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"Knowledge is power, France is Bacon".
:large
https://twitter.com/rickburin/status/563081268796358657
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
-CCR. 
There's a term for mis-hearing lyrics (and I suppose the same thing could be said about quotes)
Mondegreen
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.[1][2] American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen", published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954. The term was inspired by "...and Lady Mondegreen," a misinterpretation of the line "and laid him on the green," from the Scottish ballad "The Bonnie Earl o Moray."[3]
"Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008.[4][5] The phenomenon is not limited to English, with examples cited by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,[6] in the Hebrew song "Háva Nagíla" ("Let's Be Happy" ,[7] and in Bollywood movies.[8]
</snip>
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.[1][2] American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen", published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954. The term was inspired by "...and Lady Mondegreen," a misinterpretation of the line "and laid him on the green," from the Scottish ballad "The Bonnie Earl o Moray."[3]
"Mondegreen" was included in the 2000 edition of the Random House Webster's College Dictionary. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary added the word in 2008.[4][5] The phenomenon is not limited to English, with examples cited by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,[6] in the Hebrew song "Háva Nagíla" ("Let's Be Happy"
,[7] and in Bollywood movies.[8]
</snip>
...and common Mondegreens in popular music:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen#In_songs
In songs[edit]
The top three mondegreens submitted regularly to mondegreen expert Jon Carroll are:
[1]
Gladly, the cross-eyed bear[3] (from the line in the hymn "Keep Thou My Way" by Fanny Crosby and Theodore E. Perkins, "Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I'll bear" [17] Carroll and many others quote it as "Gladly the cross I'd bear."
There's a bathroom on the right (the line at the end of each verse of "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival: "There's a bad moon on the rise"
'Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" .
Both Creedence's John Fogerty and Hendrix eventually acknowledged these mishearings by deliberately singing the "mondegreen" versions of their songs in concert.[18][19][20]
Likewise, on the video for the 2000 Zoom concert with a re-formed Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne on the song "Showdown" sings "It's a real submarine,"' a common mishearing of his original lyrics "It's unreal suffering."
The 1963 song "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen, was so difficult to understand, because of how poorly the Kingsmen's version of it was recorded, that many people suspected the song contained obscene lyrics. The FBI was asked to investigate whether or not those involved with the song violated laws against the interstate transportation of obscene material. The most notable misinterpretation of the lyrics presented by the parent who sent the complaint can be found in the verse "Me see Jamaica moon above; / It won't be long me see me love. / Me take her in my arms and then / I tell her I never leave again."[21] which was misheard as "She had a rag on, she moved above. / It won't be long, she'll slip it off. / I held her in my arms and then, / and I told her I'd rather lay her again." No lyrics were ever officially published for the song, and after two years of investigation, the FBI concluded that the lyrics were unintelligible.[22]
Rap and hip hop lyrics may be particularly susceptible to being misheard because they do not necessarily follow standard American pronunciations. The delivery of rap lyrics relies heavily upon an often regional pronunciation or non-traditional accenting of words and their phonemes to adhere to the artist's stylizations and the lyrics's written structure. This issue is exemplified in controversies over alleged transcription errors in Yale University Press's 2010 Anthology of Rap.[23]
"Blinded by the Light", a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, contains what has been called "probably the most misheard lyric of all time."[24] The phrase "revved up like a deuce" (altered from Springsteen's original "cut loose like a deuce", both lyrics referring to the hot rodders slang for a 1932 Ford coupé) is frequently misheard as "wrapped up like a douche".[24][25] Springsteen himself has joked about the phenomenon, claiming that it was not until Manfred Mann rewrote the song to be about a "feminine hygiene product" that the song became popular.[26]
Sometimes, the modified version of a lyric becomes standard, as is the case with "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The original has "four colly birds"[27] (colly means black); sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, these became calling birds, which is the lyric used in the 1909 Frederic Austin version.
