Misheard words

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Callie
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 07:23 PM

No way guys! Kate Bush was singing "share some frontier" wasn't she??

There's an Aussie song called "Reckless" written and sung by James Reyne, who has to hold the record for being completely unintelligible at all times. His line "she don't like that kind of behaviour" is infamously widely known "she don't like dead Canada beavers". And fair enough too - why would she?

Callie

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Snuffy
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 07:50 PM

Noreen, while we're on Sailor's Prayer, I used to wonder about the line:

Oh Lord above, send down a dove
With beakers sharp as razors

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Genie
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 08:07 PM

When I first heard the old song "Lida Rose" sung by a barbershop quarter, I thought they were singing, "Light a rose, I'm home again, Rose ..." It didn't make sense, of course -- you can light a match, a candle, or even some kinds of weeds, but I had never heard of lighting roses and wasn't sure why one would want to!

Micca, That "Pity mice implicitly" is priceless!

Liz, the Kenny Rogers lyric is "...400 children and a crop (crap) in the fields... ."

Also,Liz, what kid of knife DID Matty wish he had?
My college professor (who knows better) once mentioned in a class the play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe," in which "... the couple hurl epitaphs at each other." My preacher dad (who also knows better) once cited in a sermon "...'Pilgrim's Progress' by Paul Bunyan."

Barbara, I don't know if I'd trade "ten of your cities" for a bridge, but I'd consider it for "marrying rich and the pleasures it brings!"

Also, I love that "You've been outright offensive for so long now! "

Genie

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: brid widder
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 08:24 PM

as a child I remember singing that well known Harvest festival song...'let us with a glass of mild praise the Lord for he is kind'...sounds OK to me...& more fun than a 'gladsome mind'

my son came home from his first day at school and said if he forgot his gym shoes he could do PE in his ..SPARE FEET

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Genie
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 09:49 PM

BTW, that was supposed to be "My ... brother..." who mentioned "hurling epitaphs at each other.

Genie

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,Arjay
Date: 26 Mar 02 - 11:22 PM

A song that almost begs to be "mondegreened" is the song from The Fantasticks which the two fathers sing about how vegetables are easier to raise than children. A key line in the song (I'm not sure what the title is) is "That's why I love vegetables..." If you don't enunciate very carefully on that line, it sounds like "That's why I'm a vegetable..."

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,Charlie
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 07:05 AM

From Billy Don't You Weep I sang" For I know that you're fond of officers both roaring bores as well" and it should have been, " I know that you're fond of lobsters both raw and boiled as well!!!"

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 07:32 AM

Just re-read this thread, cos someone had up-dated it, and it seems the early question by Fortunato has been avoided (2nd post on thread) "an egger" is a mispronunciation of a term for what would now be described as a member of an indiginous African race.(much in the way that "an orange" was originally "a norange"
And in the original post, the granny cooking cakes on her 'girdle' is quite acceptable. A girdle is the Scots form of 'Griddle' or 'bakestone'

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: IanC
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 07:55 AM

Here's some of the earlier threads

Bathroom on the Right
Help: Monthelawn
Misheard Lyrics
Mistakes ... Listening to Songs

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 08:02 AM

IanC: useful cross-referencing, but looking at the top of this thread, (Mch 99) only two of the four you quote ARE 'earlier threads'!

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Tiger
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 08:31 AM

It's "Plant a Radish", Arjay.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Hecate
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 08:49 AM

We've got a bloke at my folk club who does this on purpose, usually to well know songs, so now Bonnie Annie Laurie has "Little Furry feet" and the chorus to "Black velvet Band " goes "with her hairy tongue over her shoulder." He's wrangled the line "With sheep in your wellies" into Mull of Kintyre as well.

Accidental ones, my father genuinely though Whitesnakes "Ain't no love in the heart of the city" was "Anal love in the heart of the city." Ah well.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 27 Mar 02 - 11:14 AM

Until very recently I did not know that "Pizza" was actually "pizza pie" So in the song When the moon hits your eye like a big Pizza pie I thought for ever that he was singing "Piece Of pie"

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Mr Happy
Date: 22 May 02 - 10:12 AM

'somewhere over the rainbow, weigh a pie'

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,Foe
Date: 22 May 02 - 02:49 PM

Years ago Glen Campbell had a song with the words "I'm not talkin' 'bout movin' in, And I don't want to change your mind" I was told by a music biz guy that the people in Meridian, MS though he was saying "I'm not talkin' 'bout Meridian" They loved the song, even though their interpretation made no sense.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: DonD
Date: 22 May 02 - 05:38 PM

I remember my departed sister coming home from 1st grade seventy five years ago proudly singing that her eyes had seen the coming of the lord, marching through the village where the grapes are at the store. Actually I remember being told about it; I wasn't quite born yet.

