What are the worst lyric screwups you've

Subject: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: jimmyt
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 12:22 PM

Just for kicks, thought this might be interesting. When I was a kid, I thought the line in Silent Night was Round John Virgin, Mother and Child. In the 60's the 5th Dimension song had a line that later I found out was "you and me,endlessly. to such a weird rhythm I thought it was "you and me and Leslie"! My daughter in her pre teens listening to Kyrie Eleison sang "Carring a laser! Maybe it's just my family! Any similar dumb lyrics?

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,allen woodpecker
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 12:58 PM

Hey Jimmyt. The correct name for this phenomenon, apparently, is a "mondegreen". From the "Bonnie Earl of Moray" the line is "Ye hae slain the Earl O' Moray, and laid him on the green", but some dude thought it said "Ye hae slain the Earl O' Moray and Lady Mondegreen". The dude in question may have been Allan Lomax, but this may be apochryphal. My mate Kit thought Sovay "dressed herself in manzarae", which he took to be some sort of purple material. Weird, innit? A.W.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: kendall
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 01:50 PM

As a small boy, I heard the song Streets of Laredo, and the line "Take me to the valley and lay the sod o're me" was, lay the sodoreme, and I wondered what the hell is a sodorme. Recently, I heard a recording of Lorens in which the singer sings "a down ERECTIONS cloudless sky. Well, AFFECTION and ERECTION are related.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: jimmyt
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 02:21 PM

Now that I think about it, it must be a family thing, as my wife, Jayne used to sing along with the great old soul song, "Jayne, Jayne,Jayne---Jayne's a fool. that is, by the way when she was a youngster! She'd kill me for this testamony! Mondegreen, Huh? Sounds good tumee!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Pei T
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 02:30 PM

(Wow, I haven't visited the mudcat in a really really long time, but I stopped in to get the address for a friend, and saw this and had to post..)

I am a huge steeleye span fan, my Dad got me into them when I was little, but my husband (who has great taste in all other things) hates them. (He likes their music, the crazy man just can't stand Maddy's voice)

There is a Steeleye song called "Elf Song", the lyric to which is:

"I heard a bonny cow low over the lea"

My husband hears..

"Robin Hood's an outlaw underneath the sea"

Go figure.. :)

Pei

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: jimmyt
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 02:53 PM

That one's a stretch even for an aurally challenged person like me! thanks for the post, Pei.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Pei T
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 03:10 PM

Yeah.. But he hears a lot of strange ones, that is just the most extreme.. :)

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: open mike
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 04:44 PM

there must be a thread that has addressed mondegreens here before--and there are several web sites dedicated to them././the most often metioned one is "excuse me while i kiss this guy" from jimmy henbdrix's "kiss the sky"-- and there is a line which is often confused with "the bath room's on the right"--what is the original lyric?? maybe it is bad moon rising?? there is a john prine song which says that there is a "half an inch of water" (and you think you're gonna drown)....which sometimes comes out as "happy enchilada" ..there are many others.. try a web search for MONDEGEREEN and be prepared to split your sides laughing!!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Deckman
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 06:37 PM

HEY! What's new? I've lived (livid?) with this delemma for years. I couldn't begin to tell you the number of screwups I've had with the problem of understanding diction from performers who ONLY recorded when they had a mouthful of marbles! George Austin (Seattle) tells a goofy story on me ... about the time I called him just before a gig I did, probably 15 years ago. I called him late at night, or perhaps it was early in the morning, and asked him to clerify a line. And I also received a call about midnight one night, from a friend who was performing live in Chicago. He was between sets, and begged me to give him the correct verbage to a song he wanted to do. Ah ... such is the life of a performer! (ain't it great) CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 09:19 PM

Ahhhhh, where to start. Lexdexia and performing can be all kinds of fun.

I have this one sone I wrote about some folks brewing moonshine than has a line I wrote that goes "smoke snakin' thru the oak' which about every 4th or 5 playing somes out, "snake smoking thru the oak". Makes no sense that way, but....

But there are some songs I wouldn't attempt out of absolute fear. "Blinded by the Light"? Heck no. I'm not sure what they're saying but Iz not ever gonna do that song.

Bobert

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Banjer
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 09:38 PM

In the Billy Grammer song 'Gotta Travel On' I kept hearing...Pauper rags to Johnny....what it asctually says is....Poppa writes to Johnny....I am glad to see that I am not alone and even more heartend to see that others also have the capacity to laugh at themselves once in a while. A trait that seems to be disappearing these days!! Another one I just remembered...as a lil one, when singing Christmas carols, the line in 'Deck The Halls' came out....deck the halls with bousuf, folly, folly la, la, la, la, la! I had no idea what 'bousuf' was but others were singing the same thing so to my young ears it made sense!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 09:46 PM

In the store where I used to work, the radio was usually tuned to a rock station. A young coworker misheard Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face" as "I Supply the Fish". Just a little more evidence that a drug-free workplace may not be such a bad idea after all.

BWL

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Don Firth
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 09:54 PM

I knew someone once who thought the Blue Danube Waltz was the "Blue Daniel Waltz." Who the hell is "Blue Daniel?" Maybe Blue Daniel is related to Blue Peter, which is either a program on the BBC or a venereal disease. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Midchuck
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 10:19 PM

This wasn't a mistake, I did it on purpose.

