h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm reading "Why you love music" by John Powell.

On page 21 he talks about the tendency of people -- especially young ones -- to mishear song lyrics, with often amusing results.

For instance, take the 17th-century ballad "The bonnie earl o Moray."

The last two lines are:

"They hae slain the earl o' Moray
And laid him on the green."

In an article for "Harper's" magazine, a woman whose mother sang the song to her as a chuild, the woman admitted that she thought the last line was

"And Lady Mondegreen."



Powell says this kind of mistake should be called a Mondegreen.


Here's another one:

Creedence Clearwater Revival; had a song called "Bad Moon rising," with the line

"There's a bad moon on the rise,"

which some listeners take to mean "There's the bathroom on he right."

As usual, the Edited Guide has wisdom on this subject: A1091341

Thanks for mentioning it - about two days ago, I remembered the definition, but I couldn't think of the word for it.

Yes, plenty of Mondegreens around.

My favourite is when I first became a Queen fan, I bought the Greatest Hits albums, which didn't include lyrics sheets. I wondered what was wrong with the Killer Queen that she "got bad elesapie", but when I bought the full albums with lyrics, it turned out to be "gunpowder, laser beams"

I forgot to check the edited guide first.

Since the Guide didn't have an article on the San Andreas Fault, I more or less assumed it wouldn't have Mondegreens either.

I accidentally clicked on "unsubscribe," so this is my way of resubscribing....

"Bohemian Rhapsody"

He's just a poor boy from a poor family,
Spare him his life from this monstrosity.

Last line to me, sounds like spare his life for his walls pork sausages

This man's sausages?

you have to listen to it, to "see" how it fits/sounds

Killer Queen keeps a mower and shotgun in her pretty cabinet.

How about adding a machine gun to a rider mower so you can aim at any squirrels that attack your peacocks?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblsZxntGOk

My personal favourite is the beautiful ballad by Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack:

Tonight, I sellotape my glove to you...

more squirrels and peacocks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC_Y99L2bjs

Okay, I'll stop drifting away from the topic...

You can't go around blaming San Andreas for everything, paulh

2legs on the other hand ...

I always thought the bit the backing singers sing in Games Without Frontiers was "She's so frontier". It was only within the last year or so that I had the lightbulb moment and realised it was "Jeux Sans Frontiere". Kinda obvious, it's not like I can't speak some French

Deb

And I've always thought they were singing "She's so popular"

Glad it wasn't only me then It was a proper forehead slapd moment when I realised.

Deb

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/peter+gabriel/games+without+frontiers_20107496.html

A friend thought that one was "She's so frumpy, yeah".

The Beach Boys had a song which -- I thought -- was about someone named Bob Durant. Turns out the person was Barb'ra Ann.

Did you know that Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" was based on Barbara Ann?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iukUMRlaBBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPRonG87eKw


(and not "Fun Fun Fun" that Wikipedia thinks it is).