I'm convinced that the commonly sung version of the Rock Island Line which suggests that if you want to ride it, you've got to ride it like you find it, was a mondegreen on Leadbelly's part for 'ride it like you're flyin' but maybe that's just me.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 22 May 02 - 05:49 PM

A friend of mine used to think that, in the song "Paperback Writer", the Beatles were actually singing "Take the back right turn".

Anyone ever see "Jumping Jack Flash" with Whoopie Goldberg? She has some great interpertations of Rolling Stones lyrics. I love her response..."Miiiiick...SPEAK ENGLISH!"

Here's a hilarious website for misheard lyrics: http://www.kissthisguy.com/

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: pict
Date: 22 May 02 - 05:50 PM

A famous one in Scotland was"Send reinforcements we're gaun tae advance!" became "Send three and fourpence we're gaun tae a dance".

Another one my mate Pat heard at a party was the black velvet band sung like this"and her hair it hung over her shoulder tied up like a black bearded man!"

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Watson
Date: 23 May 02 - 05:58 AM

There was one time, I was listening to a song about Lady Mondegreen - I could have sworn the guy was singing "Laid him on the green"
I was so embarrassed!

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Rich_and_Dee
Date: 23 May 02 - 11:10 AM

Hi,

I remember the first time a buddy of mine heard the song "Cerrickfergus". He howled with laughter and gave me a high-five.

I thought it an unusual response.

Turned out he thought it was a girl's name, so when the singer mournfully belted out "I wish I was in Kerry Fergus", well, you know.

My wife tells the story of her and her sister being adults and hearing "Puff the Magic Dragon" somewhere. My sister-in-law admitted she'd always hated that song for the way Puff and Jackie adandoned their friend, Frolinton. My wife looked at her a moment and my sister-in-law said, "you know, Frolinton the Ottomas".

All these years and she'd misheard "frolicked in the autumn mist". I think she was more heartbroken to discover there was no Ottomas.

Rich

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 19 Nov 08 - 06:16 PM

This has to take the Gold Cup!

This is for REAL

Sal

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 02:11 PM

When a child, I used to think that my mother was singing about "Uncle Charlie's Wedding". Turns out it was "All for Mhairi's ....."

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 02:15 PM

My daughter at 5 years old misinterpreted a vacation bible school song about Saul

Line was supposed to be "He was a loyal Jew"
She sang "He was a lawyer too"

snerk.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Gene
Date: 20 Nov 08 - 02:48 PM

I guess we have all had our share of them but the best one I ever heard of was told to me by another 'Catter --

[I will leave it to them to fess up]

Best I recall it was a line in a song by the Louvin Brothers.

Hold back the Russian Menace, make the wind lie still - they recorded several songs about WWII and Korea but I could not recall that one...

In reality it WUZ - Hold back the rushing minutes--

---- My Baby's Gone

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Mr Happy
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 03:25 AM

After having just finished a song at our Monday session, friends said they liked it & what was it called, 'Sidekick Joe' I said.

Another friend said 'Oh, I thought you were singing 'Psychic Joe'!!

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Feb 13 - 04:01 AM

Not quite a song but a friend of mine used to do a collection at school every year for Christian aid. One year after listening to his assembly about the collection a member of staff asked me - who is Christian Wade?

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,hb
Date: 24 Mar 13 - 01:51 PM

"Cinderella" - recorded by Jack Ross in 1962 (reached #16 on "Billboard")

Here is a tale to make your cresh fleep.
It'll give you poose gimples.
It's a story for fee bolk and biggle toe peep.
That's wee folk and bigger people too.
It's a story about Cinderella who lived in a big hark douse
With her mean old mepstother and her two sisty uglers.
And they made Cinderella do all the worty dirk,
While they sat around cheating ocolates and magging ridazines.