Our group was working on Utah Phillips' Faded Roses of December, and instead of singing:

"I'd rather have a heartache to remember, than a fickle love that doesn't mean a thing,"

I sang:

"I'd rather have a hardon to remember, than a feeble f*** that doesn't mean a thing."

Now my wife is afraid to sing it in public, because my lyrics are easier to remember and she's afraid she'll sing them by mistake.

Peter.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: catspaw49
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 10:21 PM

Worst lyrics srewups? Hell man, anything written by Andrew Lloyd Webber would qualify wouldn't it?

Yeah, I know that ain't the topic.....Just had to be said.

Spaw

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: michaelr
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 10:44 PM

Speaking of Hendrix -- Jimi himself was guilty of screwing up the lyrics to Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower": instead of "none of them along the line know what any of it is worth" he recorded something like "now the landlord's on the line mumble mumble words". I just saw his performance from the Isle of Wight Festival on TV, and he obviously doesn't know what the lyric is. Now that's lazy for ya!

Then there's the old Free song "All right now" with the line "Let's move before they raise the parking rate" which a buddy of mine heard as "Before they raise the f**king rent".

Endless fun...
Michael

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 11:41 PM

In the folly of my youth I did an LP before I teamed up with Magaret. I sang a version of Looly, Looly and instead of singing corpus christi writ thereon, I sang cobbles twisting writ thereon. Didn't make any sense, but I sang it. And now it's scratched forever in these grooves. There will never be a CD version.

I once heard a singer singing "Lock Keeper" with the line "wounded eyes," rather than "moonlit eyes." They weren't all that grateful to hear the correct lyrics.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Les B
Date: 03 Sep 02 - 11:45 PM

Kendall - I just saw a bumper sticker today that proclaimed "My Dixie Wrecked" - I couldn't figure it out, but my daughter (adult) said, Oh, Dad, it's "My Dick's Erect"!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 01:32 AM

A Glasgow classroom classic--"In past oor green He leadeth me, the quiet waters by....."

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,KingBrilliant
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 03:41 AM

I think I've posted this before , but...
I heard the 80's Banarama hit "Robert De Niro's waiting, talking italian" as "Robert De Niro's waiting, f*ck*ng italian!".
It always made me giggle, and I just couldn't hear it any other way.
Then there was their other hit "I'm your penis, I'm your fire, what's your desire?".

Kris

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Jim Krause
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 12:45 PM

Then there's Grace Slick singing
"Tell 'em a hookah
Smokin' color crayons
Has given you the call
Go ask Alice, when she was just small."

I still have no idea what the real words to White Rabbit are.

And who could forget Karen Carpenter singing
"So they sprinkled walnuts in your hair
And starlight in your eyes like glue."

when what she really sang was:
"So they sprinkled gold dust in your hair
And starlight in your eyes of blue."

Jim

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 01:59 PM

And at the height of the Celtic Tiger there were those who thought "Islands in the Stream" was "Ireland's Industry".

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 03:43 PM

When I first saw this thread title, I hoped it would NOT be about mondegreens, because we have already had plenty of those. (I may post some links later.) But to my knowledge, there hasn't been a thread about other kinds of embarrassing on-stage screwups. So while I'm thinking about it, I'll post a couple of my favorite screw-up stories.

*

A friend of mine, singing at a folk festival, sang THE SCOTSMAN'S KILT, which has been in his repertoire for years. But instead of singing the punch line, he inadvertently repeated a line from earlier in the song. He sang it with a big finale-type flourish, as if it were a punch line, but there was no punch line there! On stage, he gave no indication he realized he had done anything wrong. He did realize it, it turns out, too late to fix it, so he just decided to bluff his way through.

The good news is, this was billed as a "first annual" festival but there never was a second. It was in a remote location, was poorly publicized, and he was the first act of the day, so the audience was VERY small, for which we will always be grateful.

*

I rode along with my wife and a couple of her fellow band members on the way to one of their concert gigs. In the car, they decided to rehearse the words to their songs. One of them was "The Star of the County Down."

When they had finished, I asked if they had heard the Van Morrison/Chieftains version. They hadn't, so I sang part of it for them. The main difference is, Morrison sings it in 4/4 time (Click here), but they (and most other people, I think) do it in 3/4 ((Click here for an example)). Nobody said much about it, just "Oh, that's interesting" or something like that.

When it came time to perform it in concert, half of them--the ones who had been in the car with me--started off in 4/4 while the rest started off in 3/4! They were several measures into it before they realized what was wrong and started over.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 03:55 PM

It seems CDNOW doesn't allow direct links to their sound samples. (How do they know?) Anyway, if you right-click on the CDNOW links that I provided above, a little menu pops up. Then click on "Copy Shortcut." Then paste the URL into your browser's Address box and click "Go." That works in Microsoft Internet Explorer, anyway.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 05:24 PM

OK, here are the threads I've found on mondegreens. As usual, there is some thread drift in some of these.

Mistakes I Have Made When Listening To Songs
Spoonerism's in songs- Examples
mis-heard lyrics (surely they didn't say...)
There's a Bathroom on the Right
Misspoken, misheard, but accepted.
Misheard words
Mis-heard session tune titles.
Help: Monthelawn???
BS: mystery lyrics
any new mondegreens?
Lyr Req: Ants Are Blowing in the Wind
Lyric drift.
Lyr Req: Round John
Help: What is a Monigan?
Mangled Lines
BS: Great Misquotations
BS: Dept. of Misheard Lyrics
BS: Another mondegreen
BS: Asteroid Light -- erratum
Gig bloopers - did I sing that???
mondegreen ?

