I first heard the term “mondegreen” when watching Australian TV music quiz show “Spicks and Specks”. A mondegreen is…
a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near-homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense. American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing about how as a girl she had misheard the lyric “…and laid him on the green” in a Scottish ballad as “…and Lady Mondegreen” (Wikipedia).
I’m very guilty of mondegreens. Lyrics and I don’t have a great relationship. For years I belted out the Bangles “Just another man in Monday” (just another manic Monday) and mangled iconic Men At Work’s Down Under singing “Where rhythm’s flow and men plunder” (Where women glow and men plunder). I won’t embarrass myself further. Instead, below is a compilation of mondegreens.
What mondegreens will you confess to?
August 4, 2017 at 7:30 am
These were all great! Another one for “Bad Moon Rising” is “There’s a bathroom on the right.”
August 4, 2017 at 8:12 am
I can totally hear that one, John. Sadly, I probably can’t unhear it either and will forever more think of the bathroom when I listen to the song *grin*.