Mondegreens

[ggould]

we have recently started playing this song at our Laguna Honda gig, and suddenly one morning recently, in a half-dream state, I thought "Where's the Masked Marauder verse?"  It seems that all these years, I've been casually hearing this verse:

And at night the stars they put on a show for free

and I heard:

And like the Masked Marauder shows for free

pretty weird.  It never occurred to me while we were rehearsing it.  Kind of like my dream world coming into contact with my waking world

[RGMike]

Was in Starbucks this morning, they were playing a reggae CD that included a cover of Smokey's "I Second That Emotion", and as reggae covers often do, it had mangled lyrics: "only for one night with no repeat" became "only someone nice who won't repeat". 

Which makes it a rasta-mon-degreen, I guess

[mshray]

A significant portion of John Murrell of the Merc's  Good Morning Silicon Valley blog today was about the word "mondegreen" finally making it into Merriam-Webster's (including the etymology of the term, which I'd somehow never heard).

Please join me in a chorus of "Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear":  OK, it's a ways off topic, with only the most tenuous of tech angles, but GMSV has a soft spot for the English language, and when new words and phrases are granted the equivalent of full citizenship by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, we like to welcome them aboard. Freshly stamped with legitimacy this year are more than 100 new entries, chosen from tens of thousands for their broad and frequent use. Among them are signs of the times -- "dirty bomb," "air quotes," "subprime" and "wing nut" -- along with some you'd think would have made the cut earlier, like "edamame" and "Texas Hold 'em." The tech world's contributions this year include "fanboy," "malware," "netroots," "Webinar" and, thanks to HP, "pretexting." John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president and publisher, got a tad effusive in his praise for the creators of tech jargon, saying, "There's a kind of collective genius on the part of the people developing this technology, using vocabulary that is immediately accessible to all of us. It's sometimes absolutely poetic." Obviously, "immediately accessible" does not apply to Web 2.0 company names.

My favorite entry, however, has to be "mondegreen." The word may be strange, though it's been in use for more than 50 years, but the concept is familiar to anyone who ever thought Hendrix was singing "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy" in "Purple Haze." A mondegreen is like a malapropism in reverse -- words mistaken for other words, most often in phrases and lyrics. The word is derived from one writer's confusion over the words of a Scottish ballad -- hearing the line "they had slain the Earl of Moray and had laid him on the green," she felt bad for poor "Lady Mondegreen." Mondegreen was a favorite of the Merriam-Webster folks as well, so much so that they're asking the public to submit their favorites by July 25 for public enjoyment. This could give the word a bump in popularity, but we all need to our part for this newbie noun -- see if you can work it into conversation soon.

more on the inclusion: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/merriam-webster-honors-lyrically-misunderstood-lady-mondegreen,458182.shtml

submissions wanted: http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords08.htm

[Lightnin' Rod]

A voter's only Mondegreen treat from Jon Carrol today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/11/04/DD5A13S12M.DTL

[RGMike]

A voter's only Mondegreen treat from Jon Carrol today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/11/04/DD5A13S12M.DTL

Finally! I'm not alone on EJ's "electric boobs"!

[princessofcairo]

A voter's only Mondegreen treat from Jon Carrol today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/11/04/DD5A13S12M.DTL

Finally! I'm not alone on EJ's "electric boobs"!

i always sing that, too!

but, really - what is lowell singing?

[ggould]

A voter's only Mondegreen treat from Jon Carrol today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/11/04/DD5A13S12M.DTL

love it:

Take a ribbon from your hair, shake a goose and let it fall, just call me angel of the morning, angel; just brush my teeth before you leave

[RGMike]

A voter's only Mondegreen treat from Jon Carrol today:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/11/04/DD5A13S12M.DTL

Finally! I'm not alone on EJ's "electric boobs"!

i always sing that, too!

but, really - what is lowell singing?

"weed, whites (as in amphetamines) and wine".

[Wayback]

A voter's only Mondegreen treat from Jon Carroll today:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2008/11/04/DD5A13S12M.DTL

During the opening number of the "Experience Hendrix" all-star concert Monday night, "Purple Haze", guitarist Eric Gales purposely sang one of the best known mondegreens, "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy," pointing to bassist Billy Cox, who had actually been in Hendrix' band. 

[ggould]

My daughter and I both used to think the song went:

"I got down on my knees, and began to pray"

When it's supposed to be:


"I got down on my knees, and pretend to pray"

It never dawned on me that the singer was pretending, so the preacher would let him stay in the warm church.  Well, maybe it half-occurred, since it says "You know the preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm gonna stay"  but I never heard the word 'pretend'

And I've been listening to this song for almost 40 years!

