Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
For years I thought Thady Uganda ( sic ) was something to do with Africa !
If such errors occur in the understanding of a song, they are called Mondegrins, after Lady Mondegrin;
"Ye highlands, and ye lowlands, oh, where ha' ye been ?
For they ha' slain the Earl O'Murray, and Lady Mondegrin." ( laid him on the green . )
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
I think Rosin Le Beau is a pretty well established malapropism, which somehow – to my mind at least - gives it a bit of legitimacy as an alternate tune title. At least it’s not a recent mistake made from laziness or ignorance (necessarily). I always wondered if the tune was somehow descended from Roisin Dubh, which would be interesting. But it doesn’t seem to be.
“My Darling’s A Sheep” is a great title I’ve come across on this board. Wish I could remember who gets credit for that. So twisted in a lovely sort of way.
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Not exactly funny, but here's what I remember seeing in print on CDs:
Brenda Tonra's, Brendan Tone Rowe's, Brendan Tonra's, Brendan Tonro's, The Tone Row, Tone Rowe's, Tonra's, Tonro's (I haven't seen all of these myself, but they're on this site).
I've seen The Crib of Purchase (instead of perches) on some CD (maybe Grada?)
I'm sure I've seen misplaced apostrophes, such as Tommy People's.
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
There's a tune called "The Moving Bogs Of Powellsborough" which it is very difficult not to call "The Moving Bowels Of Powellsborough" - I don't think it's made it into the Tunes section yet.
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Because of the crazy way my mind works (or doesn't), I find myself constantly messing around with tune titles when I am practicing or at session. Some random examples:
The Green Grooves of Erin
Nine Pints of Bubbly
The Whales of the World
Tenpenny Bitch
March of the Kings Off-leash
Hector the Hebrew (there are many variations of this)
Haste to the Woody
Waste to the Heading
Danish MIsfortune
John Prine's Polka
Body Crate (Bonnie Kate with a cold)
Dropsy Maggie
The Mason's Airplane
Toss the Cookies
Over to Mordor Maggie
Also, you can spoonerize Kitty O'Shea but I'll leave that one out of print here.
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
"Vanishing Borders" includes a medley of "Trout Will Rise" (an original tune by one of the artists) and an arrangement of the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition. Although it's written Trout Will Rise/Promenade on the CD, it's often found (including on this site http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1700) as "Trout Will Rise and Promenade", which I find is a charming image.
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Walls of Liscarrol...reminds me of some food / burger / sausage scandal or crisis in the UK some time back, treated in "Week Ending" or some such radio review. Someone got in the quip, "Walls have ears..."
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Cool Joey's
The barley that shakes the wind (out of you)
The bint that shakes the charlie
The Loathsome goatman
The Tumours of Tulla
The pipe in yer gob
and
The Natural Antrim
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
An apocryphal tale was told about someone who wanted the music shop to order her the dots for "Could I But Express In Song".
The music shop seemed unable to find it - not surprising when she looked down at what the shop assistant had written down "Kodaly - Buttocks Pressing Song".
The same composer was announced in St Paddys Cathedral as "K. O'Daly".
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Nothing to do with the music but the two best hidden and subversive wordplay lines I ever heard on a TV progamme were in "St Elsewhere" hospital drama about 20 years ago.
One of the doctors is sitting at the organ in the hospital chapel and a nurse comes in with a vase of flowers and the doctor says " Ah, nurse place your tulips on my organ".
Later in the same episode there is a scene when Mr and Mrs Lingus and their daughter Constance are introduced by said doctor to another. If you blinked you missed them but they were so wittily obscene and subversive they still make me laugh
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
I'm told that the Welsh of "Land Of My Fathers" comes out like "My Hen Laid A Haddock And Gave It To Me" (...Hadoc, surely!) - but I've not actually heard it, and maybe my informant had cloth ears.
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
How about in the song Wild Mountain Thyme. Some people say 'I will build my love a "tower" by yon clear crystal fountain' but I think the original word is "bower," a much better place to lie in with your true love. Unless you are a Freudian, in which case, maybe tower does make sense...............
