Misheard Lyrics

Bigylittle

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I know this thread is from 2008, but why start a new one when one already exists...
.
I've just discovered for the last 25ish years I've had the wrong lyrics in my head for Jimmy Hendrix - Purple Haze, I thought he was singing...
'scuse me while I kiss this guy!
When it's actually... 'scuse me while I kiss the sky :rolleyes:
 
Jay and the Americans' Only In America, has these chorus lyrics:

Only in America
Land of Opportunity, Yeah
would a classy girl like you fall for a poor boy like me.

My little nephew heard it this way:

Only in America.
Land of all the tuna fish....

None of us had the heart to correct him.

Bluesy.
 
Linkin Park - Bleed It Out... I know one of the lyrics is 'just to throw it away', but even since lead singer Chester Bennington took his own life, all I hear is 'Chester throw it away'
RIP Chester, still sadly missed.
 
For years when I was a teenager I thought I'm Your Venus by Shocking Blue said something else and wondered why they could play that on the radio.
 
There is a name for this, BTW: (sorry, couldn't help my self!) :devilish:

From Wikipedia:

A mondegreen (/ˈmɒndɪˌɡriːn/) is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning.[1] Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.[2][3] The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, recalling a childhood memory of her mother reading the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (from Thomas Percy's 1765 book Reliques of Ancient English Poetry), and mishearing the words "layd him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen".[4]

"Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, and in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008.

Anyway... continue on... these can be super funny!
 
On the Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy LP, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band sang some lines in Jerry Jeff's Mr. Bojangles as:

"He looked to me to be the eyes of age
As the smoke ran out"

Jerry Jeff actually wrote:

"He looked to me to be the eyes of age
And he spoke right out"

Maggie and I saw them in Peterborough about a decade ago and they had corrected their mondegreen.

What do you think is the most famous mondegreen? My vote goes to "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy." This seems to be the first one people come up with when talking about misheard lyrics, probably with hearing "The girl with colitis goes by," when The Beatles sang "The girl with kaleidoscope eyes" coming in a close second.

There was even a book of mondegreens called "Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy"
Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy book.jpg

Q - Where did the term "mondegreen" come from?
A - The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, recalling a childhood memory of her mother reading the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (from Thomas Percy's 1765 book Reliques of Ancient English Poetry), and mishearing the words "layd him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen". (from Wikipedia)
mondegreen.jpg
 
And while I was composing my last post, bbkobabe beat me to the origin of the word "modegreen". This thread has been going since Apr 26, 2008, and he beat me by 18 minutes. What are the chances?
Did it really take you that long to compose your post?! I know im slow sometimes and it takes me 10 minutes or so... but over 14 years!? :rolleyes:
 
There is a name for this, BTW: (sorry, couldn't help my self!) :devilish:

From Wikipedia:

A mondegreen (/ˈmɒndɪˌɡriːn/) is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning.[1] Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.[2][3] The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, recalling a childhood memory of her mother reading the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray" (from Thomas Percy's 1765 book Reliques of Ancient English Poetry), and mishearing the words "layd him on the green" as "Lady Mondegreen".[4]

"Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, and in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008.

Anyway... continue on... these can be super funny!
Is there a name for when you read something wrongly?
bbko babe? bbkob abe? spellcheck approves of bb ko babe
 
Did it really take you that long to compose your post?! I know im slow sometimes and it takes me 10 minutes or so... but over 14 years!? :rolleyes:
I said he beat me by 18 minutes. The thread about misheard lyrics went 14 years before anyone mentioned mondegeens, then two peoplein 18 minutes introduced the term to the discussion.
 
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