go back and hear the correct lyrics- even when I've never misheard them before :O
posted by mcrandello at 2:05 AM on February 4, 2015
Flapjax, that whole series of videos... Once I see the mis-captions, I cannot go back and hear the correct lyrics- even when I've never misheard them before :O
posted by mcrandello at 2:05 AM on February 4, 2015
"Dirty deeds, thunder chief!" was how a 10 year old summer camp friend heard it.
posted by schoolgirl report at 4:03 AM on February 4, 2015
posted by schoolgirl report at 4:03 AM on February 4, 2015
When I was a little kid, I thought the theme song to The Courtship of Eddie's Father (My Best Friend by Nilsson) went,
"People, let me tell you 'bout my bedspread"
I was also under the impression that we were living in the Age of Asparagus.
posted by davelog at 4:05 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
"People, let me tell you 'bout my bedspread"
I was also under the impression that we were living in the Age of Asparagus.
posted by davelog at 4:05 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
When I was wee I thought Prince was singing about a raspberry parade. I also thought he sang "built as she was, she had a little asthma". I remember singing away to it on the radio one day and my older cousin looking at me in amusement and asking me what I was singing. I knew from the look on his face that I was wrong so I stopped that version until I had figured it out. My other cousin also misheard a country type song that had the line "the marble statuettes are still standing in the hall" as "the marbles that you ate are still standing in the hall" and was really confused - like, how are they still in the hall if you ate them?? Good times.
posted by billiebee at 4:13 AM on February 4, 2015
posted by billiebee at 4:13 AM on February 4, 2015
In "I Want a New Drug"
I used to think the song was called "I Want a New Truck." My favorite Huey Lewis song, though, was "I'm So Happy to Destruct with You."
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:23 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I used to think the song was called "I Want a New Truck." My favorite Huey Lewis song, though, was "I'm So Happy to Destruct with You."
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:23 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I spent an embarrassing number of years singing (out loud! In front of people!) the first line to Bad Religion's Generator, "Like a rock! Like a planet! Liiiiiiike a bucket and a moooooooop!!!!!"
It wasn't until I saw them live and could hear the real words that I realized my mistake.
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:38 AM on February 4, 2015
It wasn't until I saw them live and could hear the real words that I realized my mistake.
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:38 AM on February 4, 2015
As a kid, I kept hearing "Paperback Writer" as "Take the back right turn." It made no fucking sense, and, thankfully, I kept it to myself.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:39 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 4:39 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
My birthday cake is melting in the rain
And I don't think that I can take it
Because it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again ...
So close, and it even makes more sense than some park in San Francisco.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:42 AM on February 4, 2015
And I don't think that I can take it
Because it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again ...
So close, and it even makes more sense than some park in San Francisco.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:42 AM on February 4, 2015
"Dirty deeds, thunder chief!" was how a 10 year old summer camp friend heard it.
Me too.
I also thought that in "Shattered" the Stones were singing the chorus as "Shadoobee, Shazbot, shazbot." In my defense, Mork and Mindy was big at the time, and PaterCallipygos actually heard me singing it that way the first time and thought it was so funny he decided to let me live in that illusion a while.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:46 AM on February 4, 2015
Me too.
I also thought that in "Shattered" the Stones were singing the chorus as "Shadoobee, Shazbot, shazbot." In my defense, Mork and Mindy was big at the time, and PaterCallipygos actually heard me singing it that way the first time and thought it was so funny he decided to let me live in that illusion a while.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:46 AM on February 4, 2015
Don't forget the classic, "I'm a little man, I'm also evil, also into cats!"
posted by Beethoven's Sith at 4:55 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Beethoven's Sith at 4:55 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Like a ship, I was born to walk alone". - curse you Whitesnake.