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: John Routledge
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 07:48 PM

What I remembered as a one verse song and have recently sung as such was actually the first two lines of the fifth verse and the last two lines of the sixth verse. It still made sense so my embarrassment was reduced when it was pointed out that I had missed out 4 verses and two half verses. Happy days.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,An Croenen
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 08:05 PM

My 4 year old came home singing a little prayer she had learnt at school. She was adamant that it ended with 'Our men' (Amen)...

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 08:59 PM

Hymn about a funny animal. "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Banjer
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 10:17 PM

Don reminded me of the old (with whiskers) joke about the youngster who told mom nad dad that they had learned God's name in Sunday school. When they asked what was the name and how did he learn it he said he learned it in the song, 'In The Garden'. The chorus starts out....Andy walked with me, Andy talked with me, He told me I was His own.....

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 11:34 PM

She's got a tick in her eye (She's got a ticket to ride)

'scuse me while I kiss this guy ('scuse me while I kiss the sky)

The second one is so famous, somebosy put up a website: http://www.kissthisguy.com/

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Melani
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 12:23 AM

When my aunt was little, she was particularly fond of the Woody Guthrie Dustbowl song that went, "So long, it's ringgold sunolya." The fact that it made no sense didn't slow down a four-year-old.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,An Croenen
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 06:11 PM

Going on from Banjer, you reminded me of my neighbour boy claiming at school that God lived in his street, because my husbands name is Godfried... (We also got bankstatements mentioning 'payment from Mr God' for a while - fabulous, isn't it!). I know these aren't lyrics, but perhaps they should become lyrics..

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 06:45 PM

I for years (like 20) thought the words to "Kodachrome" were, "Momma don't take my colored phone away: and I sang it like that. What a dope!

My friend who was from the middle east thought it was "Bad Moose Risin'" but the people he sang it to mostly didn't understand English anyway.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 06:46 PM

Yall are crazy, it's "there's a babboon on the right." Is a "bathroom" going "to take your life?" Or a "bad moon?" whatever ever that is? It doesn't make any sense. Don't go around tonight... there's a babboon on the right.

Does anyone know what Kyrie Elaison means? I used to, from a gregorian chant, but I forgot, and nobody knows. I could look it up, but it's not the same, somehow.

A friend of mine heard the Davey Crocket song line Killed him a b'ar when he was only three, as Killed in a bar when he was only three. Which raises questions as to what he was doing in a bar, and how he became so famous having died so young.

But my favorite performance glitch was a theatre audition by someone who'd never heard the tomAYto/tomAHto pronunciations--You say Tomayto, I say Tomayto, let's call the whole thing off.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 05 Sep 02 - 08:47 PM

Fred: The theatre audition item was hilarious!

Kyrie Elaison means Exalt the Lord! (Kyrie is Greek for the Lord and Elaison is the verb to exalt) I found this in some Roman Catholic website that has a Latin dictionary.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: open mike
Date: 06 Sep 02 - 02:01 AM

the hookah smoking caterpillar is from Alice in wonderland-and he wriggled into jefferson starship's song-no doubt there were some colors happening back then-- and tails and hallucinations....did crayola add any psychedelic colors- oh yeah, i guess the fluorescent ones..

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 06 Sep 02 - 05:04 PM

Spaw, Andrew Lloyd Weber doesn't usually write the lyrics. It's often Tim Rice, but it has been other lyricists, too.

Jim D., I like those stories about the non-mondegreen types of screw ups. One that I've done once or twice before, when my mouth was on auto-pilot, was to inadvertently change the last line of "Hey, Good Lookin'!" from "How's about cookin' somethin' up with me?" to "How's about keepin' somethin' up for me."

BTW, Jim, "When it came time to perform it in concert, half of them--the ones who had been in the car with me--started off in 4/4 while the rest started off in 3/4!" -- Isn't that called "jazz?"

There's another mondegreen website called "amiright.com".

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 06 Sep 02 - 07:48 PM

Thanks Just Amy!

Genie, I always get Tim Rice mixed up with Tim Curry. And I could never sing about Floyd Collins, the ill-fated spelunker, because I confuse him with Floyd Kramer ( but he's the piano player) but then I think he was the barber on Mayberry (but that was Just Floyd).

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,dr. soul
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 02:15 AM

. . . the lead singer would regularly turn "headlights" (as in, "I was caught in the headlights") into "head lice", but enunciation is difficult under the best of circumstances, and who (but the rest of the band) would notice?

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,dr. soul yet again
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 02:23 AM

My buddy Charles Bassi was singing on a jam session, classic Chicago blues "I'm a Man". Got to the chorus, Charles sings: "I'm a man, spelled A, uh . . . "!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Jim McLean
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 03:16 PM

What about the song "wae's me for Prince Charlie" heard as where's me fourpence, Charlie? Jim McLean

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Sonnet
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 03:52 PM

When my daughter, Rachael, was at junior school, her class had been taught What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor. I enjoyed the Rachaelism:

"Put him in the CUPBOARD with a hose-pipe on him."

