any new mondegreens?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Midchuck
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 11:05 AM

My favorite is not really a mondegreen at all. It's just a line that could be understood two ways, if you hear it without seeing it in print.

Norman and Nancy Blake, singing "The Grave of Bonaparte."

He eats not, he hears not, he's free from all pain...

Peter.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 11:41 AM

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Bizibod
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 11:49 AM

Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World"
   
      The bright blessed day,
      The dogs say goodnight...


Strangely it never occurred to me just how incongruous this notion is....

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Fiona
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 03:43 PM

I think my looking for the lyrics to

'Ee by gum broon coo'

when the song was

'Ee by gum but I'm cowd'

is pretty good!

Fiona

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Genie
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 04:56 PM

OMG, I'm cracking up!



"The bright blessed day, The dogs say goodnight..."


"He eats snot, he hears snot, he's free from all pain..."

"Hold me closer, Tony Danza
Count the headlice on the highway "

ROTFLMAO!

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 05:47 PM

Ain't no woman like the one-eyed Gott.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From:
Date: 09 Jul 05 - 06:45 PM

Mind you, I learned this song 40yrs ago listening to The Trio. From "Roddy McCorley"
"Around him marked in grim array
a skull marked Ernest Ban"
'Course once I heard The Clancys do this song I laughed my rear off.
Strengh to our friends in London. Mike

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Genie
Date: 10 Jul 05 - 03:55 AM

mkebenn, when I heard the Kingston Trio's "Roddy McCorley," I thought they were singing,
"... for Run Tun Town, for Run Tun town,
he led them through the fray ..."

and

"... from Farmfair and from Fisherscot..." (I thought those were the names of towns ..."

and I thought they were singing
"Around him marked in grim array
a stalwart burnished band"

Genie

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From:
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 10:39 AM

Genie, I also wondered what "thru tutulass" meant.
mike

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Richard
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 11:32 AM

Don't forget The Beatles homage to Thomas Hardy;
"Eustacia Vie, and I say hello"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: DebC
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 12:48 PM

Last March at the Bacca Pipes Folk Club, Chris Coe said that she had just come across a wonderful term for mis-heard lyrics:

"Mouldygreens"

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Calico
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 03:35 PM

My sister used to sing 'the little Lord Jesus lay down' in 'away in a manger' as 'little George Jesus.'

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Highlandman
Date: 11 Jul 05 - 04:04 PM

At a Scottish games this past weekend, caught the tail end of a band front man's yarn about one of their numbers, concerning "funny blue bunnies coming after ye..." turns out the real lyrics were "bonny blue bonnets."
"And death awaits you all, with nasty, pointy teeth!" - The Wizard Tim
-HM

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,sharky
Date: 30 Jul 05 - 11:09 AM

i was learning french at the time ithought the beatles were singing c'est c'est louise instead of eight days a week

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 09:07 AM

There's the apocryphal story of the little girl who, after attending her first church service,reported that she had heard the minister say the words 'in the Father and in the Son, and in the hole he goes'

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 09:50 AM

Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Bennett were playing a charity gig and threw down a challenge that between them they could sing any song anyone suggested, or pay $100.000 to the charity,
little old man sticks up his hand and asks for ' Farmer Jack ' well none of them know it but before they pay up they ask him to sing it, so he starts off, Farmer Jack to a King,From Loneliness to a Wedding ring.

I'll get me coat, eric

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 07:58 AM

From my wife's old song book (early 70s): she'd just learned Byker Hill (probably the Young Tradition version), and wrote the words down as:

Bike a hill and walk ashore,
Collier lads for evermore....

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Torctgyd
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 11:12 AM

As a nine or ten year old in nw London I loved Desmond Dekker's Israelites but I reckon my version of the lyrics when singing along was 90% mondegreens. Even now, when I hear it, a lyric jumps out for a "oh that's what he sang!" moment. The advert on the TV (for Maxell tapes?) was with the mondegreen lyrics written on it culminating in (the already mentioned above but it's too good to not repeat) my ears are alight!!!!!

Get up in the morning searching for breksa (breakfast?).

Also, a few years later I could have sworn The Jam's Eton Rifles actually had the chorus "eating trifles".