A number of misheard lyrics have been recorded, turning a mondegreen into a real title. They include:
The title of the animated Christmas show Olive, the Other Reindeer is a mondegreen on "all of the other reindeer," a line from the classic Christmas song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
The song "Sea Lion Woman", recorded in 1939 by Christine and Katherine Shipp, was performed by Nina Simone under the title "See Line Woman" and later by Feist as "Sealion". According to the liner notes from the compilation A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings, the actual title of this playground song might also be "See [the] Lyin' Woman" or "C-Line Woman".[28]
Jack Lawrence's misinterpretation of the French phrase "pauvre Jean" ("poor John" as the identically pronounced "pauvres gens" ("poor people" led to the translation of La goualante du pauvre Jean ("The Ballad of Poor John" as "The Poor People of Paris", which in no way hindered it from becoming a major hit in 1956.[29]
In songs[edit]
The top three mondegreens submitted regularly to mondegreen expert Jon Carroll are:
[1]
Gladly, the cross-eyed bear[3] (from the line in the hymn "Keep Thou My Way" by Fanny Crosby and Theodore E. Perkins, "Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I'll bear"
[17] Carroll and many others quote it as "Gladly the cross I'd bear."
There's a bathroom on the right (the line at the end of each verse of "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival: "There's a bad moon on the rise"
'Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky"
.
Both Creedence's John Fogerty and Hendrix eventually acknowledged these mishearings by deliberately singing the "mondegreen" versions of their songs in concert.[18][19][20]
Likewise, on the video for the 2000 Zoom concert with a re-formed Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne on the song "Showdown" sings "It's a real submarine,"' a common mishearing of his original lyrics "It's unreal suffering."
The 1963 song "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen, was so difficult to understand, because of how poorly the Kingsmen's version of it was recorded, that many people suspected the song contained obscene lyrics. The FBI was asked to investigate whether or not those involved with the song violated laws against the interstate transportation of obscene material. The most notable misinterpretation of the lyrics presented by the parent who sent the complaint can be found in the verse "Me see Jamaica moon above; / It won't be long me see me love. / Me take her in my arms and then / I tell her I never leave again."[21] which was misheard as "She had a rag on, she moved above. / It won't be long, she'll slip it off. / I held her in my arms and then, / and I told her I'd rather lay her again." No lyrics were ever officially published for the song, and after two years of investigation, the FBI concluded that the lyrics were unintelligible.[22]
Rap and hip hop lyrics may be particularly susceptible to being misheard because they do not necessarily follow standard American pronunciations. The delivery of rap lyrics relies heavily upon an often regional pronunciation or non-traditional accenting of words and their phonemes to adhere to the artist's stylizations and the lyrics's written structure. This issue is exemplified in controversies over alleged transcription errors in Yale University Press's 2010 Anthology of Rap.[23]
"Blinded by the Light", a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, contains what has been called "probably the most misheard lyric of all time."[24] The phrase "revved up like a deuce" (altered from Springsteen's original "cut loose like a deuce", both lyrics referring to the hot rodders slang for a 1932 Ford coupé) is frequently misheard as "wrapped up like a douche".[24][25] Springsteen himself has joked about the phenomenon, claiming that it was not until Manfred Mann rewrote the song to be about a "feminine hygiene product" that the song became popular.[26]
Sometimes, the modified version of a lyric becomes standard, as is the case with "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The original has "four colly birds"[27] (colly means black); sometime around the turn of the twentieth century, these became calling birds, which is the lyric used in the 1909 Frederic Austin version.
A number of misheard lyrics have been recorded, turning a mondegreen into a real title. They include:
The title of the animated Christmas show Olive, the Other Reindeer is a mondegreen on "all of the other reindeer," a line from the classic Christmas song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
The song "Sea Lion Woman", recorded in 1939 by Christine and Katherine Shipp, was performed by Nina Simone under the title "See Line Woman" and later by Feist as "Sealion". According to the liner notes from the compilation A Treasury of Library of Congress Field Recordings, the actual title of this playground song might also be "See [the] Lyin' Woman" or "C-Line Woman".[28]
Jack Lawrence's misinterpretation of the French phrase "pauvre Jean" ("poor John"
as the identically pronounced "pauvres gens" ("poor people" led to the translation of La goualante du pauvre Jean ("The Ballad of Poor John" as "The Poor People of Paris", which in no way hindered it from becoming a major hit in 1956.[29]
was
Vote for the man throwing nickels at your feet.
I was rather surprised that the radio warned us to look out for "black guys on the road". I had heard about the racism in the US but was nevertheless shocked by such a blatant example from a respectable radio station.
It took a few days before I realised they were talking about "black ice" instead. Duh! 
