any new mondegreens?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 22 - 11:40 AM

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream

I heard

"And guns and swords and unicorns
Were scattered on the ground."

rather than

"And guns and swords and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground."

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 24 May 22 - 04:06 PM

More Seals & Crofts, a song titled "Today"
from the same album, Down Home.

I thought the lyric was:

In a beautiful ring heaven
And we were one
And all the world was
A beautiful place to be lost in


When in fact they wrote/sang:

Then a beautiful thing happened
And we were one
And all the world was
A beautiful face to be lost in

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 May 22 - 05:06 PM

"I Just Can't Get Enough" by "Depeche Mode" was on TV this morning, as a tribute to the keyboard player who has just passed away. I remember hearing it played over a sound system in a supermarket last year, and for a moment thought he was singing "I Just Can't Get It Up" :)

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 28 May 22 - 03:28 PM

A friend of mine was into Paddy Tunney about 30 years ago & I loaned her one of Paddy's LPs- 'The Wild Bees' Nest' I think.

One of the songs was 'The Green Fields of Canada' containing a line explaining why the Irish had left 'The lands are gone to rushes'

-next time I saw her, she said it was a lovely LP but could I explain why, in the 'Green Fields of Canada' all the lambs had gone to Russia......

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 28 May 22 - 03:37 PM

As A geordie singer, I lived in Dover in the late 70s. I was delighted to find an excellent Shepherd Neame pub, the 'Malvern' in my own street, run by a Scottish couple and with a coal fire and a piano.

Myself & friends had many a good pub session there & I did of course act as a sort of missionary to these darkest parts of Kent & often sang the 'Blaydon Races' on a Saturday night (not all of it!).

Anyway, one night a local man was very complimentary and asked, in an East Kent accent, 'could yer sing that one yer did larst week?... you know the one about the bleedin' races'

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Jeri
Date: 28 May 22 - 08:00 PM

It's not a mondegreen, but it's popular. I heard a supposedly smart newscaster say something didn't "jive" with something else. "Jive is (amongst other things) a type of dance which some guy named Gordon Lightfoot used to hold the record for. Not THAT Gordon Lightfood, I'm sure, but maybe that's my folk cred.
It's "jibe".

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 31 May 22 - 12:16 PM

The Yiddish popular song "Mei Bir Bist Du Schoen" was sometimes thought of by the musicians who played it as "The Bear Missed the Train".

Jerome Kern's lovely tune might be misconstrued as "The Song Issue".

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 31 May 22 - 12:18 PM

I would guess that "Guantamera" has been cited as "One Ton Tomato" in earlier posts.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GerryM
Date: 31 May 22 - 09:33 PM

Whilst reporting a mondegreen, Stringsinger has fallen into a spoonerism. "Mei Bir" should be "Bei Mir". [and not to be confused with "My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer....]

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Jun 22 - 02:03 AM

My daughter did not speak Spanish but she learned a line or two of Guantanamera:

Once in a meadow, oh, oh, oh, once in a meadow....

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Jul 22 - 06:57 AM

Ok looking for songs about getting through hardship and I thought of I am a rock, which, unbeknownst to me, has this line about love:

It's laughter and it's loving I disdain

Which for the last oh 50+ years I have heard -and sung- as

It's laughter and it's nothing like disdain

Which I kinda like better.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jul 22 - 09:47 PM

In his version of “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, Willie Nelson sings “as the mirror told its tale”.
He obviously didn’t pick up on the original lyrics’ connection with Pilgrims Progress.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 18 Jul 22 - 04:55 PM

Canterbury Tales, surely?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 18 Jul 22 - 05:29 PM

Maybe more of a typo or predictive text at work here, but in an email I was copied into, one friend telling another that she would get more details with the next massage.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jul 22 - 11:38 PM

Sorry. Senior moment, Mark. Yes, I meant Canterbury Tales. Duh.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 22 Jul 22 - 09:26 AM

Also off topic but I recall an ad for Wives For Women that ended with "Call [number]. Leave mess."

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 27 Jul 22 - 10:43 PM

Smedley - PM
Date: 02 Jan 10 - 10:19 AM

Thanks to Simon & Garfunkel's enunciation, as a kid I always thought the second line of Scarborough Fair was "Parsley, saydrels, merry and thyme".

For years I assumed saydrels and merry were obscure varieties of herb.


I always took it as
Parsley, Sage rows, Mary & Thyme

I rather like 'saydrel' though.

[now if I ever sing it I put the first syllables on the beat and make a point of taking a breath before 'rosemary']

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 28 Jul 22 - 08:31 AM

Jim Seals, of happy memory, wrote and sang
"We May Never Pass This Way Again," as half of Seals and Crofts.

There is a later recording (2004-ish) in which his diction
makes Seals sound as though he were singing
We May Never Pass the Sway Again . . .

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 13 Nov 22 - 11:53 AM

Khloe Kardashian, in a TV commercial: I heard, "There's nothing glamorous about my brains." What she actually said was, "There's nothing glamorous about migraines."