"Sit and write a letter, while everyone else is down the street" from "sit in our boat while everyone else is downstream". -- I done you wrong, Prince.
posted by jadepearl at 5:51 AM on February 4, 2015
"Sit and write a letter, while everyone else is down the street" from "sit in our boat while everyone else is downstream". -- I done you wrong, Prince.
posted by jadepearl at 5:51 AM on February 4, 2015
I always heard Neil Diamond sing, "A reverend in blue jeans, babe," and dismissed him entirely because I didn't like unhip religious dudes.
posted by heyho at 7:05 AM on February 4, 2015
posted by heyho at 7:05 AM on February 4, 2015
> "I Got My Head Shaved By A Zamboni"
It wasn't easy, but nothing is.
posted by svenx at 7:29 AM on February 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
It wasn't easy, but nothing is.
posted by svenx at 7:29 AM on February 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
I was always delightedly wrong about Squeeze lyrics. In particular, I thought "Pulling Mussels from a Shell" was "Pulling Muscles for Michelle," ostensibly about the common habit of being connived into doing labor for the object of one's affections. Camber Sands? No idea what that was -- thought it was, "they do it down on campus, and they do it at Waikiki..." It didn't help that the first time I ever heard the song, two of my college guy friends, both in love with the same girl, named Michelle of course, we're drunkenly singing it.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 8:14 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 8:14 AM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
Gotta love those Starbucks lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane
posted by asockpuppet at 8:34 AM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by asockpuppet at 8:34 AM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
A favorite from my kids: "I'm so fancy, can't you taste this scone?"
I refuse to believe that's not the real lyric. Scones are super fancy!
posted by mothershock at 9:23 AM on February 4, 2015
I refuse to believe that's not the real lyric. Scones are super fancy!
posted by mothershock at 9:23 AM on February 4, 2015
Gotta love those Starbucks lovers, they'll tell you I'm insane
I'm not the only one! Even though I googled the lyrics to check I still can't not hear Starbucks lovers.
posted by billiebee at 9:34 AM on February 4, 2015
I'm not the only one! Even though I googled the lyrics to check I still can't not hear Starbucks lovers.
posted by billiebee at 9:34 AM on February 4, 2015
My little brother misheard the words to Whitney Houston's song, "Miss You Like Crazy" as "I guess you like gravy!" He assumed that she was singing to her dog.
posted by sleepy psychonaut at 9:46 AM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by sleepy psychonaut at 9:46 AM on February 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
Holy crap, I just found a treasure trove of these....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:09 PM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:09 PM on February 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
One of mine that I was sad to be corrected on is in Russian Hill by Jellyfish. I thought a line in it was "Every Eden is familiar", which is quite lovely. But the lyric is, "Only Eden is for millionaires".
Bellybutton and Spilt Milk deluxe editions are out! Remastered, with some live songs and many demos.
posted by thelonius at 2:21 PM on February 4, 2015
Bellybutton and Spilt Milk deluxe editions are out! Remastered, with some live songs and many demos.
posted by thelonius at 2:21 PM on February 4, 2015
My favorite, now and forever: when my brother was little, he thought that when Diana Ross sang "upside down you're turning me" she was singing "upside down attorney." I like to think it had something to do with his going to law school.
posted by holborne at 3:44 PM on February 4, 2015
posted by holborne at 3:44 PM on February 4, 2015
Slipknot is one of my all time favorite bands. And I realize the lyrics to "Liberate" are in fact "Liberate my madness, I just want to liberate by madness..." But it is impossible, I cannot help but hear "lemonade, bananas, damn I want some lemonade, bananas". And I can totally see Corey spluttering half-chewed chunks of bananas about as he earnestly growls this chorus like a crazed Cookie Monster. Honestly I thought at first it was a joke song like Korn's "Earache My Eye". Another, albeit far less awesome mondegreen of mine is "Big old Jeb's out of line, don't get too carried away". According to Google the actual words to the Steve Miller Band song are "Big old jet airliner, don't carry me too far away" but I like my version better and refuse to believe the song is in fact so dull. Finally, to my everlasting shame, I really thought Def Leppard was saying "I wanna tell you... To step lightly" and not "I want to touch you 'til we stick like glue". Really what else would they be saying but something romantic? I guess I was going though my threatening Slipknot phase when I bought the CD.
posted by partly squamous and partly rugose at 5:51 PM on February 4, 2015
posted by partly squamous and partly rugose at 5:51 PM on February 4, 2015
I love this article.