JMcS

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Orac
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 01:19 PM

I think my worst one was a line in Kieren Halpin's "Too long away" when I sang "Men with no suits and black faces". I met Kieren a couple of weeks later and mentioned it to him.... thinking it would make him smile.. He said its "men with black suit and no faces .. suit is singular .. its a state of mind not a state of dress". Anyway I felt suitably put in my place. He is not famous for his humour .. nice songs though.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: dorareever
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 01:42 PM

I was sure that the song whiskey in the jar mentioned "a band of FAT men" that "looked like captain Farrell" and that in the merry ploughboy the IRA was fighting for "the land can have sex and all." ... Changing genre of music,in the Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia" where they repeat Pol Pot,Pol Pot like a mantra,I was sure they were saying: "fat an' old,fat an' old."

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 10 Sep 02 - 02:27 AM

Yesterday at a song circle, I was doing Tom Paxton's song "The Bravest," and as a sheer slip of the tongue, changed "...The pipers play 'Amazing Grace' as the coffins come in view," to "...The pipers play amazing grapes as the coffins ... ." Had it been in a real performance, I'd probably have bit my tongue and hoped no one would notice that bit of aphasia, but in this informal setting, I ended up snickering through the last part of this very somber and moving song!

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,KingBrilliant
Date: 10 Sep 02 - 03:33 AM

There is an Indigo Girls song that a guitarist friend will insist on making us sing. The song is called ghost, and the first line is "There's a letter on my desktop that I got out of a drawer", but I cannot for the life of me sing it as anything other than "There's a letter on my doorstep that I got out of a drawer..". This makes no sense at all & so I start to smile. As the song goes on us two singers get more and more desperate to laugh, as the guitarist ploughs on manfully with a disapproving look on his face.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 10 Sep 02 - 03:57 AM

Way back in the early 70s my then singing-partner Barrie Roberts wrote a sort of Folk-documentary--a story illustrated with songs--about a guy named Hector MacDonald, based on the book "MacDonald of the 42nd" (I think!); about a guy who'd been everywhere and done everything from the Indian Mutiny via the American War of Independence to a sad old age working on the Liverpool Docks. He'd lumberjacked in Canada, and one of the songs was "Foreman Young Monroe", about a young chap who gets killed breaking a log-jam (on the Sabbath). No mistakes here, but on the very last rehearsal the night before the show, I got to the last verse about his mourning sweetheart, whose "greatest wish was to be laid by her lover Young Monroe" and suddenly realised these lines could have another interpretation! We all fell about laughing for ages, and in the end I changed it to "laid with"; but how we avoided disaster on the performance I shall never know.

Steve

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: SlickerBill
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 12:06 AM

I heard one about Cher's "Gypsies tramps and Thieves" which started "Gypsies, chimpanzees ..." and ended " And every night the men would come to town, and lay the monkey down." sb

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 09:14 PM

This afternoon at a jam some friends and I were singing "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out." One line goes, "When you get back on your feet again,..." and another goes "If I ever get my hands on a dollar again...". My friend Gil started out with the latter and then realized he should be singing the former (at that place in the song), so the line came out
"When I get my hands on my feet again, gonna hang on to it till the eagle grins...".

That was good for a good laugh.

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 27 Oct 02 - 09:17 PM

A mistake that I commonly make when I let the 'autopilot' take over while singing conjures up an image just as silly as the one I mentioned above. It's in the song "Life's Railway To Heaven." All too often, I sing "Keep your eye upon the throttle and your hands upon the rail."

(And we all know how painful that can be!)

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Mr Happy
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 03:25 AM

genie,

'All too often, I sing "Keep your eye upon the throttle and your hands upon the rail."'["Life's Railway To Heaven." ]

this line's familiar to me from another song: 'union miners'

do you have the words to "Life's Railway To Heaven." please.

cheers,

mr h

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 03:37 AM

Mr Happy, it's in the DT , here, here.

Genie

(glad to know I'm not the only one to screw up that line)

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Grab
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 08:09 AM

Never did mention the well-known Alanis Morrisette line:

"It's not fair to remind me of the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me..."

Graham.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 28 Oct 02 - 03:41 PM

Was Alanis's bear named "Gladly"

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: PaulBobbyBuzz
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 01:55 PM

My wife says I HAVE to submit this one; while we were singing Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight", I (somewhat under the influence ) wound up singing in the last chorus... "I'm so wonderful..." It cracked her up so much she couldn't finish! She has never let me forget this (I lovingly refer to her as the 'pit bull') and brings it up whenever we're reminiscing about gigs and fun stuff. i was told once by a choir person that if yuou forget the words and are singing in a large group, just mouth the word "watermelon" a few times, and no one will be the wiser (It seems the varitey and placement of the syllables and voinings could be taken for almost any words). Later pbb

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: JedMarum
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 05:31 PM

many years ago, my good friend Fred had asked me to play at his wedding - and Mom-in-law to be asked me to sing "Sunrise/Sunset" from the Fiddler on the Roof play. Fred was not bothered by his lack of height (one of those short guys without the short guy complex) but his Mother-in-law to be was a bit of busy body and I am certain she thought her daughter would look better marrying a taller Fred.

So at the wedding rehearsal I sang, "When did she get to a beauty? When did he grow to be so small?"

We all had a good chuckle - but Mom went through the roof, "Don't you dare sing that tomorrow!" she finger pointed to me emphatically. Of course, I wouldn't have dreamed of it.