And one day when Cinderella was in the kitchen, flopping the moor,
The two sisty uglers came in and said Guess what?.
The prandsome hince is frowing a bancy thress drall
And we're invited. It's too bad that you can't go.
So Cinderella went back into the kitchen with ears in her teyes.
And she was just about to chicassee a fricken,
When suddenly there was a linding blash of flight
And standing next to her was a feautiful bairy.

And Cinderella said Who are you and what do you want?.
And the feautiful bairy said Well I'm your mairy fodgother.
And Cinderella said Well may I go to the ball?.
And the fairy said Well that's quite a wish but she said Okay.
So she waved her magic wand instantly Cinderella was transfomed
Into a bavishing reauty. She had long white gatin sown and a
Necklace of pubies and rearls.
And on her feet were two tiny sass glippers.

And the fairy said You may go, but you must promise to be
Mome by hidnight. And Cinderella said Okay.
So she was off and soon she cast to the came-le.
That's came to the castle. And Cinderella jumped out and the
First two people she ran into were the two sisty uglers...
And she was so beautiful, they didn't even cinderize Recognella.
So they intrduced her to the prandsome hince and he said May I
Dav this hance? He said You're so beautiful you remind me of
Beeping Sleauty.

He was just about to ask for her mare in handage, when suddenly
The strock clarted to trike swelve and Cinderella ban from the rall.
But as she did one of the sass glippers flipped from her soot.
The prandsome hince picked it up and said Now all I have to do
Is find the woman whose soot this flipper sits and I'll know
Who I've lallen in fove. So the next day he went from house to
House. And you can't turn that around! And soon he came to the
Cin where House-derella lived and he docked on the knoor.

And who should come to the door but the two sisty uglers, and
He says I'm looking for the woman who's soot this flipper sits.
Well of course their beet were too fig. But then it was
Cinderella's turn and guess what? The flipper pitted serfectly!
They were married and happed livilly ever after and that's the
End of the story of Cinderella... But you see there's a moral
To this fairy tale because Cinderella never gave up! And as you
Walk down the pathway of life, never give up!

Christopher Columbus never gave up.
Benjamin Franklin never gave up.
Abraham Lincoln never gave up.
Oliver Twittle-Dee... Who's He?
You see, you don't know 'cause he gave up.
And always remember this little philosophy:
You see some of our smoubles are trall,
And some of our boubles are trig,
But if you try to trav no houbles,
How could we blecognize our ressinings?

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 24 Mar 13 - 05:48 PM

I read somewhere a bunch of kids were burying a doll in a mock funeral. (They lived next to a cemetery). The one who was "the preacher" said .... "In the name of the father, the son, into the hole he goes"

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 05:28 AM

I took an elderly neighbour into our market town so she could visit her bank manager.
Before we returned home I stopped at a bookshop, leaving her to wait in the car - it was near to a school and around lunchtime.
When I returned she told me "the place is full of young people walking around with mobile homes pressed to their ears"
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Vic Smith
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 07:38 AM

Once

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Vic Smith
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 07:48 AM

Ahem....
Once, many years ago, at our club, a new floor singer got up to sing and she chose to sing The Earl of Moray.
Now I'm sue that what she meant to sing was:-

They hae slain The Earl of Moray,
And laid him on the green.

However, she had misheard the words from the recorded version that she had transcribed and what came out was.....

They hae slain The Earl of Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

I remember thinking at the time, "Now, I think that we have something here that could rival Spoonerisms." The rest is history!

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Mr Happy
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 07:50 AM

upon?

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Vic Smith
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 08:05 AM

upon?

Do you mean as in....And laid him upon the green..... because if you do I would have to disagree strongly.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Snuffy
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 11:50 AM

a time ...

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Vic Smith
Date: 25 Mar 13 - 12:09 PM

Once upon a time there was a man called James Stewart, though he was perhaps better known as the 2nd Earl of Moray, the husband of Elizabeth Stewart, 2nd Countess of Moray, who held the earldom jure uxoris (by right of his wife). He was murdered in 1592 by his great enemy and rival the Earl of Huntly though history tells us that Huntly cannot also be held responsible for the death of Lady Mondegreen.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Sanjay Sircar
Date: 26 Mar 13 - 08:35 PM

1. Isn't the very useful 1962 Jack Ross "Cinderella" verse retelling kindly transcribed above (24 Mar 13) not really an instance of mishearing by Lord and Lady Mondegreen, but of deliberate spoonerism and hence more properly placed in the cross-referenced "Spoonerism" thread listed above. I do not know what etiquette obtains here, but if the poster agrees, pehaopsthey could cut and paste and cross-post?

