Mondegreen

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A mis-heard lyric, especially one that is better than the original.

American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing that as a girl she had misheard the lyric “layd him on the green” in the fourth line of The Bonny Earl of Murray as “Lady Mondegreen”. See also “scuse me while I kiss this guy” from Hendrix’s Purple Haze.

The JC’s Own favourite example comes from the Blondie classic picture of this. For years the JC heard the concluding line of the chorus:

“... and you’d be on the skids

If it weren’t for your job at the garage

You could own the whole world.”

This always struck me as a beautifully ambiguous: the very same thing which keeps us from oblivion holds us back from paradise. Imagine the disappointment therefore to find the real lyrics were as follows:

“... and you’d be on the skids

If it weren’t for your job at the garage

If you could only whoa, whoa.”

See also

• DK