And what are the proper words that still sound like "Bless my cotton socks I'm in the nude"?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 08:02 PM

"I reckon my version of the lyrics when singing along was 90% mondegreens."

... and you DARE to not share it with us?


Tsch! Tsch! Tsch!

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 01:57 PM

The Rolling Stones came to Cville last week or so, and played my all time fave - Shattered. At which point I heard that a friend of mine had always thought Mick was singing "I'm Jagger..."

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 04:17 PM

When I was much,much younger I was convinced that Lonnie Donegan was singing
"I've been diggin' all my life and I nearly got to Hell,
But my uncle's got potatoes and his fuckin oil well"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Rumncoke
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 06:46 PM

I have a song about mining - it is just called 'pit song'in my book - the chorus starts 'Jowl jowl and listen lad, hear the coal face working'

the last verse starts
Now the deputy crawls from flat to flat
Whilst the putter shoves the empty 'uns

I heard in a song someone had written, a referrence to 'tyumuns' - which - when I asked - was a dialect work for empty tuns, taken from another song.

I don't think so...

Anne

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 07:42 PM

Here's a couple that I heard recently from friends:

From the chorus of "Banks of the Ohio" -
And only say that you'll be mine,
in my home we'll have T.V.

And from "My Baby's Gone" by the Louvin Brothers: "Hold back the Russian Menace".

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: RangerSteve
Date: 24 Oct 05 - 07:44 PM

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot - Uncle Dave Macon's version of "Sail Away Ladies" - the refrain: "Don't Sheetrock the patio".

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 25 Oct 05 - 02:41 PM

Rumncoke, the song is called "Jowl and Listen" which was collected by Walter Toyn and popularised by Jack Elliott of Birtley and the rest of the family. The verse in question is
"The deputy crawls from flat to flat,
The putter rams the tyum'uns,
But the man at the face must knaa his place,
Lke a mother knaas her young'uns"

tyum'uns (sometimes chummuns)are empty tubs.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Juan P-B
Date: 25 Oct 05 - 05:16 PM

When she was a wee 'un the elder 'Rock Chick', JP, used to love 'Farewell To Tarwathie' and used to sing "...in hopes to find Richard a-hunting the whale"

Along with 'Jazz Chord to say I love you' and 'Itchy Fanny how we don't talk anymore' is 'The Wurlitzer Song'....

"Wurlitzer One for the money! Two for the show"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Oct 05 - 12:47 PM

An older cousin once gave us an example of a twice-told mondegreen.

In an old country song there is a line that says 'My heart is withered like the petals of a rose I saw dying today.'

My cousin evidently thought it said My heart is withered like a fiddle, etc.

Later she forgot that line and evidently couldn't remember which musical instrument it referred to and in front of my older sisters sang, 'My heart is withered like a banjo of a rose I saw dying today.

True story.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Sieffe
Date: 26 Oct 05 - 03:32 PM

I am going to sing that version "you don;'t have to say I'm lovely, just because I am" at the top of my voice all the time now . . .thanks heaps lol. . .

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 11:21 PM

and when you're not, you're with
someone who would pry a wire from a clothespin

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Feb 06 - 11:30 PM

My Dad asked me the other day "Who was that sang that song "Pretty Little Love Song"?

I said I'd never heard of it.

He said, "Yes you have. You used to have their album. Remember? It went Pretty little lo-ove song... Pretty little lo-ove song..."

"Oh," I said. "That was the Marshall Tucker Band. And the title was Heard It in a Love Song."

But I think his mondegreen made better sense.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: MartinRyan
Date: 21 Feb 06 - 05:16 PM

Haven't gone through this thread, for some reason but, just in case - have you all seen THIS PAGE ??

Regards

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Emma B
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 02:24 PM

Just had a visit from an Irish friend who told me this mondegreen heard from a "traditional" singer on the small island where he lives.
He quoted it as being typical of a "certain" Irish outlook on life :)

"If it wasn't for the allegations
I'd sleep out in the wood"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: KenBrock
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:42 PM

It wasn't until I was about 30 and saw in print the lyrics to Cole Porter's "Night and Day" that I didn't think that somewhere in the tropics there was a species of tree known as the hidamy, as in "Night and Day, under the hidamy".