2. Offtopic (apologies): is there is a list of "Cinderella" Songs, comic or otherwise? I know of one: Paul Anka's "Cinderella, Cinderella" which makes play with 12 o'clock. Would it be worth starting a separate thread for it.

Sanjay Sircar

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: beeliner
Date: 27 Mar 13 - 03:19 PM

From "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry:

"Teach a drunk how to drive, then go out and see if you survive."

I've listened to it dozens, perhaps hundreds of time, and it sounds the same every time, can't imagine what the actual words are, and I suppose I could look it up, but that would spoil the fun.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: janemick
Date: 28 Mar 13 - 04:29 AM

recently heard a song "Loguivy de la mer" (this is about a tiny fishing port in northern Brittany, sung as "l'homme qui vit de la mer" or the man who lives by the sea

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 31 Mar 13 - 03:28 AM

I had a misapprehension for years about a line in the McPeakes' A Jug Of Punch. What I heard was, "What more diversion can a man desire Than to court a girl by a neater fire?"

Neater than what?, I would wonder. Or is there some sort of Irish fireplace called a 'neetah' or some such? Suddenly it was born in on me that what the young man was having such a pleasant time beside was a "neat turf fire".

Simples!

~M~

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 31 Mar 13 - 07:08 PM

John Travolta in Grease:

"I got shoes, multiplyin'"

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 31 Mar 13 - 07:33 PM

So long, it's Fingers Gunolia. (That famous gangster. Heard someone sing that back when I was in highschool.

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 05:04 PM

Along with questioning about what a "roundyon virgin" was, what was a "centre victorious", or "a door hymn"?

Remember Senor Wences - the ventriloquist who appeared many times on the Ed Sulluvan show (died in 1999 aged 103)? We would sing about "Good King Wences", and wondered what he had to do with Christmas..

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 19 Apr 13 - 08:45 PM

on lonely cardboard walls
I heard a young girl calling
as the prison ship sailed out against the sky

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Jul 13 - 12:37 PM

A new Survery of favorite mangled lyrics

I don't recall ever hearing any of the songs mentioned. I'm still hangin' with "She thinkis I steal cars."

Others might find something interesting.

John

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: s&r
Date: 12 Jul 13 - 01:10 PM

Eurythmics' synth-pop classic 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)' has been voted the nation's most misquoted song in a new survey.

Spotify polled over 1,350 British music fans to find out which songs they most commonly hear people singing incorrectly. Some 28 per cent of respondents picked the Eurythmics hit, with many listeners apparently believing that Annie Lennox sings: "Sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am I to disagree?"
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/eurythmics/71376#RtbqOWtX4Vv8b8JB.99

Stu

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Jul 13 - 02:18 PM

Not a song but funny, nonetheless:

Yesterday here at the Senior Center, a resident was convulsed with laughter at what he had misheard at a luncheon meeting the day before.

He said he was sitting there when this young woman came up to him and extending her hand, asked him, "How tall are you?"

He thought it was kind of an odd question but was maybe leading to something else, so he answered, "Six foot."

She smiled vaguely and passed on.

A woman next to him said, "She asked you how you are."

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Saro
Date: 13 Jul 13 - 12:46 PM

Someone heard me singing one of my songs - Cottage Garden Trees - and was apparently convinced that the line "we'd sit and rest beneath the boughs..." was "we'd sit, undressed, beneath the boughs...". i now enunciate more carefully!

Saro

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Elmore
Date: 13 Jul 13 - 09:11 PM

Not a song, but when we were kids in Catholic Sunday school some little guy prayed, "Hail Mary, fulla grapes, Delores Whitney."

Subject: RE: Misheard words
From: Mr Happy
Date: 14 Jul 13 - 10:23 AM

In 'What a wonderful world', Satchmo' seems to be singing 'the bright bless-ed day, the dogs say goodnight!'