;-)

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:06 PM

In the French (original) version of Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes), there are two lines that I screw up every once in a while. One says, "Moi, je t'aimais, toi, tu m'aimait." (I hope I got those "person" endings right.) Occasionally, I slip and sing, "Moi, je m'amais, tois, tu t'amiait." So instead of my words meaning "I loved you and you loved me," what I sing means "I loved me and you loved you." (No wonder "...la vie separe ceux who s'aiment..." -- "life separates lovers"--a line that comes later in the song.!)

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 03:30 AM

"La mer a effacé les pas des amants désuni", I think, Genie; but you have as much chance of being saved by a freak high tide as you have of the ground opening up to swallow you. (Unless you live in Dudley, of course!)

Steve

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 07:39 AM

Steve, IIRC, that last verse goes:
"Mais la vie separe ceux qui s'aiment
Tous doucement, sans faire de bržit,
Et la mer efface sur le sable
Les pas des amants dŽsunis."

(But life separates those who love, very softly, without making any noise, and the sea wipes away from the sand the steps [read: footprints] of separated lovers.)

Sorry about that "who" that I studk into the French line in place of "qui." (I do that sometimes when I'm thinking sort of half in one language and half in another.)

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 10:56 AM

Apologies, Genie! You're right, of course. I blame that Bobby Darin.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Marc
Date: 01 Nov 02 - 01:09 PM

And if you break my heart my son
All will be hell when the day is done

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 24 Nov 02 - 10:06 PM

I don't know if it's one of my "worst," but the other day I was singing "My Favorite Things" for a retirement home group, and I gaily warbled:

"...Cream colored ponies with blue satin sashes...".

Seemed kinda silly. Then on reflection, I realized that some folks DO dress ponies up in satin sashes (braided into their tails and manes)!

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Mr Happy
Date: 25 Nov 02 - 09:55 AM

'raindrops on noses, .....' [the good life]

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From:
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 05:05 PM

not a song lyric screw-up,but a screww up of almighty proportions.

Trying to explain to my senior history class about a moment in British History when the parliamnet refused to extend voting reform to one class, as this would open the floodgates to all groups demanding the franchise. I decided to use the metaphor of the little dutch boy who, obeying his parents, stems the leak in the sea wall by sticking his finger in the leak.
Unfotunately
1) the present generation of children no longer seem to learn such stories as children.
2) when I was a child, a dyke was a sea wall, nothing else.

So imagine the expression on the senior students faces when I absentmindedly and in all innocence announced,
   "It's just like the little dutch boy who spends all night with his finger up a dyke!"

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Beccy
Date: 17 Feb 03 - 05:17 PM

My honey, God Bless him, grew up thinking that "Love lift us up where we belong" was actually, "The Lip goes up where we belong..." and he was quite flabbergasted, at the age of 35, to learn the actual lyrics. He said that he never understood why that nonsense song was so popular.... :-)

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 05 Mar 03 - 07:12 PM

I just realized tonight while perusing another lyric site, that I had totally misheard one of the lines in my favorite adolescent pop song "North to Alaska", sung by Johnny Horton in 1960 or 1961.

The actual line goes

"North to Alaska, go north, the rush is on"

For over forty years I have thought he was singing

"North to Alaska, go north to Russia zone"

I suppose that is the penalty one pays for being attentive in history and geography classes....


Murray

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 06 Mar 03 - 12:21 AM

Beccy,

For a long time -- until I actually heard a DJ or somebody say the line clearly -- I thought that Joe Cocker was singing "The lift is up where we belong," and it didn't make any sense to me, either. I still think it sounds like that's what he's singing.

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,kenny rogers
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 02:19 PM

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,s. Burns
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 02:21 PM

I grew up singing...

You've picked a bad time to leave me lucille, 400 children and crop in the field.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Barb'ry
Date: 24 Jun 03 - 05:47 PM

Constantly cocking up a line in 'Bold Poachers' and sing 'a-firing at the peasants' instead of pheasants! Trouble is that everyone notices and the rest of the song (which I usually get right) is drowned by totally unsympathetic laughter!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 05:52 AM

A very good friend of mine learns songs from CDs.

So far we have had Candle in the Wind ending with the immortal line "For the fifth hour, Marilyn Munroe"

And in Good Old Boys Like Me we have
"those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me, Thankyou Tennessee"

Kris

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Dave H.
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 10:36 AM

Ain't kids wonderful!

When my son was about 7 or so and we were on our way to vacation with the inlaws for Christmas we heard him softly singing "Tater Tots with their eyes all a'glow" Sort of makes sense as 'taters do have eyes. Still the laughter took us through a few miles.

When my daughter was 4 she was attending preschool and was taught The River is Wide and Deep along with hand movements. She could never keep the movements right so was constantly singing the river is wide while her hands were showing deep and vice versa for deep. She is also very pragmatic, so in the childrens tune "Monkeys Jumping On The Bed" the song ends after the first monkey falls off the bed and hurts his head. She figured the other monkeys, hearing the doctor say "no more monkeys jumping on the bed, would heed the sage advice of the doctor and learn from the mistake of the first monkey.

P.S.- Don Firth - We have a female TV reporter by the name of Blue Rolfes - this has always sounded to me like a wonderful name for a venereal disease.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,alinact
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 12:21 PM

Listen closely to Eric Burdon singing Sky Pilot. Instead of the line "but he'll stay behind, and he'll meditate", I swear he sings "but he stay'll behind...". Also, there is a line in The Spanish Ladies that goes "first she spied me, then she fled me..." In the Dubliners 15 Years On version, I'm sure they sing "first she shit me..."

