Saturday, March 27, 2021

Mondegreens

 Andrew today posted about Mondegreens. If you're not familiar with the word or need a reminder, here is the definition.

mon·de·green
/ˈmändəɡrēn/
noun
  1. a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of the lyrics of a song.

I've had a few of these over the years but the following is one of the worst, which kept those who heard me regaled with laughter - but not in front of me, always rushing to the bathroom or outside to double over. Obviously it was too funny to have me continuing rather than to have me corrected.

Here is the original song, My Resistence is Low, it was released, I believe in 1951, so forgive me, I was 7. But I remember how wonderfully catchy the lyrics and melody were and also I hadn't a clue what the big words meant. And there were far too many occasions where it came on the radio and I joined in, probably drowning out the professionals.


This is the part I kept mondegreening:

You with your overcoat,
And your underpants low
I'm going overboard
Through the Gap of Dunloe*.

Absolutely no relation whatsoever to any of the lyrics. But you'd only have to play the first couple of notes to that song now, and I'd bellow my version at ya. 

*A gorgeous spot in Ireland. Many family picnics there.







37 comments:

  1. Thanks for a giggle, WWW! I enjoyed the memories conjured by the video so thanks for that too.

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    1. Gap of Dunloe = Capital O (in relation to the O of overboard. Isn't my version better tho?

      XO
      WWW

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  2. Oh Mondegreens! I love them and yours made me giggle. I could only hear him singing "Gap of Dunloe" and have to look up the lyrics. My own favourite tells much about me. I heard: "Ghost writers in disguise" not "Ghost riders in the skies".
    Do you know the song called "Mairzy Doats"?
    Maybe I should post this on Andrew's blog as well?

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    1. Oh lord, I thought that one was ghost riders too. It makes so much sense.

      I do know "Mares eat oats and goats eat oats" but so many spell it like you do!!!

      XO
      WWW

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    2. I’m another who sang - mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. I’ve no idea what the correct words are....maybe I should look them up.

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    3. Oh, those are the rigth words, but when you sing them it sounds like: Mairzy doats an dozy doats an liddle lam sit ivy.

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    4. And it seems I lead you astray, my bad. The text actually sayts: Ghost riders in the skies. I'm the one who mondegreened them into ghost writers in disguise ;) (I'm a free-lance translator and editor).

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    5. Gosh I do prefer "ghost writers". Ghost riders makes no sense at all.

      I would like to read the messages from ghost writers.

      XO
      WWW

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  3. This is cute! Um, I just noticed, you said you're getting your first jab on Wednesday, the 30th. The 30th is Tuesday. Wednesday is the 31st. I'm sure you're on top of this, but just make sure you're there on the right day! (I noticed because I get my 2nd shot on Wed. the 31st.)

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    1. Thanks Tom, yes it is Tuesday and I have it marked hugely on the calendar yet I keep telling people Wednesday. My fuddled old brain spews out false info along with mondegreens.

      XO
      WWW

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  4. We have a family mondegreen. My brothers and I grew up in a working class neighborhood of the forties and fifties. All good mothers stepped to the back porch and called the children to come home. Throughout the neighborhood at lunch or supper time various children's names rang out and we would turn to playmates and say "Your mother's calling." So, then I had a sister, ten and a half years younger than myself. She assumed the job of recalling her siblings, her brothers. I didn't figure much in her life then. She would hang over the back rail and call for Walter and Melvin: "Watermelon! Watermelon!" She hasn't lived it down.

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  5. Mondegreens are often hilarious aren't they? I love your example and those cited in the comments. I particularly like ghost writers in disguise - and may never hear that song any other way.

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  6. I've mondegreened many songs only to discover much later that I was wrong. Thank heavens I don't sing out loud when people are around.

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    1. I just remembered another one river - a Beegees song very popular with my teenagers.

      I cheerfully sang "All those parasites" for "Almost paradise" for years until they finally broke down and told me.

      XO
      WWW

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  7. They have slain the Earl of Moray
    And lain him on the green.

    The origin of mondegreen: misheard
    The have slain the Early of Moray
    And Lady Mondegreen.

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    1. Boud I wonder what those two were up to to get such a messy ending :)

      XO
      WWW

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  8. That one is a real stretch. I could barely work out where the words fitted but I think I did.

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    1. Take yourself back to 7 years old trying to make sense of a melody you loved :)

      XO
      WWW

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  9. Hilarious. I have had some but, none in English sadly.

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  10. I have never heard that word, mondegreens, before. I am getting used to it. Haha.

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    1. Maybe you'll share some of your own mondegreens with us Gigi.

      XO
      WWW

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  11. In place of The Beatles "Paperback Writer" I heard, "Take the back right turn"

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    1. And they say it so often in the song you must have really worn it out! I remember it took me a while to what they were singing in that song.

      I love your version!

      XO
      WWW

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  12. There's a bathroom on the right instead of There's a bad moon on the rise....

    And I don't remember what I sung but I remember never getting the words Round yon virgin, mother and child.

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    1. Mary I had to laugh so hard. I used "Bad man on the right" - bathroom is so much better as they did sound as if they all wanted to go.

      XO
      WWW

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  13. That's adorable, and you were only 7!

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    1. I remember being mad about the word "underpants" as a 7 year old wood. Something vaguely forbidden about using it in conversation. So delighted a singer on the radio was using it so freely.

      XO
      WWW

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  14. thanks for the best laugh of the day!

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    1. We all need them E just a wee lift for the spirits.

      XO
      WWW

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  15. Yes, I'm also guilty of a few mondegreens. To be fair, some lyrics are hard to make out because the backing music is too loud or the singer is whispering the words. But inventing an entirely new lyric is something else again!

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  16. That's a new word for me. But I thought of one right away on reading this. Malachy McCourt, Frank's brother wrote a book titled "A Monk Swimming." The title came from his misinterpretation, as a child, of a line in the Hail Mary - Blessed art thou 'amongst women.' It was the only good thing about that book!

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  17. i can't wait for the vaccines to kill off the boomers. There have been a shitload of deaths, at least 200,000 so far, related to the vaccines. Obviously the media isn't gonna talk about this. You boomers wanted to destroy your own children's future, well guess what, YOU are the ones being destroyed now. Boomers are living in terror and horror now, and this is their karma for ruining their own children and grand children's lives and futures. And even if the vaccine doesn't get you, the doctors are openly calling everything "covid19" now and ramming tubes down boomer's throats and putting them on death machines known as "ventilators". Either way, you boomers are fucked. You are the most evil generation to ever exist. You get what you deserve, boomer scum!

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  18. Aerosmith did a song 'Do the lucky lady', or not.

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  19. I hadn't heard that word, but have so many songs where I sing the words wring even after I learn the correct ones.

    (Crazy anonymous spambot above.)

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