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
There's always the famous O'Carolan tune, "She Begs For More," also referred to as "Sheboom Sheboom." I used to play with a guy who, when referring to playing something "with a touch of the gaelic, " used to say " a touch of the garlic" instead. There's also "The Nine Pints of Yogurt."
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
A good source of malapropisms, misprints etc, accidental or otherwise may sometimes be found in the hidden tags information on commercial cds. The tags contain information about each track giving the tune name, artist, composer, genre, style etc that is typed in at some stage in the production of a cd. Some of this information is shown on some cd players when you play the cd, but if you play the cd on your computer with Windows Media Player (for example) then all the cd's dirty little secrets will be revealed.
Errors in these tags can be legion, partly because the language of the person inputting the information isn't always the language of the cd production, partly because of typos, or partly because of completely wrong information being placed before the inputter - so there are frequently cases where titles, artists etc in the tags bear no relation to the music recorded or printed on the sleeve.
The most interesting ones are where the inputter has deliberately had fun with misinformation. For example, I have a 1998 cd of two of Vaughan William's symphonies performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Roger Norrington, on the prestigious Decca label. The tag inputter evidently amused him(her)self in the Artist column by ringing the changes between the names London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Colonic Orchestra, London Bionic Orchestra, and London Gastronomic Orchestra. btw, the cd is Decca 458357-2.
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Nicholas, the first line in Welsh of "The Land of My Fathers" (the Welsh national anthem) is "Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi", literally in English "The old land of my fathers is dear to me". That Welsh line, to the non-Welsh speaker, can sound a little like your "My hen laid a haddock etc", although the English rugby version I've always heard is "My hen laid a haddock on top of a tree".
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
A few new great mistakes to report, all of which appear on the Dervish album 'Live at Johnny Fox's' (whose release, I gather, had little to do with Dervish).
Firstly, there's an interesting tune called 'The Graff Spree' - presumably party time for battleships.
Then there's 'The Hungary Rock', obviously welcoming new migrants from Budapest and its environs.
Add to these 'The Kyle Brack Rambler' - and I'd guess that Kyle is probably Barm's (or Barn's) sibling.
Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
I've just been sent a copy of an album for review (which had better remain nameless) which includes a track called 'Rosin the Beau'.
This reminded me of another album which included the tracks 'The Grease in the Bog' and 'The Garden Mother's Lullaby'.
So, chucklemasters, what are your favourite misheard or misprinted tune titles?
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by Floss the Tethers
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
She begs for more
I can never get over that one
I like varnish me foreskin too
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by Splendid Isolation
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
not as funny as those examples but just this morning I came across "the pointed pic" reel instead of Pointe au Pic.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by anastasiadesroches
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
For years I thought Thady Uganda ( sic ) was something to do with Africa !
If such errors occur in the understanding of a song, they are called Mondegrins, after Lady Mondegrin;
"Ye highlands, and ye lowlands, oh, where ha' ye been ?
For they ha' slain the Earl O'Murray, and Lady Mondegrin." ( laid him on the green . )
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
I think Rosin Le Beau is a pretty well established malapropism, which somehow – to my mind at least - gives it a bit of legitimacy as an alternate tune title. At least it’s not a recent mistake made from laziness or ignorance (necessarily). I always wondered if the tune was somehow descended from Roisin Dubh, which would be interesting. But it doesn’t seem to be.
“My Darling’s A Sheep” is a great title I’ve come across on this board. Wish I could remember who gets credit for that. So twisted in a lovely sort of way.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by fidkid
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Also from a previous post on this same topic,,
"Done more lasses" and
"Laid behind the Bar"
BB
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by bouzoukiboy
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
There's even a whole page of them at: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/mondegre.htm
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by kilfarboy
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
"Jenny Cooking Pickles"
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by murfbox
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Not exactly funny, but here's what I remember seeing in print on CDs:
Brenda Tonra's, Brendan Tone Rowe's, Brendan Tonra's, Brendan Tonro's, The Tone Row, Tone Rowe's, Tonra's, Tonro's (I haven't seen all of these myself, but they're on this site).
I've seen The Crib of Purchase (instead of perches) on some CD (maybe Grada?)