Going back to jimmyt's first post, when he talks about "you and me and Lesley", I think he is referring to the Young Rascals song Groovin'. I'm pretty sure cos I used to think it was the same thing!

Allan

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Dave H.
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 03:20 PM

I just got back from the Doctors office. Hear the BeeGees on the radio singing "Heaven" could have sworn I heard them sing

"Nobody gets too much heaven no more,
Its as wide as a river and harder to climb"

Did a double take wondering how one climbs a river?

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Hillheader
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 03:34 PM

I once asked my nephew (5 then) what he had learned at school this week. He told me that God was so big that he had two names. When I asked how he knew that he said "Our Father Howard in heaven, Harold be thy name....". I'm still not sure if he was serious.

Davebhoy

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 25 Jun 03 - 03:53 PM

Unintentionally, I was singing along to a Burger King commercial (No, I'm not going to tell you how long ago either If you know the commercial you'll figure it out) The BK lyric is "It takes two hands to handle a whopper" my version came out "It takes two hands to handle my whopper" My girlfriend at the time who is now my wife was not terribly amused.
   Intentionally; I was at a re-enactment four years ago and a pal of mine was singing "Johnny Angel" When he came to the part that said.."Other fellows ask me out for a date, but I just sit and wait, I'd rather comptemplate on Johnny Angel" I substituted the word masturbate for comptemplate. never on stage though. Kindest regards, Neil

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: DMcG
Date: 26 Jun 03 - 04:36 AM

I have to concentrate singing "The Postman" ("What a wonderful lad the postman is/As he hastens from door to door") whenever I came to the line about the letter that "he drops through a hole in the door" because I first heard it as a comment about the postman "He drops through a hole in the floor." I don't always succeed, and the song collapses in a heap within the next few notes.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: syren
Date: 28 Jun 03 - 07:34 AM

Well, I have to jump in here.....one of the worst screwups onstage, by me, was back when I was in my first band, The Howling Gael. We used to open....every gig....with Steeleye Span's "Misty, Moisty Morning".....I could sing that song drunk or sober and in my sleep! But then I used to have nightmares about blowing the line ..."I'll plow and mow and reap and sow and she will sit and spin...". Never did, tho.....till we did a school gig and there I was in front of the entire 7th grade of the Mt. Tabor Middle School....and out of my mouth came the words..."and she will shit and spin..."! And yes, every single kid in that audience caught it!
My wonderful band partner in Broadside, Andrea Aldridge, wrote a great spoof (of the Shanty The Alabama), "When the Alabama's Crew Got Laid", which is, of course, the first line. So there we are, a bunch of us,(not Andrea)doing a big festival on the waterfront in Portland and one of the women tells the story of The Alabama, prior to singing the song...and sure enough, the first line out of her mouth is...you guessed! Stopped the two policemen passing in front of the stage dead in their tracks!
Hey, I like this thread!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 09:25 PM

I was recently doing room-to-room music in a convalescent hospital and a woman requested "What A Friend (We Have In Jesus)." I've known the song since I was the proverbial knee-high to a grasshopper, but much to my surprise, the second line ("All our sins and griefs to bear") came out
"All our skins and briefs to bare."

It was all I could do not to crack up as I tried to finish the song!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 02:32 AM

Being inclined to process information auditorily, I have found myself increasingly (as senility sets in) making verbal mistakes that reflect that propensity. E.g., I recently referred, in a conversation with my brother, to the "gunfight at the OK canal."
I did not notice the mistake, but my bro quickly picked up on it, to his great amusement.

Then recently when singing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic," I caught MYSELF singing "...He is trampling out the village where the grapes of wrath are stored..." .   Except that I didn't get to finish the line. On "village," I cracked up and couldn't sing for a line or two!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 09:48 AM

My husband was 30 before he realized the song "Love lift us up where we belong" was not actually "The LIP goes up where it belongs." When questioned on it, he admitted he'd always been perplexed by that lyric.
Also- he thought the song "Raspberry Beret" by The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (or whatever he calls himself these days) was "Raspberry Parade".

Beccy

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 02 Jul 05 - 01:18 PM

About a week ago I was doing a gig at a senior center in Lynnwood, WA, and I started to sing the song "Cuando Calienta El Sol (Aqui En La Playa)."   I was a little spacey that day (lack of sleep or something) and, anwway, when I got to to this part --
"Es tu palpitar,
Es tu cara,
Son tus besos,
Me estremezco, oh,oh,oh ... "*

I got my twongue tisted and instead of "me estremezco" (sung as "m'estremezco"), I sang "escremento."

I stifled a laugh at my mistake and said to the audience, between lines, "I hope none of you speak Spanish!" Whereupon a gentleman in the front row grinned, raised his hand, and said "I do!"

Now, mind you, I wasn't positive "escremento" is a real Spanish word.   (Turns out the Spanish version is spelled "excremento," though I'm pretty sure the Italians spell it with the "s.") But there are certain Latin-derived words that are pretty much recognizable in their permutations in all the Romance languages and sometimes even Northern European languages.   Words like "intelligenzia," "nature," and, um, well, ... you know. ;-)

Anyway, when this man said he understood and then gave a knowing laugh, I turned bright red and cracked up. The harder I tried to quit laughing, the less I was able to do it.   The auditory image of my trying to sing (translation) "It's your face, your skin, your kisses. I tremble," and singing "It's your face, your skin, your kisses. Shit!" instead -- well, that image kept popping into my head and I couldn't even remember the lyrics to the second verse!   I finally gave up, went on to another song (in English), and then did "Bèsame Mucho" later, instead.

