Mondegreen thread - that is, songs or poems with misheard lyrics

[Pabo]

I have started up this thread, as many may have listened to songs and at times they may have misheard, misinterpreted or heard someone else singing the wrong lines to a song. These are referenced by being called "Mondegreen" which was first termed back in 1954 where an author to a article recalled a peom that was written way before her time, where the poem had the lines that were the following:

 

Ye Highland and Ye Lowlands

Oh where have you been?

They have slain the Earl o'Moray

And laid him on the green

 

However, the author recalls that the last line of that poem that she thought she heard as a child was "And Lady Mondegreen". Thus, the term of "Mondegreen" came into being. For most of the time, it can be hilarious to hear some for the first time, or quiet perplexing on how that came up with that line when it absolutely makes no sense at all.

 

I have put down some examples of songs that I have heard people singing are as follows:

 

Cheap wine and a three legged goat - "Cheap Wine" by Cold Chisel. Correct lyric -> Cheap wine and a three day growth

 

Pickin' up the pizza's up off the floor - "Cry in Shame" by Johnny Diesel and the Injectors. Correct Lyric -> Pickin' up the pieces up off the floor

 

There's a wino down the road - "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zepplin - Correct lyric -> And as we wind on down the road

 

So can you guess what songs the below examples originally are from:

 

1 - There's a bathroom on the right

 

2 - The girl with colitis goes by

 

3 - We didn't start the fire, it was always burning, said the worst attorney

 

4 - You're the wobbly one

 

5 - See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen

 

6 - The ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind

 

7 - I've got two chickens to paralyze

 

8 - You've been outright offensive, for so long now

 

9 - Hold me closer Tony Danza

 

10 - Saving his life from this warm sausage tea

 

If you know any other Mondegreen's, please post them as well. If you can think of any Kingdom songs that have been deemed as Mondegreens, add these too.

Edited January 17 by Pabo

[Qapla]

I got heartaches in my pocket, I got pickles in my head

 

"A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" by Dwight Yoakam.

 

Correct lyric -> I got heartaches in my pocket, I got echos in my head

 

 

 

 

[Qapla]

As for Kingdom Songs - from the 1984 songbook

 

Myriads on myriads of brothers, All clad in Raymond White

 

"Myriads of Brothers" Song 127 (1984)

 

Correct lyric - Myriads on myriads of brothers, All clad in raiment white
 

Two additional things about this song:

1. In our current songbook the lyrics have been adjusted to say "Myriads on myriads of brothers, We preach both far and near"
2. I feel sorry for those poor brothers on the bottom of that pile "Myriads on myriads of brothers"

 

 

[Doug]

 

Kingdom song  -  Keep your eyes on the fries.

 

What's the line Elton John sings in Rocket Man?    The one that no one can understand?

[Tsheppar]

1990s. Allanis Morrisette song head over feet ...There is a line I always sang as "Best Friend within a Fence ". Like her dog or something. Wasn't till years later with Internet I could look up lyrics and was like Ohhhhhh...

 

Line is actually " Best Friend with Benefits"

[Tsheppar]

2 hours ago, Pabo said:

- I've got two chickens to paralyze

Ohhh my word Im dyin ! 🤣Ive got "Two tickets to Paradise"!

 

Im laughing so hard. Im gonna start singing it this way. 

[Dustparticle]

I come to recognize that words can sound like one way when play forwards and opposite the other way when backwards. Its syllables can be less or more and it can distort how people hear the words.

[Pikachu]

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Have You Ever Seen the Rain

The answer to #1 - Bad Moon Rising also by Creedence Clearwater Revival

[Tortuga]

Guantanamera = One Ton Tomato

[Pabo]

3 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Guantanamera = One Ton Tomato

 

We had a advertisement for a vehicle which was a Holden Rodeo, and they had that song as "One Tonne Rodeo"

 

https://youtu.be/2I0ZR0ugJEo?feature=shared

[tekmantwo]

'One Toke over the Line' by Brewer and Shipley

 

A Sister we knew* used to sing this as 'one toe over the line'... 

 

She was a little bit embarrassed when I told her the actual words.... 

 

*Sister Egbert, we had book study at their house in the 70's...

[Pabo]

6 hours ago, Pikachu said:

The answer to #1 - Bad Moon Rising also by Creedence Clearwater Revival

 

18 hours ago, Pabo said:

1 - There's a bathroom on the right

 

Correct! 👍

 

Correct Lyric - There's a bad moon on the rise

[Tortuga]

40 minutes ago, tekmantwo said:

Sister Egbert, we had book study at their house in the 70's...

Georgia Ingels, with the little blue MG?

Edited January 17 by Tortuga

[Doug]

18 hours ago, Doug said:

 

What's the line Elton John sings in Rocket Man?    The one that no one can understand?

 

Ah  .   .   ask the google machine   .    .     "Burning out his fuse up here alone"

[Sheep]

Misheard song lyrics have been discussed for a long time. There's a website for it, entitled "Kiss this guy," from a line in the Jimi Hendrix song Purple Haze: "Scuse me while I kiss the sky."