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:50 PM

The amazing Mr Smith,told me an amusing story of the time he was playing with the band Wild Oats,a punter came up and asked them if thay knew any Ted Baxter songs. NO sorry, they replied weve never heard of Ted Baxter.Not Heard of TED BAXTER,but he,s famous you know the fellow that wrote Rambling Boy AND Last thing on my mind .

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Genie
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:55 PM

"The Peace Carol," sung by John Denver and The Muppets, has a chorus that sounded like this to me at first:

The branch that bears the bright holly,
The dog that rests in yonder tree,
The light that shines for all to see,
The peace of Christmas day."

Since that second line conjured up so comical and nonsensical and image, I sort of 'readjusted my ear' to listen to the song again, focusing on what similar-sounding lyric might make sense.   

I'm sure the actual lyric has a "dove," not a "dog," resting in the tree, but it still SOUNDS like "dog" to me.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:02 PM

one of the early song collectors [ithink it was Sharp]collected a version of LORD BATEMAN in devon,the singer, instead of singing proud turkey,sang proud Torquay.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 08:25 PM

In some mummers plays the Turkish Knight has become the "Turkey Snipe"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Kajikit
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 09:20 PM

In Winter Wonderland, I was always certain that the line went 'in the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he's a passing clown'. And I wondered what the heck that had to do with marriages :P

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Scoville
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 10:43 PM

I suppose everyone has seen that ad on TV where the teenagers are singing, "Stop the catbox" instead of "rock the Casbah".

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:46 AM

As mentioned quite a long time ago in a different thread, Prof. Parsons the ex-Salt Town Poet, remains convinced that the second line of 'All The Good Times' is not 'The hunter has hung up his horn' but 'The hunter has swallowed his horse'.
And more recently the Duchess Of Winsford,now Programme Director at Radio Leighton in Crewe, was definitely under the impression that Elvis Presley, in his hit song 'Burning Love', was actually singing 'I'm a hunk of burning wood'. Quite why Mr Presley should be claiming to be a lump of charcoal remains unclear.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Genie
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:17 PM

Well, of course, "burning wood" might suggest a different meaning in the context of a Presley song.
;-)

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 05:50 AM

'..........just a come-on from the horse on second avenue'?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 10:58 AM

In most versions of "Lady Franklin's Lament", the following lines appear:

   Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe
   Is the only one that ever got through

I once heard someone sing a very interesting but sensible mishearing of the first line, but I'm not sure exactly how the second line was altered to go with it, so I'm making a plausible guess about that second line:

   Only the Eskimo and his kin can know
   The only one who could ever get through

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mick Tems
Date: 17 Dec 06 - 09:57 PM

There was a Dutch group who massacred the Cyril Tawney song, Sally Free And Easy:

"Think I'll wait till sunrise (sic)
see my enzymes down"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 12:08 AM

On Aussie ABC TV - in the Xmas Spicks & Specs issue - as told by teh presenter...

Dick the Horse has lots of Lollies ... Tra lala etc
That's the way he gets his Jollies ... Tra lala etc
That's the way our Nanna heard it ... Tra lala etc
Now we sing it every Christmas... ... Tra lala etc

Come back Pogo, all is forgiven...

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 12:15 AM

Overheard tonight while waiting for the subway:

   "What kind of bear is a holly bear?"

    "A what?"

    "A holly bear. You know in the Christmas carol, where it says the holly bear's a crown."

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 05:15 AM

I don't know if it's because I was just reading a JimmyT post or if I've got a strange sort of mind, but I just misheard Coope, Boyes & Simpson doing 'Down in yon forest', aka 'Bells of Paradise' and my brain heard

'at the foot of the bed there grows a thong'...

LTS

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: eddie1
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 06:21 AM

Many years ago, a small child of my aquaintance told me he had learnt a Christmas song called, "Three Wee Kings"!
Well, it fits doesn't it?

Eddie

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 07:49 AM

I was thinking I might say that's a bit of a pissy sort of song, but I decided that I wouldn't ...

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Dec 06 - 11:28 AM

add