Sylvia
Wright was wrong in thinking that a double homicide had occurred.
The “Lady Mondegreen” was a projection of her
romantic imagination, for the last line in fact was not “Lady
Mondegreen” but “laid him on the green.”
Children
are particularly prone to this type of mistake, where an unfamiliar
word or phrase is changed into something more familiar . This
process has created some memorable “religious”
personages such as “Round John Virgin” (instead
of “round yon Virgin”); “Harold be thy name”
(instead of “hallowed be thy name.” And “Gladly,
the cross-eyed bear” (instead of “Gladly, the
cross I’d bear”).
Many a familiar phrase has been mondegreened. A “dog
eat dog” world has been rendered as a “doggy dog
world;” “for all intents and purposes” has
become “for all intensive purposes;” “duct
tape” has turned into “duck tape;” and “no
holds barred” has been phrased as “no holes barred.”
The
majority of mondegreens seems to occur in the lyrics of songs.
William Safire years ago cited an American grandmother who
interpreted the Beatles’ lyric “the girl with
kaleidoscope eyes” as “the girl with colitis goes
by.” The lyric “Excuse me while I kiss the sky”
from Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze was interpreted by some
as “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.” Hendrix
was aware of this misinterpretation and sometimes during a
performance he would help perpetuate the misunderstanding
by kissing a male associate after saying the line.
The
obscure lyrics and indistinct pronunciation of many songs
facilitates misinterpretations. On a website dedicated to
misheard lyrics, I noticed that in Sarah McLachlan’s
“Building a Mystery,” her lyric “you strut
your rasta wear and a suicide poem” was interpreted
as “you stretched your ass to where in a suicide home.”
In the Aerosmith song “Dude Looks Like a Lady,”
the titled lyric is somewhat squealed. I always thought the
line was “Do the funky lady.” This website confirmed
that I was not the only confused listener. Others had misheard
this line as “Do the shockalayley,” “Do
the rock-a lady” and “Doodoos like a lady.”
Some
song lyrics are almost impossible to decipher. I suspect few
people know that the lyric that follows “Willie and
the Poor Boys are Playin’ (by Credence Clearwater Revival)
is “bring a nickel tap your feet.” Small wonder
that someone at this website reported hearing the lyric as
“singing pickles can’t be beat.” Also misinterpreted
by this musical group is the lyric “there’s a
bad moon on the rise” which has been heard as “There’s
a bathroom on the right.” Unilingual troglodytes claim
to have heard the Beatles’ “Michelle, ma belle,
sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble, très
bien ensemble” as “Michelle, my bell, some day
monkey play piano song, play piano song.”
Some
mishearings are somewhat incredible. Dylan’s line, “the
answer my friend,” in Blowin’ in the Wind has
apparently been interpreted entomologically as “the
ants are my friends.” A Crystal Gayle song years ago
was heard as “Doughnuts Make Your Brown Eyes Blue”
and at the aforementioned website somebody claims to have
heard the lyric from Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the
Wall, “no dark sarcasm in the classroom” as “no
Dukes of Hazzard in the classroom.”
Stephen
Pinker in The Language Instinct says that the “interesting
thing about mondegreens is that the mis-hearings are generally
less plausible than the intended lyrics. He relates the anecdote
of a student who heard the Shocking Blue song “I’m
Your Venus” as “I’m your penis” and
thus was amazed that it wasn’t censored.
For
more of Howard Richler at Arts & Opinion:
As
You Like It.
Can
I Have a Word With You
The Significant Other Conundrum
Yinnglish-Schminglish
The
Oxfordization of Poutine