 

https://www.kissthisguy.com/

Edited January 18 by Sheep

[Sheep]

On 1/16/2024 at 11:55 PM, Doug said:

What's the line Elton John sings in Rocket Man?    The one that no one can understand?

I'm not sure which line you're referring to… But try this one:

 

https://www.kissthisguy.com/search_results.php?SearchType=Genre&SearchType=Artist&SearchType=Song&SearchType=Lyric&SearchType=Misheard&SearchAccuracy=contains&SearchTerm=rocket+man&findThoseLyrics=Search!

[Pabo]

I remembered about Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" with the line "I remember when Iraq was young". However when Desert Storm was happening, I had came up with the parody verse:

 

I remember when Iraq was young
George Bush had so much fun
Holding guns and launching bombs
Had an Abrams tank and a bomb of his own
But the biggest thrill he ever got
Was doing a thing called the Desert Storm Rock
While Tony Blair was dancing 'round the clock
George was launching and stomping to the Desert Storm Rock

Edited January 18 by Pabo

[Friends just call me Ross]

On 1/16/2024 at 11:55 PM, Doug said:

 

Kingdom song  -  Keep your eyes on the fries.

 

What's the line Elton John sings in Rocket Man?    The one that no one can understand?

Be more specific.  That one has multiple Mondegreens for me.

 

"And I think it's gonna be a long, long game.  Two touchdowns brings me 'round to get two fines." 😂

 

"Rocket Man burning up my shoes.  My hair's too long."  😂🤣😂

 

When listening to The BeeGees' "I've Gotta Get a Message to You",  my husband thinks they're singing,

"The creature walked with me and he smiled."   🤣🤣

[tekmantwo]

On 1/17/2024 at 1:55 PM, Tortuga said:

Georgia Ingels, with the little blue MG?

Egburt Mertenzerburg(?)wife..cant remember her name...

 

Dont recall a blue MG..But the name sounds familiar.....

[davanz]

On a related note, I found this short film clip to be interesting, and probably true.

 

Edited February 1 by davanz
to correct attachment

[Qapla]

BTW - in case you wondered why they are not Mondeblues, Mondereds, Mondeyellows or any other color of Monde's

 

Etymology
In a 1954 essay in Harper's Magazine, Sylvia Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the last line of the first stanza from the seventeenth-century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O' Moray". She wrote: When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:

 

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl o' Moray,

And Lady Mondegreen.

 

The correct fourth line is, "And laid him on the green".

 

Wright explained the need for a new term: The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original

[notporkman]

On 1/17/2024 at 9:23 AM, Pikachu said:

The answer to #1 - Bad Moon Rising also by Creedence Clearwater Revival

My late brother-in-law, a 'pore ole country boy'* (saying, "I caint afford no record mchine"**), loved that song. Having heard it only on the radio, he sang:

 

I see the bamboo risin'
I see trouble on 'er way
I see earthquakes a'lightin'
I see the bamboo on the way

 

(correct lyrics)

I see the bad moon a-risin'
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today

 

 

 

* not meaning any disrespect to poor people (I was raised "pore" too)

** Both he and I have the same mother tongue: rural southern English. However, I've learned to communicate mostly "proper English," thereby becoming biligual.😉

[notporkman]

I remember vividly a phrase from an old gospel song, My parents weren't JWs, and my dad was an oilfield roughneck in the early 1950s in South Louisiana. Following the jobs, the oil rig on which he worked was taken down and set up again every 3-6 weeks, so we lived in a trailer most of the 1950s.

 

Traveling mostly at night I'd fall asleep in the car, sometimes to that tune playing on the radio. An idea stands out in my memory from back then: a beautiful valley where peope were picking peas. In rural North Louisiana, where I'm from, gardens with pea vines or bushes were common as well as pea patches if there an elderly person could care for little more than a small patch. Here's what I heard as I fell asleep picking peas in the valley:

 

PEAS in the Valley

 

Oh well, I'm tired and so weary
But I must go alone
'Til the Lord comes and calls
Calls me away, oh yes

Well, the morning's so bright
And the lamp is alight
And the night
Night is as black as the sea, oh yes

There will be PEAS in the valley for me, some day
There will be PEAS in the valley for me, oh Lord I pray
There'll be no sadness, no sorrow
No trouble, trouble I see
There will be PEAS in the valley for me

Well the bear will be gentle
And the wolves will be tame
And the lion shall lay down
By the lamb, oh yes

And the beasts from the wild
Shall be lit by a child
And I'll be changed
Changed from this creature that I am, oh yes

There will be PEAS in the valley for me, some day
There will be PEAS in the valley for me, oh Lord I pray
There'll be no sadness, no sorrow
Oh my Lord, no trouble, trouble I see
There will be PEAS in the valley for me, for me

[Mike047]

The game of Chinese Whispers has often been allied with mondegreens.

[notporkman]

i've never heard of Chinese Whispers..well, I hadn't heard of Mondegreen either. I simply stumbled across this thread, examined, and my interest was piqued.