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 15 Jun 23 - 07:57 PM

Being from UK, where we have Motorways, A roads, and B roads, in order of size and upkeep (to some extent) I was always confused by 'Jambalaya'

"I'm gonna go an' take the B road down the bayou"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Jun 23 - 08:15 PM

All these years I thought that
Gordon Lightfoot's Carefree Highway
was
Every Highway (let me slip away slip away on you)

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,bernieandred
Date: 17 Jun 23 - 03:57 PM

Heard a pub singer in Ireland sing Paper Roses.
In her version she sang "A hape (heap) of roses".
A cabaret singer we knew would do a very serious & dramatic version of Galway Bay, but instead of watching the "barefoot gossoons at their play", he was watching the barefoot goslings.
I never corrected him.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 17 Jun 23 - 07:25 PM

A couple of clowns turned up at Catford Folk Club and attempted to sing 'Poor Ditching Boy' with the chorus of 'With her scheming idle ways she left me for an oaf. They then tried to get Oaf to rhyme with Blood.
You can't make anything foolproof because fools are ingenious. (Ambrose Bierce)

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,MichaelKM
Date: 21 Jun 23 - 07:35 AM

Heard on BBC Radio 4 a few days ago, a little girl's prayer: 'In the name of the farmer, under the Sun, and the whole experience. Amen.'

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jun 23 - 09:22 AM

In the name of the father the son and in the hole he goes.

Dave H

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: PHJim
Date: 22 Jun 23 - 01:15 PM

From: GUEST,Alta Rigo - PM
Date: 04 Sep 01 - 12:18 AM

Until I saw the words to "Mr. Bojangles" in print, I thought one of the lines was, "He looked to me to be the eyes of Ish as the smoke ran out."
I did not know what ancient deity "Ish" was, but I pictured a tropical island with a huge stone idol with smoke and fire pouring out of its eyes.

Now that I have seen it printed as " ... the eyes of age, as he spoke right out," I have little trouble hearing it correctly.

__________________________________________________________________

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did sing, "And the smoke ran out," on their UNCLE CHARLIE & HIS DOG TEDDY LP. This was a true mondegreen. I heard them years later and they sang Jerry Jeff's correct lyrics.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 23 Jun 23 - 08:46 AM

https://youtu.be/LmtufaiX6QM    Spot the mondegreen!!

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 26 Jun 23 - 07:38 AM

An old friend of mine who has now passed, came from Liverpool. He spoke of a ditty that they sung as children whilst skipping.........He wrote it down as 'Ramsey totes and dozey totes and little lamsey tivey', which is what he beieved it to be into his forties. In discussion then about the old days, the truth came ou that it should be 'Rams eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy'

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Dave Hanson
Date: 26 Jun 23 - 07:57 AM

It should be,

Mares eat oats and does eat oats
And little lambs eat ivy


Dave H

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 26 Jun 23 - 08:06 AM

> "Ramsey totes ...."

Fading memory suggests that the offending song was composed and borderline-mispronounced on purpose, with misunderstanding aforethought. If it's intended to be misheard, does that discount it as a Mondegreen?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 11:52 PM

The Oxford to Hampton Railway

In Alcester lives a bonny lass / I think they call her Nancy,
Says she, a trip upon the line / Greatly would really please my fancy.
I will ride by steam and work by steam, / By steam I’ll on be hurried,
And when I can a husband find / By steam I will be married

It has become the opposite;
She'll go by steam, she'll come by steam, / By steam she'll unbehurried,
And if she do a husband find / By steam they will be married
and then;
She'll go by steam, she'll come by steam, by steam she'll be unhurried,
And if she do a husband find, by steam she will be married

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Oct 23 - 02:19 PM

Someday Soon Ian Tyson 1963 (as recorded by Ian and Sylvia on Northern Journey 1964)

My parents cannot stand him ‘cause he works the rodeo
They say “he’s not your kind, he’ll leave you cryin’ ”
But if he asks I’ll follow him down the toughest row to hoe
Someday soon, goin’ with him, someday soon

Judy Collins said, "One night in California Steve Stills and I were singing it in the car on the way in from Topanga Canyon. I said: "That's beautiful." He said: "Why don't you record it?" So we did."
She recorded it at Elektra Sound Recorders, Los Angeles in 1968 for the album Who knows where the time goes. She sang these words on the Smothers Brothers show in 1969.

My parents they can't stand him ‘cause he works the rodeo
My father says that he will leave you cryin’ ”
I would follow him down the toughest road I know
Someday soon, goin’ with him, someday soon

The song is based on Ian Tyson's romance with Sylvia Fricker from Chatham, Ontario. My Uncle Peter and Mr Fricker, Sylvia's father, went to a bar every Friday night. Uncle Peter said that all he talked about was the 'pseudo-cowboy" who had run off with his daughter. Judy Collins sang it beautifully last night at the RNCM in Manchester, complete with pedal steel guitar. She said: "I want you to know that you're looking at the American Idol of 1956!"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Greum
Date: 09 Oct 23 - 02:59 PM

I have just looked at one of my songs on YouTube, The Jovial Broom Man, and thought I would try the Show Transcript option.

It interprets Hey Jolly Broom Man as Hey Charlie Brown!

