{"id":15,"date":"2013-02-24T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworthBlog\/?p=15"},"modified":"2019-03-03T19:19:39","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T03:19:39","slug":"mondegreens-what-did-he-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/mondegreens-what-did-he-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Mondegreens – What Did He Sing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"headscratcher\"<\/a><\/p>\n

MONDEGREENS     <\/strong>mon\u2022de\u2022green(n) : a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung<\/em><\/p>\n

aka “Huh??”<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was a kid, I was seriously puzzled by the lyrics in certain pop hits. They didn\u2019t make sense or it was a kind of sense that only teenagers and adults could understand.
\nOf course, I never actually asked a teenager or an adult what the lyrics meant. As with many things in my childhood, like gravity or how Ajax got stains out of sinks, I chalked it up to one of the mysteries of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I heard the Scottish folk song as ‘my body lies’… and found it mystifying. Are you floating above the ocean or in it? Face-up or the dead man float? Are you covering the whole ocean? How big is this body, anyway?<\/p>\n

Below are a few more auditory befuddlements. Got any of your own?<\/p>\n

BEATLES: \u201cYou\u2019ve Got To Hide Your Love Away\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

To me, it sounded like the Beatles were singing, ‘Hey boy, you’ve got your heiny in the way…’
\nI was shocked they were allowed to say heiny on the radio.<\/p>\n

THE BUCKINGHAMS: \u201cKind Of A Drag\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I thought this song was an extended Canada Dry ginger ale commercial and they were singing “Canada Dry – when your baby don\u2019t love you. Canada Dry \u2013 when you know she\u2019s been untrue.”<\/p>\n

Because just like your Mom gives you a ginger ale when your stomach\u2019s upset, drinking one when you\u2019re emotionally upset would make you feel better, too.<\/p>\n

MONKEES: \u201cCheer Up Sleepy Jean\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sounded like they were singing, \u201cMy shaving razor\u2019s cold and it stinks.\u201d
\nMen’s toiletries were a mystery to me but \u2018stings\u2019 makes more sense.<\/p>\n

MANFRED MANN: \u201cDo I Diddy\u201d<\/strong>
\nIn the bridge, the singer says, \u201cWell, I\u2019m hers, she\u2019s mine. I\u2019m hers, she\u2019s mine, wedding bells are gonna chime.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought he was saying, \u201cWell, I\u2019m hurt, she\u2019s mad\u2026\u201d and I wondered, If he\u2019s hurt and she\u2019s mad, why are wedding bells gonna chime?<\/p>\n

I figured since grownups fight after they\u2019re married, they probably didn\u2019t see fighting as a reason not to get married in the first place.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Manfred Mann, in their song, \u201cBlinded By The Light\u201d, the lyrics are:<\/p>\n

\u2018Revved up like a deuce,
\nAnother runner in the night\u2019
\nI thought they were saying:<\/p>\n

\u2018Wrapped up like a douche,
\nAnother mother in the night\u2019<\/p>\n

Makes absolutely no sense, I know.<\/p>\n

ELTON JOHN: “Rocket Man”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Molly Bloom from the Bay Area writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to think Elton John was singing, \u2018Rocket Man, burning like a piece of hairy bone.\u2019\u201d Burning hairy bone – god, what an awful smell.<\/p>\n

PRINCE: “Little Red Corvette”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I heard the title line as ‘Feel that, Colette?’ I have three brothers and I could imagine someone’s annoying brother pinching his sister over and over while saying, “Feel that? How about that?”, along the lines of the dreaded ‘Hurtz Donut.’ When I grew older I heard the mondegreen in a more, um, adult situation.<\/p>\n

Gaily The Cross I Bear<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christian E. from Toronto reports that when he heard this song in church as “Gaily The Cross-Eyed Bear”, he asked his mother why they would call a cross-eyed bear Gaily.<\/p>\n

JIMI HENDRIX: \u201cPurple Haze\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a common misheard lyric. When Jimi says, \u201cExcuse me, while I kiss the sky\u201d, I thought he was saying \u2018Excuse me while I kiss this guy.\u2019
\nNot knowing much about sex, and never having heard of homosexuality, I found this puzzling indeed.<\/p>\n

ROLLING STONES: “Beast Of Burden”<\/strong><\/p>\n

My brother Dave, in upstate New York, thought that Mick Jagger was promising he would never be your ‘pizza burning’.<\/p>\n

Do you have any misheard lyrics?<\/p>\n

(186)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONDEGREENS     mon\u2022de\u2022green(n) : a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung aka “Huh??” When I was a kid, I was seriously puzzled by the lyrics in certain pop hits. They didn\u2019t make sense or it was a kind of sense that only teenagers and adults could understand. Of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,2],"tags":[6,41,42],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lyrics","category-misheard-lyrics","category-mondegreens","category-music","tag-misheard-hyrics","tag-mondegreens","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzmediapress.com\/AnneFarnsworth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}