A couple weeks back in our friday session someone played a very solemn rendition of King of the Fairies, and when it finished, to brighten the mood a little, I started into Eileen Oge. The assembled company joined in with great gusto. We went through 3 or 4 times with a gentle increase in tempo. Lovely.
This received the ultimate acclaim - a couple of the non-playing regulars asked "What's that called?" so I told them.
To my mild surprise they asked if I had composed it myself.
"No" said I.
"But it's obviously quite recent" they replied.
"No," said I, "I believe it's around a hundred years old"
General air of puzzlement on the part of the questioner, followed by;
"So why's it called Kylie Minogue?"
Any other new Mondegreens around? Come on - don't be shy. We have even had Lisa Stansfield for St Ann's Reel.
I spent many years thinking Thadie You Gander was something to do with Africa, but this may have had something to do with the accent I heard it spoken in - broad cockney.
For any other, less widely read chaps like myself, who wondered what the heck Showaddy was talking about, you can find an explanation here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen
Does anyone here have the Frankie Lane (no 'i' in Lane - he's the Irish one, not the American one) album, Gun Smoke at El Paso? My favourite mishearing from that is the line 'the nudist handsome ranger was about to meet his death'.
I picture it so vividly...
('they knew this handsome ranger...' is I think what is intended...)
Back in my degenerate youth, I played in rock&roll bands. This was before the enlightened age of including lyrics with the recordings, so the folk process was still alive and well. I can’t remember all the songs we mondegreened, but the most notorious, as anyone of a certain age knows, was “Louie, Louie”. If you’re not of that certain age, this happens to be a gentle little folkish Jamaican-inspired song, but the recording by The Kingsmen was slurred just enough to inspire some amazingly outrageous X-rated mondegreening, which I will not repeat here or anywhere else. There was even an FBI investigation into the possible corruption of American youth by subversive musicians.
I have two favorites. Paul Donnelly used to play bodhran with us when he was in town and he really liked that Paddy O'Brien classic, "The Ormand Sound." The first time he asked for it he said, "Let's play that tune, "The Armless Hand." The other one was when a visitor to our session returned and asked for a tune he heard us play last time he was here. The actual tune was "Finbar Dwyer's," but he asked for "Thin Barbed Wire."
I just heard one yesterday, though it's not nearly that good. My young niece thought that the old Supremes song Stop in the Name of Love was "Stop in the Neighborhood."
Also, something I saw on TV one time--a computer geek was touting his speech recognition program while standing next to the monitor. As he said "...on voice mail" the computer typed "envoy smell."
There is the story,possibly apocryphal,about the child who asked his mother to sing the John Top song.When she said she didn't know it,the child said yes you do,the surrey with the fringe john top.
For the Old Maid In The Garrett, I heard Gay Woods say as a child she thought it was Old Maid and the carrot.
Personally... the children's song that goes Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy etc...I remember asking my mother what kind of animal a Dosiedote was.
AND...I used to love to listen the Gene Autry sing as a kid and when he was really saying (I forget the song) "If I die I ain't a gonna cry cause I got me a pretty woman's love"....I thought for years he was saying he had a pretty woman's glove. I didn't get what the big deal was.
My favorite of all time, not sure if this quite fits the category.... I had two friends who were sisters and they had this cross eyed cat and named it "Gladly". I asked where they came up with the name and they said they named her after the bear in the bible....the part about... "Gladly the Cross I'd bear". They thought it was a cross eyed bear named Gladly. I still can't stop laughing over that one.
I like the reel "Jenny's welcome to Charlie". Does this refer to the welcome that J gives when she greets C, or is it some spurned lover saying "if Jenny wants Charlie, she's welcome to him? Or is it some sort of ritual induction to coke-sniffing?
Varnish Me Foreskin? I haven't laughed out loud like that since I read Jack's post about the bodhran straps...
Re: bodhran straps for playing while standing
The best bodhran straps would be ones you attach to the ceiling and the other end around the neck of the bodhran player. You'd need a stool though.
# Posted on Saturday, October 15th 2005 by Jack the Anorak
Waitress handed me a matchbook. Had a ten folded up in it. Scribbled on the Matchbook said "Carolyn's Waltz."
I can only assume the punter meant "Planty Irwin " by the applause coming from one table when we played it.
A friend of mine went to see Martin Carthy perform somewhere in her home state of Massachussets. In the ballad, Jacky North, she heard one line which just didn't fit the song - the idiom was not only anachronistic but downright obscene too! (For this reason, I cannot write here what she heard.) Realizing she must have misheard, she approached Martin after the gig to ask what it was that he had sung. He scrolled mentally through the lyrics until he came to the line, "There I saw him, Jacky North". His slightly unfamiliar English pronunciation, combined with his style of delivery, had somehow transformed the hero's name into a modern American slang term for an ancient male pastime.
