Mondegreens, or misheard lyrics, happen to us all. It just seems to be a natural byproduct of taking language and setting it to music. No matter how good a singer’s diction is, someone somewhere is going to misunderstand a word or phrase. The first time we aired today’s episode (we’re all traveling so it’s a repeat) we heard from well over a hundred listeners with various, often hilarious, examples of mondegreens. These included the usual famous examples – Jimi Hendrix’s “’scuse me while I kiss this guy” (instead of “’scuse me while I kiss the sky”) and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s potentially helpful “there’s a bathroom on the right” (instead of “there’s a bad moon on the rise”), but everyone seems to have their own personal set of mondegreens.
In the '80s, there was a TV commercial for a Paul McCartney hits collection, and as usual it featured little two- or three-second clips of various songs, most of which anyone listening would’ve known. But there was one clip that showed Paul darting up to the mic to sing, with a rousingly harmonized chorus, the words “my brain thing.” Now, I knew that those couldn’t actually be the words, but with nothing more to go on, it was impossible to figure out what the real song and the real words were. Plus, I didn’t really care to find out. Today, it occurred to me that I could probably find out the real words by googling Paul and his discography and looking at titles that started with the word “my.” Bingo. The song (a tedious number, as it turns out, despite being co-written with Elvis Costello) is called “My Brave Face.”
But it’ll always be “My Brain Thing” to me. [Watch the video below.]
Ever bellow out a favorite song at a party, only to be told after that those aren’t really the words? Tell us your mondegreen story…
John Schaefer has hosted Soundcheck since the show’s inception in 2002. He has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 (“The No. 1 radio show for the Global Village” – Billboard) and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986.
Comments [25]
Here's a couple I got wrong from Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" -
we're kissing balloons in the jungle
(we're kissing BABOONS in the jungle)
She's - so POP-ular
(Jeux sans frontieres)
YES, to what Walter heard in "Venus" by the Shocking Blue. I remember hearing that song on the radio during the driving part of driver's ed. and feeling really blushy and embarrassed... I really could only hear "I'm your penis..." (I was a hormone-addled girl listener).
My pet peeve: people who sing "i am the walrus, koo-koo-ka choo",(from Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson")instead of the correct lyric: "i am the walrus, goo-goo ga joob".
"I'm not talking about the linen..."
vs.
"I'm not talking about movin' in"
From England Dan and John Ford Coley (I'd really love to see you tonight")
I knew my interpretation made no sense, but go figure...
One more: which has been a 40 year argument between my younger brother and me. It's from Pinball Wizard:
"I thought I was the BODY table King" (Bally)...
The original Decca lyric sheets that were included with the album read "BODY" !!!
Beatles "Paperback Writer" was always "Piggy Back rider" to me.
Michael Jackson' s song "Don't Stop 'till You Get Enough" I thought the rift " Keep on with a full stroke, don't stop 'till you get enough"
was "Hang on to the Post Toasties, don't stop 'till you get enough"
and lastly, a riff in a ZZ Top song which sang, "Train kept a rolling all night long" was to my ears "Strange peporoni all night long"
Okay, I know the song was called "Venus," or "I'm your Venus," but as a teenaged boy when the original (by Shocking Blue) came out, I couldn't help but hear "I'm your penis." Perhaps it was the way they sang it, or just teenage hormones in high gear... but I know I'm not the only one that went here.
Thought - you and me endlessly fronm groovin was you and me and leslie
"All of us are only..." aka "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello. I can't live that one down!
haha...I had to reply to Vinny's post. I, too, thought it went "revved up like a douche," but mine continued, "into the middle of the night". I thought midnight douching was a strange adult thing. I first heard this song when I was 13 and continued to think these were the lyrics for 12 years until I was corrected last summer.
Walter, I made the same mistake about "I Like It Like That"! It still tickles me.
When Manfred Mann covered Springstein Blinded by the light, I was unaware of Springstein's version. The first line is;
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
In the MM version I always thought it was "revved up douche into the roner in the night". Don't ask me what I thought roner was. My wife tells me that they even bleeped douche out when playing on the radio.
You can find a website dedicated to mondegreens here (iibc, it has been around for at least 6-7 years)
http://www.kissthisguy.com/
From the early 60s, "I Like It Like That," a friend made the opening lyrics, "C'mon let me show you where I sat," instead of "C'mon, let me show you where it's at."
Like anyone cared where he (or anyone for that matter) sat.
The Beatles' Paperback Writer I heard as: "Take the back right turn"....a song about a shortcut?
CCR's "There's a Bad Moon On the Rise" I always heard as "There's a bathroom on the right".
Hey guys-- any chance you guys could sort out the lyrics to "Double Dutch Bus" by Sugar Hill Gang?
For years, I thought the line in the Bee Gees' "How Deep Is Your Love" - "And you come to me on a summer breeze," was "And you come to me on a submarine."
I heard the line from Ernie K-Doe's "Mother-in-Law":
She thinks her advice is a contribution
as
She thinks her advice is the Constitution
I prefer my version because everyone who gives advice thinks it's a contribution. But it's another thing to think your advice is based on some not-to-be-questioned principle, or your own not-to-be-questioned self.
But I disagree that mondegreens should never be corrected. I was happy to find out that "The Weight" goes "Take a load of Fanny," not "Take a load off Manny," as I heard it.
Falco's "Rock me Amadeus"-Hot potatoes, hot potatoes....oh oh oooh..oh oh oh....HOT POTATOES.
When I first heard this song I knew the correct lyrics, but then a friend shared her mondegreen and now I can't sing anything but her version. Thanks Amber D.
Growing up, my younger sister Liza, otherwise known in our family as Little Miss Malaprop, thought that "Life in the Fast Lane" was "Life in the Bath Drain."
My girlfriend for years thought in the song
"Goin' to the Chapel" that the chorus Goin' to the Chapel and I'm gonna get married was
Goin' to the Jack-o-lantern, gonna get married, which makes no sense but she just thought that was the lyric!!!
In the song Build Me Up Buttercup
I thought "Baby I'll be home, waiting by the phone" was Baby, I'll be home, oh baby xylophone"
As a child I thought the Christmas song went ...later on we'll perspire, as we sit by the fire. At that point I didn't know what the word conspire meant. To this day I sing perspire.
perhaps it's an indication of my own naivete but i'm okay with that-- until embarrassingly recently, i thought eric clapton was singing to a woman named cookie (cookaaay), when, in fact, he was singing an ode to cocaine. sigh.
I thought Toto Africa's lyrics ... were "there is nothing that a hundred men on mars could ever do"
Hail Mary, full of grapes... the "blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus" made that seem to be true. Another one "Amazing Grapes, How sweet and sour..."
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