Don't worry, 90% of karaoke artists and cabaret pianists sing it as "began."  The lyric makes sense either way -- either he's faking it just so he can stay warm, or he's really praying for a way out (which makes the preacher, who likes the cold, a symbol of what he wants to escape).

and now, in a strange twist, Gaz has posted a link to a Carpenter's video over in Facebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpMkMmGkTE
Karen is clearly singing "began to pray!"

Will the real Mondegreen please stand up?
 

[Tinka Cat]

My daughter and I both used to think the song went:

"I got down on my knees, and began to pray"

When it's supposed to be:


"I got down on my knees, and pretend to pray"

It never dawned on me that the singer was pretending, so the preacher would let him stay in the warm church.  Well, maybe it half-occurred, since it says "You know the preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm gonna stay"  but I never heard the word 'pretend'

And I've been listening to this song for almost 40 years!

Don't worry, 90% of karaoke artists and cabaret pianists sing it as "began."  The lyric makes sense either way -- either he's faking it just so he can stay warm, or he's really praying for a way out (which makes the preacher, who likes the cold, a symbol of what he wants to escape).

and now, in a strange twist, Gaz has posted a link to a Carpenter's video over in Facebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpMkMmGkTE
Karen is clearly singing "began to pray!"

Will the real Mondegreen please stand up?
 

When we sang this song in my high school glee club, we sang "began to pray."   Then again, it was a Jesuit high school and a nun ran the glee club.  she probably never faked it... praying, that is.   

[ggould]

My daughter and I both used to think the song went:

"I got down on my knees, and began to pray"

When it's supposed to be:


"I got down on my knees, and pretend to pray"

It never dawned on me that the singer was pretending, so the preacher would let him stay in the warm church.  Well, maybe it half-occurred, since it says "You know the preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm gonna stay"  but I never heard the word 'pretend'

And I've been listening to this song for almost 40 years!

Don't worry, 90% of karaoke artists and cabaret pianists sing it as "began."  The lyric makes sense either way -- either he's faking it just so he can stay warm, or he's really praying for a way out (which makes the preacher, who likes the cold, a symbol of what he wants to escape).

and now, in a strange twist, Gaz has posted a link to a Carpenter's video over in Facebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpMkMmGkTE
Karen is clearly singing "began to pray!"

Will the real Mondegreen please stand up?
 

When we sang this song in my high school glee club, we sang "began to pray."   Then again, it was a Jesuit high school and a nun ran the glee club.  she probably never faked it... praying, that is.   

been doing a lot of surfing/research about this, and found many conflicting lyrics, including another mondegreen where some people hear "the preacher lights the coals."

On this NPR site, it would seem clear that the 'official' lyrics are 'pretend to play.'

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/californiadreamin/index.html

[princessofcairo]

My daughter and I both used to think the song went:

"I got down on my knees, and began to pray"

When it's supposed to be:


"I got down on my knees, and pretend to pray"

It never dawned on me that the singer was pretending, so the preacher would let him stay in the warm church.  Well, maybe it half-occurred, since it says "You know the preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm gonna stay"  but I never heard the word 'pretend'

And I've been listening to this song for almost 40 years!

Don't worry, 90% of karaoke artists and cabaret pianists sing it as "began."  The lyric makes sense either way -- either he's faking it just so he can stay warm, or he's really praying for a way out (which makes the preacher, who likes the cold, a symbol of what he wants to escape).

and now, in a strange twist, Gaz has posted a link to a Carpenter's video over in Facebook:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxpMkMmGkTE
Karen is clearly singing "began to pray!"

Will the real Mondegreen please stand up?
 

When we sang this song in my high school glee club, we sang "began to pray."   Then again, it was a Jesuit high school and a nun ran the glee club.  she probably never faked it... praying, that is.   

been doing a lot of surfing/research about this, and found many conflicting lyrics, including another mondegreen where some people hear "the preacher lights the coals."

I sang the same green once. It makes sense!

[ggould]

have we seen this yet?

"the girl with colitis goes by"

I searched here and didn't find it.

[urth]

have we seen this yet?

"the girl with colitis goes by"

I searched here and didn't find it.

Don't know if we've discussed it, but I've seen that one mentioned years ago when Jon Carroll would do his periodic mondegreen columns. It's reached the Hall of Fame by now, I imagine.