The College of Musical Knowledge

3 Comments

1. John wrote:

   A misunderstood lyric.

   In the November 1954 edition of Harper’s Magazine, Sylvia Wright coined the term “mondegreen” in her essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen.” As a child, she had mistaken a line in the traditional 17th century Scottish ballad “The Bonnie Earl O’ Murray”:

   Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands
   Oh where have you been?
   They have slain the Earl of Murray,
   And Lady Mondegreen

   In reality, the last line is “And laid him on the green.” Wright explained “The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original.”

   Since then, there have been countless examples of musical mondegreens, with the majority being unique to one person and how they hear (or don’t) certain lyrics. However, some are more universal; “Jose can you see” (”Oh say can you see”), “Hold me closer, Tony Danza” (”Hold me closer, tiny dancer”), “The girl with colitis goes by” (”The girl with kaleidoscope eyes”), “Olive the other reindeer” (”All of the other reindeer”), and countless others.

   So, the next time someone hears you sing a song and tells you that you have the words all wrong, just inform them that you enjoy making up mondegreens.

   “The Bonnie Earl O’ Murray (aka Child Ballad No. 181)” by Ewan MacColl, 1961
   This is the one that started it all, though in this version, the singer makes sure to enunciate the line “and laid him on the green.”

   “Purple Haze” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967 (live on BBC “Saturday Club” program)
   The line “excuse me while I kiss the sky” is frequently heard as “excuse me while I kiss this guy.” This one is common enough that Hendrix himself used to sing the mondegreen instead of the real lyric.

   “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969
   The main line of this song is often misinterpreted as “there’s a bathroom on the right.”

   “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, 1976
   When I played this one recently, my wife recognized the intro, looked up and said “is this the douche song?” Probably 95% of the people who have heard this song think that “revved up like a deuce” is really “wrapped up like a douche.”

   Friday, January 2, 2009 at 9:33 pm | Permalink
2. Keith Eldred wrote:

   I learned the term “mondegreen” in late 2007. One thing led to another, and now I’m the administrator of a flaky effort called MANDY GREEN Project largely aimed at helping make “mondegreen” a household word. It involves a quirky novel written by MANDY GREEN (yep, a mondegreen of “mondegreen”) whose story centers on a mondegreen (”Gesundheit Whistle” misheard as “Gazoon High Twizzle”). Please check it out and tell all your friends named MANDY GREEN.

   My son told me the whole effort is hopeless, adding that he hated to be the BEAR OF BAD NEWS.

   The next day Emmett mentioned that he always thought that CIRQUE DU SOLEIL was CIRCUS L.A.

   I’m a native of Vermont, and this is my favorite mondegreen (from the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo”):

   To Martinique, that Monserrat mystique

   misheard as

   Vermont’s unique, Vermont’s a rotten state

   Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 8:28 am | Permalink
3. John wrote:

   That looks pretty cool, good luck spreading the misheard word!

   Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:26 pm | Permalink

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