A friend of mine was on holiday in Turkey and told me that a local was practising his English on her. He said she must go and see 'Eugene Murray' . After a few days puzzling she was invited to go and see this person and was led to a statue of ......
A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
A couple weeks back in our friday session someone played a very solemn rendition of King of the Fairies, and when it finished, to brighten the mood a little, I started into Eileen Oge. The assembled company joined in with great gusto. We went through 3 or 4 times with a gentle increase in tempo. Lovely.
This received the ultimate acclaim - a couple of the non-playing regulars asked "What's that called?" so I told them.
To my mild surprise they asked if I had composed it myself.
"No" said I.
"But it's obviously quite recent" they replied.
"No," said I, "I believe it's around a hundred years old"
General air of puzzlement on the part of the questioner, followed by;
"So why's it called Kylie Minogue?"
Any other new Mondegreens around? Come on - don't be shy. We have even had Lisa Stansfield for St Ann's Reel.
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
I spent many years thinking Thadie You Gander was something to do with Africa, but this may have had something to do with the accent I heard it spoken in - broad cockney.
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Guernsey Pete
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
For any other, less widely read chaps like myself, who wondered what the heck Showaddy was talking about, you can find an explanation here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Ptarmigan?
I thought you were dead.
Why no new thread yesterday?
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Not to forget the only reference to the ancient Egyptians in UK Folk music.
Twa Corbies
"With his hawk and his hound and his Lady Pharaoh"
I'll get my coat.
PP
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Pied Piper
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
That's a new one on me Pied. Thank you.
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
She Begs For More (Si Bheag Si Mhor) - I don't know if this counts since it's not usually by accident.
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by ian clark
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Does anyone here have the Frankie Lane (no 'i' in Lane - he's the Irish one, not the American one) album, Gun Smoke at El Paso? My favourite mishearing from that is the line 'the nudist handsome ranger was about to meet his death'.
I picture it so vividly...
('they knew this handsome ranger...' is I think what is intended...)
Absolutely brilliant album, by the way. Look at the personnel on it:
http://www.frankielane.com/
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Nell
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
I appologise if this has been covered bofore.
Back in my degenerate youth, I played in rock&roll bands. This was before the enlightened age of including lyrics with the recordings, so the folk process was still alive and well. I can’t remember all the songs we mondegreened, but the most notorious, as anyone of a certain age knows, was “Louie, Louie”. If you’re not of that certain age, this happens to be a gentle little folkish Jamaican-inspired song, but the recording by The Kingsmen was slurred just enough to inspire some amazingly outrageous X-rated mondegreening, which I will not repeat here or anywhere else. There was even an FBI investigation into the possible corruption of American youth by subversive musicians.
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
I apologize for misspelling "apologize".
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Bob - corrupting youth was another thread altogether. Please concentrate.
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Dare I say it - & honest I'm not looking at anyone in particular - 'The Silly Wan*er' - ( The Salamanca )
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Uh, oh, sorry… Must learn to stick to topic.
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Bob himself
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
One of the funniest mondegreens I ever heard concerned the Irish national anthem with its chorus, "Seo libh canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann".
My aunt was in the States with her choir. They appeared on a breakfast TV show, singing the Irish national anthem.
The next day, they were out and about at some engagement and one particular person kept pestering them to play:
"Shoving Connie around the green".
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Jeremy
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
I have two favorites. Paul Donnelly used to play bodhran with us when he was in town and he really liked that Paddy O'Brien classic, "The Ormand Sound." The first time he asked for it he said, "Let's play that tune, "The Armless Hand." The other one was when a visitor to our session returned and asked for a tune he heard us play last time he was here. The actual tune was "Finbar Dwyer's," but he asked for "Thin Barbed Wire."
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for mee! For MEeeeee! ( cue rock face; grimace let tongue drag down to collarbone )
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Farr
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Culfada Reel=the Cruel Father
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by fidkid
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Banish Misfortune=Varnish Me Foreskin
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by fidkid
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
My Son's a Prawn - Mason's Apron
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Varnish me... ROFL!
I just heard one yesterday, though it's not nearly that good. My young niece thought that the old Supremes song Stop in the Name of Love was "Stop in the Neighborhood."
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by tuckered out
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Also, something I saw on TV one time--a computer geek was touting his speech recognition program while standing next to the monitor. As he said "...on voice mail" the computer typed "envoy smell."