The first time I heard Rush - Freewill ( Exit Stage Left ) (queued right before the solo :) was in my commute buddy's van on HWY 680 to San Jose, CA. I used to tease him that Geddy was saying in the chorus,
I will choose a Bathysphere,
I will choose free will.
I was like, What? A Bathysphere?
(he played this all Rush tape, all-the-time-every-day... LOL)
posted by xtian at 6:02 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
The first time I heard Rush - Freewill ( Exit Stage Left ) (queued right before the solo :) was in my commute buddy's van on HWY 680 to San Jose, CA. I used to tease him that Geddy was saying in the chorus,
I will choose a Bathysphere,
I will choose free will.
I was like, What? A Bathysphere?
(he played this all Rush tape, all-the-time-every-day... LOL)
posted by xtian at 6:02 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
"Dirty deeds, thunder chief!" was how a 10 year old summer camp friend heard it.
posted by schoolgirl report at 9:33 PM on February 4 [+] [!]
Am I your summer camp friend? I've heard it that way for most of my life and even once I discovered my mistake a few years back, refused to alter it. It just feels right.
My favourite of these is from Queen Mumble-Mangler and Delightful Human, Sia. I still sing, as though I have a mouthful of marbles, 'You shouted out, but I can't hear a word you say. I'm talkin' 'bouttttt my sandwich.'
posted by pseudonymph at 8:04 PM on February 4, 2015
posted by schoolgirl report at 9:33 PM on February 4 [+] [!]
Am I your summer camp friend? I've heard it that way for most of my life and even once I discovered my mistake a few years back, refused to alter it. It just feels right.
My favourite of these is from Queen Mumble-Mangler and Delightful Human, Sia. I still sing, as though I have a mouthful of marbles, 'You shouted out, but I can't hear a word you say. I'm talkin' 'bouttttt my sandwich.'
posted by pseudonymph at 8:04 PM on February 4, 2015
One that comes to mind - and one that, after I learned the true intent behind the song as well as the actual word I'd misheard, meant far less to me - is Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill."
"If I only could, make a deal with God, and get him to small places..." with some deep metaphysical/religious concept of bringing God down to our small realm to see her yearnings and anguish from the human perspective, was forever lost when I found out it was actually about the wacky notion of gender swapping ("swap our places").
posted by Auden at 10:39 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
"If I only could, make a deal with God, and get him to small places..." with some deep metaphysical/religious concept of bringing God down to our small realm to see her yearnings and anguish from the human perspective, was forever lost when I found out it was actually about the wacky notion of gender swapping ("swap our places").
posted by Auden at 10:39 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
This discussion is incomplete without the incomprehensible Eddie Vedder: Potato wave
posted by naoko at 10:35 AM on February 5, 2015
posted by naoko at 10:35 AM on February 5, 2015
I still sing "making love with his eagle" when I karaoke Ziggy Stardust.
It's plausible that that could be the actual lyric, isn't it?
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:30 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
It's plausible that that could be the actual lyric, isn't it?
posted by Cookiebastard at 11:30 AM on February 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Speaking of Ziggy Stardust, I still don't know if the line in "Moonage Daydream" is "put your ring onto my hand" or "put your ray gun to my head".
More recently, I had a hard time with
>so we put our hands up
>like the ceiling fan holders
posted by Tool of the Conspiracy at 1:25 PM on February 5, 2015
More recently, I had a hard time with
>so we put our hands up
>like the ceiling fan holders
posted by Tool of the Conspiracy at 1:25 PM on February 5, 2015
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posted by oceanjesse at 6:46 PM on February 3, 2015 [3 favorites]