I will probably never know how many people in the audience even noticed my initial mistake (and I probably should have just kept singing -- but it was just too funny!).   I think a lot of them, even without speaking Spanish, would have figured out what the word meant had they noticed it.

Anyway, what way to ruin a romantic moment in song!

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 03:10 AM

Of course, I may have an unconscious scatalogical bent (twist?) to my mind.
Occasionally, when I'm singing the traditional German Christmas song "O Tannenbaunm," the line
"Du grünst nicht nur zum sommerzeit
(You're green not only in summertime,)
Nein, auch im winter venn es schneit
(No, also in winter when it snows...),"

i slip and sing "scheit," instead of "schneit."

...

Oh, well ...

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 03:23 AM

'What are the worst lyric screwups you've'

Saying, "I do."

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Mark Ross
Date: 06 Jul 05 - 11:43 AM

"When the worker's inspiration through the Union's blood shall run."

At the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee Dinner at the Statler Hilton, with Victor Reuther and Mike Harrington present(they didn't get as upset as some of the union piecards though. I had a drink with Reuther later and got to listen to him tell stories of organizing in Detroit in the '30's).

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 06:31 PM

I was recently singing the song "I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy," from "South Pacific," and the line, "...and you will note there's a lump in my throat" came out as -- um -- well, let's just say the word "lump" came out sounding like I was maybe from Japan. ;)

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Puck
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 07:04 PM

I like Jon Hislop's 'The Last Fisherman'... a wonderful song written in the true folk tradition... but have trouble with the line which refers to the trawlers at enforced rest in the harbour due to fishing regulations, which says 'they sit on shifting sand'...[beautiful line tho' it is] always confuses me and now it can come out quite unintentionally as 'they shit on sifting sand' Sorry Jon.

P.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 08:47 PM

Aah wez tryin' te get me daughters (The Rock Chicks) te learn "Farewell To Tarwathie"

The last line of the forst vorse is ".....in hopes to find riches a-hunting the whale"

My eldest took months to get oot of the habit of singin' "... in hopes to find Richard Hunter, the whale"

She's gorrit noo and diz a canny job alang wi' some other trad classics

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 18 Mar 06 - 11:57 PM

"Richard Hunter" - cousin of 'Tab' Hunter?

:-)

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 20 Aug 06 - 12:34 AM

Oops, I did it again! Today.

Twice.

I was doing a sing-along at a rehab facility and we were doing the song "My Guy." Both times through the bridge, the line "My opinion is he's the cream of the crop" came out "... he's the queen of the crop."   The second time thru, though, I kind of caught it in time and sort of changed it "cream" in mid-stream.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but it does kind of paint "my guy" in a bit of a different light.

LOL

Genie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: terrier
Date: 21 Aug 06 - 12:57 PM

Heard at a shanty session singing Brave Benbow.
When the singer got to the line "Brave Benbow lost his legs by chainshot",it came out as
Brave Benbow lost his legs...BITING SHARKS...BITING SHAR..AR.ARKS.
Stuck in my memory ever since.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Greg B
Date: 21 Aug 06 - 02:15 PM

Once, when a music minister for a Campus Ministry
center, my #1 announced the next song.

It was to be 'What You Hear In the Dark' (you
must speak in the light).

Only she announced 'What You Do in the Dark.'

In the tittering silence that followed, I inquired
as to whether that was liturgical or country-western.

Just another day at Our Lady of St. Malaprop.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Nick
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 09:53 AM

I did hear someone in a pub once launch into 'Don't Cry for Me Oklahoma'

(I didn't stay to hear them do -
'Argentina, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain...')

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 09:57 AM

'Don't Cry for Me Oklahoma'

Hilary Clinon's 2008 unsuccessful end of campaign party song?

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 10:45 AM

Quote=Nick: "I did hear someone in a pub once launch into 'Don't Cry for Me Oklahoma'

(I didn't stay to hear them do -
'Argentina, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain'"

ROTFLMAO, Nick!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Greg B
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 10:55 AM

>'Don't Cry for Me Oklahoma'

>Hilary Clinon's 2008 unsuccessful end of campaign party song?

I believe that would be 'Arkansas.'

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 11:04 AM

Yeah, but "Don't cry for me, Arkansas, doesn't SCAN right."

I kind of like the sound of "Don't cry for me, Condoleezza."

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 08:08 PM

Don't play me your concertina?

Don T.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 08:28 PM

That's damn near a song challenge, Don...

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,margo
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 01:58 AM

hey,
Syren has a great story about "Farewell to Tarwathie" if she will see this maybe she'll post it.
Margo

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,catherine yronwode
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 02:03 AM

Like jimmyt of 03 Sep 02 i always hear the 5th Dimension line "you and me, endlessly" as "you and me and Leslie" and could not understand why they were singing about a menage a trois!

Mondagreens take their life from being shared among the cognescenti -
- and a pre-war acoustic rural blues mondagreen is pretty difficult to
share, as some of you can no doubt appreciate.