ROFL

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 05:58 PM

A kiddledy divy too, wouldn't you?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Og
Date: 14 Oct 23 - 10:59 AM

He whispered "sweet peas" to me...

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 27 Oct 23 - 06:32 AM

Howabout these from 'Britains got Talent.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Nov 23 - 12:26 AM

Listened to a song I hadn't listened to in so long I forgot I knew the right words.... so it's an old one, but here you are:

We've come a long way since we last shook hands, still got a long way to go, couldn't see the flowers when we last shook hands, couldn't see the flowers on account of the snow.

I hear it as Left Japan, not Last Shook Hands. Radically different visuals...


We've come a long way since we left Japan, still got a long way to go, couldn't see the flowers when we left Japan, couldn't see the flowers on account of the snow.

Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Dancer with bruised knees album.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Og
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 09:51 AM

Through the night without light from a bulb.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 27 Sep 23 - 11:52 PM

The Oxford to Hampton Railway

In Alcester lives a bonny lass / I think they call her Nancy,
Says she, a trip upon the line / Greatly would really please my fancy.
I will ride by steam and work by steam, / By steam I’ll on be hurried,
And when I can a husband find / By steam I will be married

It has become the opposite;
She'll go by steam, she'll come by steam, / By steam she'll unbehurried,
And if she do a husband find / By steam they will be married
and then;
She'll go by steam, she'll come by steam, by steam she'll be unhurried,
And if she do a husband find, by steam she will be married

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Oct 23 - 02:19 PM

Someday Soon Ian Tyson 1963 (as recorded by Ian and Sylvia on Northern Journey 1964)

My parents cannot stand him ‘cause he works the rodeo
They say “he’s not your kind, he’ll leave you cryin’ ”
But if he asks I’ll follow him down the toughest row to hoe
Someday soon, goin’ with him, someday soon

Judy Collins said, "One night in California Steve Stills and I were singing it in the car on the way in from Topanga Canyon. I said: "That's beautiful." He said: "Why don't you record it?" So we did."
She recorded it at Elektra Sound Recorders, Los Angeles in 1968 for the album Who knows where the time goes. She sang these words on the Smothers Brothers show in 1969.

My parents they can't stand him ‘cause he works the rodeo
My father says that he will leave you cryin’ ”
I would follow him down the toughest road I know
Someday soon, goin’ with him, someday soon

The song is based on Ian Tyson's romance with Sylvia Fricker from Chatham, Ontario. My Uncle Peter and Mr Fricker, Sylvia's father, went to a bar every Friday night. Uncle Peter said that all he talked about was the 'pseudo-cowboy" who had run off with his daughter. Judy Collins sang it beautifully last night at the RNCM in Manchester, complete with pedal steel guitar. She said: "I want you to know that you're looking at the American Idol of 1956!"

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,Greum
Date: 09 Oct 23 - 02:59 PM

I have just looked at one of my songs on YouTube, The Jovial Broom Man, and thought I would try the Show Transcript option.

It interprets Hey Jolly Broom Man as Hey Charlie Brown!

ROFL

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Oct 23 - 05:58 PM

A kiddledy divy too, wouldn't you?

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Og
Date: 14 Oct 23 - 10:59 AM

He whispered "sweet peas" to me...

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Nov 23 - 12:26 AM

Listened to a song I hadn't listened to in so long I forgot I knew the right words.... so it's an old one, but here you are:

We've come a long way since we last shook hands, still got a long way to go, couldn't see the flowers when we last shook hands, couldn't see the flowers on account of the snow.

I hear it as Left Japan, not Last Shook Hands. Radically different visuals...


We've come a long way since we left Japan, still got a long way to go, couldn't see the flowers when we left Japan, couldn't see the flowers on account of the snow.

Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Dancer with bruised knees album.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 27 Oct 23 - 06:32 AM

Howabout these from 'Britains got Talent.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: The Og
Date: 13 Nov 23 - 09:51 AM

Through the night without light from a bulb.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 23 Nov 23 - 09:22 AM

I've been having difficulty with the hit tune Heat Waves.
Looked it up and the real lyrics say:

Heat waves been fakin' me out
Can't make you happier now


whereas I was fumbling around thinking it went:
Heat waves man thicken me out
Can't make you happy or not

sigh . . .

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: cnd
Date: 01 Jul 24 - 08:34 PM

Inspired by the CCR thread (click)...

I've been transcribing lyrics to my music collection lately and was doing a long compilation CD of Bill Monroe lyrics. To help with the volume of it, I'll start longer efforts by copying and pasting lyrics from another website and modifying them as needed to match my version or any errors in the previous. For the bluegrass classic "Lord Build Me A Cabin In Gloryland," the generally-trustworthy site BluegrassLyrics.com mis-reports the line "On the great final morning shall I hear them say" as "On the grapevine of mournin’ shall I hear them all say"

And now I all I can picture is a terribly sad vineyard.

Subject: RE: any new mondegreens?
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 03 Jul 24 - 06:14 AM

Just a thought

If they were divorced she could be his late ex wife!!

First time I used the expression in real life I got some odd looks!