Ready for more Friday night levity? Welcome to the world of mondegreens. Remember that song from when you were a kid -- the one where you had part of the lyrics wrong for years? The one where you'd rather not remember the embarrassment of discovering your mistake?
For me, that song was Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising." The line, of course, was (I thought) "There's a bathroom on the right." Well, actually, it was "There's a bad moon on the rise," and even after I learned the truth I felt that my version would have been a lot more useful for people attending, say, an open-air concert on the Mall in D.C. What's your favorite? Follow me across the jump, and then come on - fess up.
What's your favorite? Did you think Mick Jagger promised, "I'll never leave your pizza burnin'?" ("I'll never be your beast of burden") Did you think that the Rascals song "Groovin'" was about a
ménage a trois: "You and me and Leslie?" ("You and me endlessly")
Turns out that people mis-hear song lyrics and other phrases so often that the mistake has a name. It's called a "mondegreen," from an article in the Atlantic Monthly in 1954. Gavin Edwards explains:
The term "mondegreen" was coined by Sylvia Wright in a 1954 Atlantic article. As a child, young Sylvia had listened to a folk song that included the lines "They had slain the Earl of Moray/And Lady Mondegreen." As is customary with misheard lyrics, she didn't realize her mistake for years. The song was not about the tragic fate of Lady Mondegreen, but rather, the continuing plight of the good earl: "They had slain the Earl of Moray/And laid him on the green."
Mondegreens are all over that place. Mostly in songs, but also in titles, rote prayers - even the Pledge of Allegiance ("I led the pigeons to the flag...") By now you've probably figured out that the old hymn isn't the Wisconsin state song, "What a friend we have in cheeses." But you never really know whether or not you're still carrying a few mondegreens around. Can you be sure that Pink Floyd wasn't actually singing "We don't need no education/We don't need no thought control/No ducks or hazards in the classroom...?" In the Bush/Cheney era, these alternate lyrics might be better anyway.
So what's yours? Come on, you can tell us...