Well, anyway, i have been amused by my own little acoustic rural pre-
war blues mondagreen for many years now.

The song is by Mattie Delaney and it is about the 1920s flood on the Tallahatchie River:

. Tallatchie River rising, Lord it's mighty bad
. Tallatchie River rising, Lord it's mighty bad
. Some people on Tallahatchie done lost everything they had

I really do know the proper lyrics, but whenever i am not paying
attention, i always hear it startlingly wrong and have a good laugh.

. Tallatchie River rising, Lord it's mighty bad
. Tallatchie River rising, Lord it's mighty bad
. Some peoples on bad acid done lost everything they had

The weird thing is that now my husband has started hearing it as "bad acid" too. It's a *contagious* mondegeen.

cat yronwode

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 05:18 AM

"Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Foolestroupe - PM
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 08:28 PM

That's damn near a song challenge, Don..."



Already done, I'm afraid. It's one of Les Barker's song parodies.

I wish I had thought of it first.

Don T.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 08:44 AM

So do I Don, so do I...

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Cat Feral
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 10:26 PM

When I was a child, my parents had several Tom Lehrer(sp?) albums, one of which included the great World War Three battle song, "So Long, Mom!"

This song contains the line, "Remember Mommie, I'm off to get a Commie!"

It took me YEARS to realize that "Getacomi" was not a little county somewhere in South East Asia!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Snuffy
Date: 21 Oct 06 - 05:09 AM

Was the main port of Getacomi called Sinomor? Lots of sailors sang about going there!

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Brian Peters
Date: 21 Oct 06 - 08:55 AM

Not really a Mondegreen, but for a really poor attempt to extricate the singer from a forgotten-lyrics crisis, I nominate Pete, then lead singer of Rigid Fish, a fairly incompetent rock band I formed with some university friends. Amidst our standard fare of Groundhogs and Status Quo covers we performed (for reasons that remain puzzling) 'King Henry' as recorded by Steeleye Span. Somewhere in my archive there is exists a recording proving that Pete, in place of the line: 'In there came a grizzly ghost, stamping on the floor', actually sang: 'In there came a thingy thing, wanking on the stairs'.

Ah, the power of those old Child Ballads....

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: JennyO
Date: 21 Oct 06 - 09:10 AM

Was the main port of Getacomi called Sinomor? Lots of sailors sang about going there!

Sinomor? Wasn't that somewhere near Dothoulikewise?

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Oct 06 - 09:13 AM

ROFL...

wasn't a cousin of Sodoff Baldric, was her?

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 21 Oct 06 - 08:07 PM

I once started singing the Rose with "some say love is like a flower". Nowhere to go except rewind back to the beginning....

Kitty

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: eddie1
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 06:29 AM

A five-year-old, approaching his first Christmas at school, told me proudly he had learnt a song called "Three Wee Kings"!
The title seemed appropriate somehow.

Eddie

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Darowyn
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 12:08 PM

It's wierd sometimes how a lyric screw-up stands out in your imagination as you start the song, and seems to lure you into it.
I wrote a song about the strange people that there are in the folkie scene- you know, authentic traddies, singer songwriters, dialect poets, morris dancers etc. and a group that at the time were called "New age travelers"
The line in question goes:-
"If I were a little bit younger, I'd be a New age travelling man,
With a dog on a string and a didgeridoo, and a tired old Transit van"
Somwhere the image crept into my mind of a dog on a stick- a canine lollipop.
I started the song thinking "Don't sing stick, don't sing stick,"
But I did!
It got a laugh though!
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 12:18 PM

It might have been OK if I'd sung the cryptic crossword version (some say love is like a flo-er)?

Kitty

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: GUEST,Trev
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 03:21 PM

As a kid (and for years after) i always thought Virgil Kane took his train to Richmond La Fell (according to Joan Baez). Years later I realised it was actually "Richmond, which fell" (itsef a mangling of RR's lyric, "By may the tenth Richmond had fell"

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Darowyn
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 06:36 PM

I think that there's a Joan Baez screw-up on "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" as well.
She sings :-
"'Till so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again"
Historically it should be:-
"Till Stoneman's cavalry came" - i.e. Stonewall Jackson.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Oct 06 - 07:13 PM

Darowyn

It's the old "don't mention the war" syndrome...

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: mustradclub
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 05:12 AM

Theres an Irish song Peta and I used to sing which contains the line.

"She smiles on my countenance as she sits on my knee"

Now you have to be very careful to get the smiles and the sits the right way round or the song becomes positively pornographic.


Ken Hall

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: slowerairs
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 06:21 PM

A friend of mine who sang regularily at folk clubs in the North East

of England, refused to sing the Stan Rogers song, The Lock keeper,

having on one occasion, sung the words * Her thighs catch on your

shoulder* instead of   *Her sighs catch on your shoulder*

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 06:44 PM

There's the story about the singer trying to sing

"Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
I've gotta love one man till I die".

and instead she started with
"Fish gotta fly and birds gotta swim........."

not sure where it went after that.

Subject: RE: What are the worst lyric screwups you've
From: Genie
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 06:56 PM

I have a similar problem with Puff, The Magic Dragon.   

The line "Painted wings and giants' rings" usually comes out
"Painted rings ..." before I realize I've messed up the (plausible) first part and sort of painted myself into the corner of having to finish with "... and giants' wings."