I'm sure I've seen misplaced apostrophes, such as Tommy People's.
And there are numerous mis-spellings of MacLeod.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by GaryAMartin
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
There's a tune called "The Moving Bogs Of Powellsborough" which it is very difficult not to call "The Moving Bowels Of Powellsborough" - I don't think it's made it into the Tunes section yet.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Because of the crazy way my mind works (or doesn't), I find myself constantly messing around with tune titles when I am practicing or at session. Some random examples:
The Green Grooves of Erin
Nine Pints of Bubbly
The Whales of the World
Tenpenny Bitch
March of the Kings Off-leash
Hector the Hebrew (there are many variations of this)
Haste to the Woody
Waste to the Heading
Danish MIsfortune
John Prine's Polka
Body Crate (Bonnie Kate with a cold)
Dropsy Maggie
The Mason's Airplane
Toss the Cookies
Over to Mordor Maggie
Also, you can spoonerize Kitty O'Shea but I'll leave that one out of print here.
Slainte.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by crazy_fingerz
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Based on the lyrics, I don't think it's a malapropism; I think it's a pun. And it goes back at least to the 1830s:
http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong39.htm
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by Tracie
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
As fidkid says: Rosin the Beau is well established - at least as a song title:
http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5086
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by lars
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Ooops! Me and Tracie posted at the same time!
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by lars
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
That strangely named jig "The Waltz of Liz Carroll"
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by TomB-R
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Walls of Liscarrol - the famous Munster sausage manufacturers.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by granama
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
"Vanishing Borders" includes a medley of "Trout Will Rise" (an original tune by one of the artists) and an arrangement of the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition. Although it's written Trout Will Rise/Promenade on the CD, it's often found (including on this site http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1700) as "Trout Will Rise and Promenade", which I find is a charming image.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by Tracie
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
The Peel of the Onion ...any guesses?!
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by Lizzy
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
the repeal of the union?
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by sechan
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Please keep in mind that I'm a drummer, so tune titles come and go with the craic and all. For years I called a tune 'Maid Behind the Barn'.
I've been called Miss Malaprop.
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by CulchieRidm
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
'waltz of the lies' - how do you dance that one?
# Posted on September 27th 2006 by vanessa
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Walls of Liscarrol...reminds me of some food / burger / sausage scandal or crisis in the UK some time back, treated in "Week Ending" or some such radio review. Someone got in the quip, "Walls have ears..."
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
The Peel Of the Onion - that would be an alternate title for Gunter Grass's reel?
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Kiss the Maid Behind the Bra. The Boys of Bally (so there!). The Reel of Mull, in a vat.
But Ireland is a funny place anyway, what with towns called Clones and Faecal.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by LastToFinish
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
well done sechan..I always liked that one
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Lizzy
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
The Asshole Highlanders
... I'll get my coat
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Ottery
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Crushing the Mince (Dodgy stretch of water)
Onions & Scallions (Miss Scanlon I believe!)
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by boxershort
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Sorry to sound like a wet weekend in Catford, but it's all been done before, at least once:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/1493/
But my fave is still:
The Kid on the Mountain Bike
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
And this one:
Happy to Meet Sorry to Fart
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Pierre Commes
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Cool Joey's
The barley that shakes the wind (out of you)
The bint that shakes the charlie
The Loathsome goatman
The Tumours of Tulla
The pipe in yer gob
and
The Natural Antrim
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by RockyRoader
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
the nark in the mornin...p*ssed on the mountain.......
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by peter wsll
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
An apocryphal tale was told about someone who wanted the music shop to order her the dots for "Could I But Express In Song".
The music shop seemed unable to find it - not surprising when she looked down at what the shop assistant had written down "Kodaly - Buttocks Pressing Song".
The same composer was announced in St Paddys Cathedral as "K. O'Daly".
The Jug Of Slugs is a popular jig in Scotland.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by geoffwright
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
The Fook Set
(learned from flook)
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by swisspiper
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
shoving connie around the field-(seo libh canaidh amhran na bhfiann- last line of the chorus in the irish national anthem)
the portaloo-(the moving bog)
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by maryp
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Great thread, I was laughing out loud!
