# Your favorite mondegreens **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 7, 2005, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862 "2005-05-07T21:07:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/41 "2005-05-09T13:51:22Z")
> [@](#): > > “Secret… Asian Man…” instead of Agent Man. This is now the title of a weekly comic strip in the Boston free newspaper **The Dig**. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/42 "2005-05-09T15:38:20Z")
My personal favorite is my mondegreened version of Seal’s _Kiss from a Rose_. I persistently mishear “grey” as “grave”. I think changing “kiss from a rose on the grey” to “kiss from a rose on the grave” has a pretty substantial impact for changing a single word. Personally, I like it much better as “grave”, so I make no effort to correct myself. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/43 "2005-05-09T15:52:47Z")
My favorite was my daughter’s mondegreen of a Cher song that she thought was titled “Gypsy Transit Thieves,” who evidently got on subways without paying the fare. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/44 "2005-05-09T16:14:02Z")
> [@want2know](#): > > In the Cars’ **Bye Bye Love** , I can swear I hear the lyric, “It’s just a fucking alibi”. Since I hear it on regular radio, I know that can’t be right. What is the actual lyric? I hear that one too - it sounds SO clear to me that I’m not entirely convinced that they aren’t singing “Fucking alibi” and claiming that the words are “broken lullabye”. The one that no one ever seems to be able to understand: Big Ol’ Jet Airliner, by the Steve Miller Band. In fact, I’m willing to bet uh… five cents, that someone reading this thread will say “Whoa, THAT’S what they’re saying?” I thought they were saying “We all go down to Carolina”. My ex husband thought it was “We all get down in a line up” Apparently “Big Ole Jed and Lila” is also a popular guess. I even saw a bus with the ad “Who ARE Bingo Jed and Lila, anyway?” (or something to that effect). ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/45 "2005-05-09T16:25:50Z")
Well, in this thread so far, I have just found out that Seal’s Kiss from a Rose says “grey” and not “grave,” and that Groovin’ (On a Sunday Afternoon) does not say “You and me and Leslie,” though I have no idea what it could say… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/46 "2005-05-09T16:32:55Z")
You and me endlessly, perhaps? 😉 And add me to the “Kiss from a rose on a grave”. Had never occured to me that it might not be that, I thought it was just some dark poetic imagery or something. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/47 "2005-05-09T16:36:42Z")
It’s “you and me, endlessly,” but the music puts the accent on “less.” I still like to pretend it’s “and Leslie,” though. **RealityChuck** , “Gypsy Transit Theives” – I love it! ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/48 "2005-05-09T16:41:36Z")
> [@Beware of Doug](#): > > English Beat, “Mirror in the Bathroom” > \*Sung: \*You’re my mirror in the bathroom > _Heard:_ You might meet her in the bathroom What?!? It’s not “might meet her”? Oops. :o And I’m about the eleventyth person in this thread who thought it was “Take the back right turn”. A friend of mine thought Sting (in **“Every Breath You Take”** ) was singing “I’m a pool hall ace”, instead of “How my poor heart aches”. A classic of mine is when I heard **“Jingle Bells”** as a child and always wondered what a “Four _horsopen_ sleigh” was. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/49 "2005-05-09T16:45:00Z")
Oh, I have to throw in another one that I always add to these:s Peter Gabriel’s “Games without Frontiers” I was sure that the line was “She’s so… POPular” but it turns out that the line is actually (and sung by Kate Bush) “Jeux sans frontieres” (Games without frontiers, in French). ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/50 "2005-05-09T17:01:08Z")
Another one I remembered: For years, I misheard The Who’s “Who Are You?” as “Ooo, Allen.” And I’m surprised at the number of people who thought the Beatles were giving them driving directions, although now that I sound it out I can definitely understand the confusion. > [@liirogue](#): > > Well, in this thread so far, I have just found out that Seal’s Kiss from a Rose says “grey” and not “grave,” … Uh, yeah. What the hell does “a kiss from a rose on the grey” mean? At least a grave is actually a physical thing, and you can imagine someone dropping a rose onto one in mourning. I can’t recall the last time I felt anything on my “grey.” [sub]although there was that one time, at band camp … :: d&r :: [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/51 "2005-05-09T17:08:15Z")
I blush to admit that I was in my twenties before I realized that the line in _Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds_ wasn’t “The girls with colitis go by.” Hey, it was the Beatles. It was possible. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/52 "2005-05-09T17:10:22Z")
When I was a kid, I thought the _Go-Go Gophers_ song said ‘Colonel’s a doggie too, soon disappear’. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/53 "2005-05-09T17:19:27Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > Peter Gabriel’s “Games without Frontiers” > > I was sure that the line was “She’s so… POPular” but it turns out that the line is actually (and sung by Kate Bush) “Jeux sans frontieres” (Games without frontiers, in French). I had a problem with the same line, except I always heard it as “She’s so fa-dee-la”. I was sure it wasn’t right (since it makes no sense), but I didn’t know what it was supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/54 "2005-05-09T17:39:23Z")
At first I heard Fuel’s “Jesus or a Gun” as “Jesus, Oregon” As a youth I would always refer to small bible thumping towns as Jesus, Ohio or Jesus, Illinois…etc, so this made perfect sense to me. Another one was Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” For years I heard “Dead Devil in the Freezer” I still hear it in spite of being corrected. Don’t even get me started on Rusted Root. Even when reading the liner notes I still can’t hear what they are allegedly saying. It always sounds unintelligible to me. It doesn’t help that most of their lyrics are so stream of consciousness. I know there are many more since I am the queen of mishearing things, I just can’t think of them right now ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/55 "2005-05-09T17:45:38Z")
This one’s very obscure. Georgia Pacific (a defunct local band in Bellingham, WA) had a song called _Tin Can Gun_. Every word in the lyric has three letters. Actual: Say tin can gun / Buy the sun Mondegreen: Satan can come / by the sun ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/56 "2005-05-09T18:13:11Z")
Guy in my office thought Hookah was the name of the caterpiller: ( > [@](#): > > Hookah the smoking caterpiller ); I had to get him a picture of a hookah before he’d believe me. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/57 "2005-05-09T18:18:43Z")
nice coding, kay ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/58 "2005-05-09T18:21:29Z")
I always thought that Steve Miller song was, Big Ol’ Jet had a Light On. (and I thought, “good idea!”) My daughter once requested that I play a song for her called “Eleven O’Clock.” Took a little while to figure out that she wanted to hear Eminence Front, but I thought it was a darn good try for a little girl who didn’t have the word “eminence” in her vocabulary at the time. She also once referred to Mike and the Mechanics’ Silent Running as the song that went, “Can you hear me? Can you hear me brother?” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/59 "2005-05-09T18:35:21Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > I always thought that Steve Miller song… Speaking of Steve Miller, it sounds as if he had a ‘mondegreen moment’ when he [ripped off Vernon Green](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html). Vernon Green wrote of ‘puppetutes’, which Miller mis-plagiarised as ‘pompatus’ in _The Joker_. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/60 "2005-05-09T18:45:59Z")
> [@The Scrivener](#): > > “Secret… _Asian_ Man…” instead of Agent Man. Me too! To this day I call my SO “Secret Asian Man” (who is Chinese, BTW). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862.md?page=4)