Mondegreens, The Song Lyrics You Thought You Knew!

The word ‘Mondegreen’ is not just what golfers say when they’re off the fairway, it’s also a term used to describe the mishearing of a popular phrase or song lyric!

We’ve all got a song or three that we grew up singing our own version of only to find out years later that we were crooning the wrong lyrics, all because of homophony, which is when something sounds the same and means something different. It was seriously terrible! It changed the whole meaning of the song (Billy Joel I’m looking at you!) and left us a bit devvo.

In fact the term came about when a young lady named Sylvia Wright, who had danced around the American countryside as a youngster listening to a Scottish ballad called ‘The Bonney Earl of Murray’, had her own realization of this sort when she was older.

Her version went like this:

Ye Highlands and Ye Lowlands
Oh where have you been?
They hae slay the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

Sylvia thought the poor love Lady Mondegreen had been done in along with her lover Earl. Turns out they did slay the Earl of Murray, but then ‘Laid him on the green’. Oh, I see. Sylvia was so distraught over the loss of her beloved Lady Mondegreen that she wrote a published essay all about her. I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets upset over such things!

These will bring back some memories and I apologise to anyone who learns the correct lyrics and gets a bout of the sads or wets their pants a little in a fit of giggles!

The Classics

‘And there’s a wino down the road’ From Led Zepplins Uber-Famous Stairway To Heaven

‘And as we wind on down the road’ are actually the correct lyrics. I had to look this up and I’m still not convinced that it isn’t ‘wino’!

‘Ripped off like a douche and done a runner in the night’ Manfred Mann’s lyrics were actually:

‘Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night’

‘I’ve got two chickens with parrot eyes’ Eddie Money

‘I’ve got two tickets to paradise’ so much more enticing that chickens with parrot eyes!

‘After the poison summer has gone’ Don Henley

‘After the boys of summer have gone’

‘Doughnuts make my brown eyes blue’ Crystal Gayle

‘Don’t it make my brown eyes blue’

‘When the rainbow shaves you clean you’ll know’ Fleetwood Mac

‘When the rain washes you clean you’ll know’

‘She’s got better days besides’ Kim Carnes

‘She’s got Bette Davis Eyes”

‘Take your pants down and make it happy’ Flashdance favourite from Irene Cara

‘Take your passion and make it happen’

‘Hit me with your pet shark’ or ‘Hit me with your buckshot’ Pat Benetar

‘Hit me with your best shot’

‘Hold me close now Tony Danza’ Elton John

‘Hold me closer tiny dancer’

‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy’ Jimmy Hendrix

‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky’

‘Cheap wine a three-day goat’ My personal favourite from Cold Chisel

‘Cheap wine and a three-day growth’

‘Rocket man, burning all the trees off every lawn’ Poor Elton, again

‘Rocket man burning his fuse up here alone’

‘Everybody’s crazy bout a shot glass man’ ZZ Top

‘Everybody’s crazy bout a sharp dressed man’

‘I want a piece of bacon’ The Ramones were hungry? No, they were just really awake!

‘I wanna be sedated’