# Posted on November 23rd 2005 by tuckered out
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
There is the story,possibly apocryphal,about the child who asked his mother to sing the John Top song.When she said she didn't know it,the child said yes you do,the surrey with the fringe john top.
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by dafydd
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
I used to sing I Saw Three Ships Go Sailing By to my eldest daughter as a lullaby.One day she asked me "What were the chips doing in the sea?"
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by dafydd
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
For the Old Maid In The Garrett, I heard Gay Woods say as a child she thought it was Old Maid and the carrot.
Personally... the children's song that goes Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy etc...I remember asking my mother what kind of animal a Dosiedote was.
AND...I used to love to listen the Gene Autry sing as a kid and when he was really saying (I forget the song) "If I die I ain't a gonna cry cause I got me a pretty woman's love"....I thought for years he was saying he had a pretty woman's glove. I didn't get what the big deal was.
My favorite of all time, not sure if this quite fits the category.... I had two friends who were sisters and they had this cross eyed cat and named it "Gladly". I asked where they came up with the name and they said they named her after the bear in the bible....the part about... "Gladly the Cross I'd bear". They thought it was a cross eyed bear named Gladly. I still can't stop laughing over that one.
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by irisnevins
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
"My wife's bisexual" = My White Bicycle, Nazareth, circa 1974
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by howsshecutting
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
I like the reel "Jenny's welcome to Charlie". Does this refer to the welcome that J gives when she greets C, or is it some spurned lover saying "if Jenny wants Charlie, she's welcome to him? Or is it some sort of ritual induction to coke-sniffing?
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by howsshecutting
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Varnish Me Foreskin? I haven't laughed out loud like that since I read Jack's post about the bodhran straps...
Re: bodhran straps for playing while standing
The best bodhran straps would be ones you attach to the ceiling and the other end around the neck of the bodhran player. You'd need a stool though.
# Posted on Saturday, October 15th 2005 by Jack the Anorak
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Star of Munster=Starving Monster
Waitress handed me a matchbook. Had a ten folded up in it. Scribbled on the Matchbook said "Carolyn's Waltz."
I can only assume the punter meant "Planty Irwin " by the applause coming from one table when we played it.
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by Owell Mabee
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
A friend of mine went to see Martin Carthy perform somewhere in her home state of Massachussets. In the ballad, Jacky North, she heard one line which just didn't fit the song - the idiom was not only anachronistic but downright obscene too! (For this reason, I cannot write here what she heard.) Realizing she must have misheard, she approached Martin after the gig to ask what it was that he had sung. He scrolled mentally through the lyrics until he came to the line, "There I saw him, Jacky North". His slightly unfamiliar English pronunciation, combined with his style of delivery, had somehow transformed the hero's name into a modern American slang term for an ancient male pastime.
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by OrganicPeatCreature
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/7577/comments#comment162388
I also liked the wee boy at the funeral who thought they said "In the name of the father, the son, and in the hole 'e goes".
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by Kenny
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Pat Broaders sings some strange things on a Bohola record that I think must be Mondegreens. What he really means I cannot fathom. For example:
I'm home again, I'm home again
Nor will I leave it more
I'll spend my days in love with you
Dear friends, till I fizz o'er
Exuberant, n'est-ce pas? Later on in the same song he gets mystical and fetishistic:
Then fill your glasses loving friends
And drink to oul' Jerome
But ne'er forget the toaster, 'cos
You loved a collier, Om!
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by Jeeves Tones
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
Never Mind the Derry Air!!!
# Posted on November 24th 2005 by irisnevins
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
"The day will dawn on Saturday"
(Freddie mercury - should be the day will dawn of sanity; Wonderful singer but his diction wasn't too good)
My dad used to go on about Fats Waller singing "I'm going to sit right down and ride myself a ladder"
And then there was Bonnie Tyler and her 'Hard Egg
There is at least one website about such things, good for a laugh.
Sorry, you wanted modern ones..........
# Posted on November 27th 2005 by flying tigerpig
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
A friend of mine was on holiday in Turkey and told me that a local was practising his English on her. He said she must go and see 'Eugene Murray' . After a few days puzzling she was invited to go and see this person and was led to a statue of ......
The Virgin Mary
# Posted on November 28th 2005 by flying tigerpig
Re: A pleasing Modern Mondegreen
"...and in the hole 'e goes." Kenny, can I bill you for the tea I just splorfed all over my screen and keyboard?
# Posted on November 28th 2005 by Miss Lonelyhearts