In my spate of Dick Gaughan listening yesterday, I was reminded of one of my favorite mis-heard lyrics. In "Rattlin' Roarin' Wille", for years, I heard Gaughan singing that Willie was thinking of selling his fiddle "to buy some underwear". I still hear the line that way sometimes, and it always cracks me up.
There's another line that I have to be careful of, though it's not exactly a Mondegreen. In "Matt Highland", there's a verse with the line "She laid her head then upon his breast/Around his neck her arms entwined..." One time I sang that and transposed two words accidentally, getting an extremely silly image. Ever since, I've had to remind myself before I sing the song: she laid her HEAD upon his BREAST, not the other way around...
Anyone come across any other good mishearings or transpositions lately?
There's too many....
....but then there's all these 'serious' lines......
"Come all ye bold French Emperors..."
"...Then out of her bosom she pulled his discharge..."
"If it weren't for the alligators I'd sleep out in the wood."
etc., etc..
A well-known folk personage told this one in a folk club. It concerned someone else's singing of the ballad Lord Derwent water's Farewell. In that particular version, the doomed Lord - summoned to London for what he knows is to be his execution - addresses those dear to him in a succession of verses. These include one to his horse: it ends,
"I wish I had not left my bed
Last time I mounted thee!..."
There is also one to his wife.
There was a mix-up, and the quoted lines found their way into the verse addressed to the wife. I don't know what the horse got.
Our dear friend Ptarmigan started a wonderful discussion thread on mondegreens several years ago. I wish I could find it in the archives. Maybe someone else with better computer skills can find it...
Gravelwalks, you have it the wrong way round !
Ewan MaColl wrote "The Shoals of Herring" for the Radio Ballad "Singing the Fishing". Ten years later he collected "The Shores of Erin" from a a singer in Ireland - his song, garbled ( or as we say in the trade, "Folk Processed" ).
Someone went into a music shop and asked them to order some sheetmusic for a song titled "Could I but express in song".
She returned a few weeks later and the man in the shop said he couldn't find it. She looked in his order book and it said......
Kodaly - Buttocks Pressing Song.
This famous Hungarian composer has occasionally been mis-spelt in the Old Country as K O'Daly.
Re the surrey song......
Blossom Dearie died very recently, and received a long and illuminating obituary in the Guardian here in the UK.
Someone once asked her why she used to play "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top " so much slower than the conventional speed, and she replied that she was from the country, and remembered just what speed they would normally be driven at !
I thought of this thread tonight when I saw how the song "Polly on the Shore" is listed on CDDB's track listing for the Topic "Voice of the People" collection: Potty on the Shore.
Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
In my spate of Dick Gaughan listening yesterday, I was reminded of one of my favorite mis-heard lyrics. In "Rattlin' Roarin' Wille", for years, I heard Gaughan singing that Willie was thinking of selling his fiddle "to buy some underwear". I still hear the line that way sometimes, and it always cracks me up.
There's another line that I have to be careful of, though it's not exactly a Mondegreen. In "Matt Highland", there's a verse with the line "She laid her head then upon his breast/Around his neck her arms entwined..." One time I sang that and transposed two words accidentally, getting an extremely silly image. Ever since, I've had to remind myself before I sing the song: she laid her HEAD upon his BREAST, not the other way around...
Anyone come across any other good mishearings or transpositions lately?
# Posted on February 6th 2009 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
There's too many....
....but then there's all these 'serious' lines......
"Come all ye bold French Emperors..."
"...Then out of her bosom she pulled his discharge..."
"If it weren't for the alligators I'd sleep out in the wood."
etc., etc..
# Posted on February 6th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
A well-known folk personage told this one in a folk club. It concerned someone else's singing of the ballad Lord Derwent water's Farewell. In that particular version, the doomed Lord - summoned to London for what he knows is to be his execution - addresses those dear to him in a succession of verses. These include one to his horse: it ends,
"I wish I had not left my bed
Last time I mounted thee!..."
There is also one to his wife.
There was a mix-up, and the quoted lines found their way into the verse addressed to the wife. I don't know what the horse got.
# Posted on February 6th 2009 by nicholas
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
Whenever I hear Galway Girl, I expect to hear that "her eyes were black and her hair was blue."
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by GaryAMartin
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/4703/comments#comment98147
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by Nick Splease
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
Our dear friend Ptarmigan started a wonderful discussion thread on mondegreens several years ago. I wish I could find it in the archives. Maybe someone else with better computer skills can find it...
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
The mustrad website has a good page on Mondegreens:
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/mondegre.htm
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
This is a good one from the above page:
"I’d dream about the shores of Erin"
...becomes...
"I'd dream about the shoals of herring."
Now that's my kind of girl.
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by gravelwalks
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
Gravelwalks, you have it the wrong way round !
Ewan MaColl wrote "The Shoals of Herring" for the Radio Ballad "Singing the Fishing". Ten years later he collected "The Shores of Erin" from a a singer in Ireland - his song, garbled ( or as we say in the trade, "Folk Processed" ).
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
'With my dung and goat among the bloomin' heather"...
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by pipewatcher
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
A Facebook friend of mine (and a fine Irish flute player) just reported hearing her son singing "Puff the Maggot Dragon".
# Posted on February 7th 2009 by GaryAMartin
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
And the little girl who asked for the John Top song.
The Surrey With The Frin John Top
# Posted on February 8th 2009 by dafydd
Re: Beelzebubs got the devil for a sideboard
Someone went into a music shop and asked them to order some sheetmusic for a song titled "Could I but express in song".
She returned a few weeks later and the man in the shop said he couldn't find it. She looked in his order book and it said......
Kodaly - Buttocks Pressing Song.
This famous Hungarian composer has occasionally been mis-spelt in the Old Country as K O'Daly.
# Posted on February 10th 2009 by geoffwright
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
Re the surrey song......
Blossom Dearie died very recently, and received a long and illuminating obituary in the Guardian here in the UK.
Someone once asked her why she used to play "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top " so much slower than the conventional speed, and she replied that she was from the country, and remembered just what speed they would normally be driven at !
# Posted on February 10th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Lady Mondegreen's Favorite
I thought of this thread tonight when I saw how the song "Polly on the Shore" is listed on CDDB's track listing for the Topic "Voice of the People" collection: Potty on the Shore.
# Posted on February 23rd 2009 by GaryAMartin