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Nothing to do with the music but the two best hidden and subversive wordplay lines I ever heard on a TV progamme were in "St Elsewhere" hospital drama about 20 years ago.
One of the doctors is sitting at the organ in the hospital chapel and a nurse comes in with a vase of flowers and the doctor says " Ah, nurse place your tulips on my organ".
Later in the same episode there is a scene when Mr and Mrs Lingus and their daughter Constance are introduced by said doctor to another. If you blinked you missed them but they were so wittily obscene and subversive they still make me laugh
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Was Constance referred to by the abreviated version of her name, then?
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Lizzy, I see you are a friend of Patricia....tell her I said herro!
Have you started in limerick yet?
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
One I've mentioned on a different thread - Loan us some blow, man.
Blow = cannabis, btw
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
I'm told that the Welsh of "Land Of My Fathers" comes out like "My Hen Laid A Haddock And Gave It To Me" (...Hadoc, surely!) - but I've not actually heard it, and maybe my informant had cloth ears.
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
How about in the song Wild Mountain Thyme. Some people say 'I will build my love a "tower" by yon clear crystal fountain' but I think the original word is "bower," a much better place to lie in with your true love. Unless you are a Freudian, in which case, maybe tower does make sense...............
# Posted on September 28th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
There's always the famous O'Carolan tune, "She Begs For More," also referred to as "Sheboom Sheboom." I used to play with a guy who, when referring to playing something "with a touch of the gaelic, " used to say " a touch of the garlic" instead. There's also "The Nine Pints of Yogurt."
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by rck
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Another Carolan tune,
Lord Inch it in.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by tompipes
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Is that elated to Lord Itchyquim?
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by LastToFinish
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Yes Conan
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by Geoff Pollitt
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
A good source of malapropisms, misprints etc, accidental or otherwise may sometimes be found in the hidden tags information on commercial cds. The tags contain information about each track giving the tune name, artist, composer, genre, style etc that is typed in at some stage in the production of a cd. Some of this information is shown on some cd players when you play the cd, but if you play the cd on your computer with Windows Media Player (for example) then all the cd's dirty little secrets will be revealed.
Errors in these tags can be legion, partly because the language of the person inputting the information isn't always the language of the cd production, partly because of typos, or partly because of completely wrong information being placed before the inputter - so there are frequently cases where titles, artists etc in the tags bear no relation to the music recorded or printed on the sleeve.
The most interesting ones are where the inputter has deliberately had fun with misinformation. For example, I have a 1998 cd of two of Vaughan William's symphonies performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Roger Norrington, on the prestigious Decca label. The tag inputter evidently amused him(her)self in the Artist column by ringing the changes between the names London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Colonic Orchestra, London Bionic Orchestra, and London Gastronomic Orchestra. btw, the cd is Decca 458357-2.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Nicholas, the first line in Welsh of "The Land of My Fathers" (the Welsh national anthem) is "Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi", literally in English "The old land of my fathers is dear to me". That Welsh line, to the non-Welsh speaker, can sound a little like your "My hen laid a haddock etc", although the English rugby version I've always heard is "My hen laid a haddock on top of a tree".
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by lazyhound
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
The Scar above the Goiter has always been a favorite of mine.
# Posted on September 29th 2006 by Sean O'Hare
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
... and I always thought "Fanny Power" was a tribute to the feminist movement...
# Posted on October 2nd 2006 by bootfinder
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
Hey Hugo how's it goin, yes I'm back in Limerick and having a blast. Got back a few weeks ago now.. All the best, Lizzy
# Posted on October 7th 2006 by Lizzy
Re: Malapropisms, misprints or whatever you call 'em
A few new great mistakes to report, all of which appear on the Dervish album 'Live at Johnny Fox's' (whose release, I gather, had little to do with Dervish).
Firstly, there's an interesting tune called 'The Graff Spree' - presumably party time for battleships.
Then there's 'The Hungary Rock', obviously welcoming new migrants from Budapest and its environs.
Add to these 'The Kyle Brack Rambler' - and I'd guess that Kyle is probably Barm's (or Barn's) sibling.
# Posted on January 15th 2007 by Floss the Tethers