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Thread: Lyrical mistakes.

  1. #1
    Professional Novice Chris Travers's Avatar
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    Default Lyrical mistakes.

    OK, Thought this would be interesting. I've heard several songs that when I first heard the lyrics I thought they were something else. Two examples ironically have nothing to do with mandolin. But here they are anyway.

    1. Purple Haze "excuse me while I kiss this guy" Should be "excuse me while I kiss the sky"

    2. Noel "Barney's the king of Israel" Should be "born is the king of Israel"

    Y'all got any examples?

    Chris
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  2. #2
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    The Purple Haze mistake is so common there's a website - kissthisguy.com and a book. Please see the below links.

    http://www.kissthisguy.com/


    http://www.amazon.com/Scuse-While-Ki...596115&sr=8-14

  3. #3
    Professional Novice Chris Travers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    That is funny!
    Spread the mandolin gospel!

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  4. #4

    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    Sonny & Cher's, And the Beat Goes On. My sister thought it was, "In the Beagle Zone."

    I figured half of the reason Dylan sang how he did, was to see what people came up with. How many interpretations were there to Memphis Blues Again?

    Or how bout learning the Rolling Stone's, Brown Sugar phonetically.

  5. #5
    Still a mandolin fighter Mandophyte's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    There's good comment here:

    http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/songs/a...ric-sites.html

    on lyrical errors from Dick Gaughan (Scotland)

    John

  6. #6

    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    CCR: "There's a bathroom on the right."

  7. #7
    mandolin slinger Steve Ostrander's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    CCR: "There's a bathroom on the right" instead of "There's a bad moon on the rise".
    Living’ in the Mitten

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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    OK, now you're talking mondagreens! (or mondegreens, alt. spelling)

    There's an old Scottish ballad, The Bonnie Earl O'Murray, which opens with the lines,
    Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
    Oh, where hae ye been?
    They hae slain the Earl o'Murray,
    And laid him on the green.


    However, singer after singer made the last line "And Lady Mondagreen" instead. The fictitious Lady Mondagreen thus lent her name to the entire genre of mis-heard and mis-repeated song lyrics.

    I thought of this last night listening to a CD of Robbie O'Connell singing The Earl of Murray. It's one of those interestingly personified idioms, like "spoonerism," that go back to a specific reference point.

    Cheers to Lady Mondagreen! Hope she "kissed this guy" and found the "bathroom on the right."
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  10. #9
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandophyte View Post

    on lyrical errors from Dick Gaughan (Scotland)
    SIDEBAR

    I was a huge Dick Gaughan fan. I have a bunch of his albums from the 80s. I love his style, his weathered voice, his guitar playing, and his train wreck visage. I have seen him live quite a few times.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  11. #10
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    "I... wanna rock and roll all night... and part of every day"

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    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    Mondegreens, i think. My favorite is "Ain't No Woman but the One-Eyed Gott"
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  14. #12
    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    whoops -- cross post.
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    1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
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  15. #13
    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    And "like the one-eyed gott." I gotta wear my glasses more often when i'm typing
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  16. #14
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    The book "A Monk Swimming" by the irish author Malachy McCourt. The Title is a mondegreen from the prayer Hail Mary: "...Blessed are you amongst women.."

    Bertram
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    "On her breast, she wore Mike Lilly"

    - Ricky Skaggs on East Virginia Blues

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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    One of the funniest things that I've seen in a while is this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLd22ha_-VU

    It's made-up lyrics to Pearl Jam's Yellow Ledbetter, with illustrative pictures. Fantastic stuff!

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  20. #17
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandophyte View Post
    There's good comment here:

    http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/songs/a...ric-sites.html

    on lyrical errors from Dick Gaughan (Scotland)

    John
    Oh yes, even before the internet became popular you had to be careful when reading sleeve notes of a record sung in Scots. I still have one with Ewan McColl singing "Cherlie O Cherlie" which goes "...I'm awaa tae the bonny hieland hills" (I am away to the bonny highland hills), but the lyrics said " ...tae the bonny hills and hells", and that was about the quality of all the written lyrics.

    Bertram
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  21. #18
    garded
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    I walked in from work to the thunderous sounds of NewGrass Revival on the stereo one day when my then small kids and their mom were all dancing around and singing at the top of their lungs " we're gonna have a be by bo! we're gonna have a be by bo!" on and on. When the song finally ended, I said do you know what the words to the chorus they were singing was? They looked at me quizzically, and I said
    "we're gonna have a revival!" Are you sure? they all said at the same time.

  22. #19
    Professional Novice Chris Travers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    Quote Originally Posted by pigpen View Post
    one of the funniest things that i've seen in a while is this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xld22ha_-vu

    it's made-up lyrics to pearl jam's yellow ledbetter, with illustrative pictures. Fantastic stuff!
    hahahah!
    Spread the mandolin gospel!

    Chris

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  23. #20
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    My kids loved the hymn, "Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear." (Gladly the Cross I'd Bear)
    I have a friend who was confused by the gospel song, "Rex Chewed the Parrafin." (Rescue the Perishing)
    Steve



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  24. #21
    Registered User Kip's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    John Prine "Happy Enchilada" ------- s/b "half an inch of water"

  25. #22
    Professional Novice Chris Travers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    These are great! Keep 'em coming!
    Spread the mandolin gospel!

    Chris

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  26. #23
    Registered User Elliot Luber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    My favorite two are

    1) Carley Simon's "You're so vain," where it says "some underworld spy or the wife of a closefriend." My childhood friend's mom thought it said: "Some underworld spy or the wife of a clothespin."

    2) My son mistook Alanis Morrisette's "You ought to know" saying "The cross I bear that you gave to me" to hear "the cross-eyed bear that you gave to me."

  27. #24
    Middle-Aged Old-Timer Tobin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    As a kid growing up with parents in a traveling gospel band, we kids used to sing along at the small church revivals at which they would play. But my younger brother didn't really know the words. One song's chorus was supposed to go like this:

    I'll see you in the rapture
    I'll see you in the rapture
    I'll see you in the rapture some sweet day...
    And with our Blessed Savior
    I'll see you in the rapture
    I'll see you in the rapture some sweet day...


    This is how my brother would sing it. At the top of his lungs:

    I'll see you in the rupture
    I'll see you in the rupture
    I'll see you in the rupture some sweet day...
    And with our Blasted Savior
    I'll see you in the rupture
    I'll see you in the rupture some sweet day...

  28. #25
    Registered User Richard Singleton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Lyrical mistakes.

    "Lead on, O Kingly Turtle" for "Lead on, O King Eternal"
    Richard Singleton

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