# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/61 "2005-05-09T18:48:20Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > 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_. Kind of related…the Creedence Clearwater Revival version of “Heard it Through the Grapevine” has a second-generation mondegreen built in. The line (that took years of hearing before I could decipher it) > [@](#): > > People say “believe half of what you see, son, > And none of what you hear” Come out of Fogerty as something like “hava whatcha zee…nanana, whatcha hear”. I swear, he didn’t look up the lyrics before recording it; just went with what he heard. ---
**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, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/62 "2005-05-09T18:57:32Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > 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. Precisely. I didn’t find out otherwise until I saw the lyrics on a copy of the sheet music. If you hear it as “grave”, you can get a good metaphor going about a new love springing up unlooked-for when an old love is gone. A tone poem, if you will, on how strange it feels to fall in love again, and how it heals an old heartbreak. “Grey” changes the focus to weather imagery–fog and snow, and a light shining through it (“blooming”). That’s a guess, mind you. It completely fails to work for me, which is why I like “grave” better. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/63 "2005-05-09T19:33:55Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > 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. Add me to the ever growing list of people that heard “grave” as well. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/64 "2005-05-09T19:51:27Z")
> [@Hoopy Frood](#): > > Add me to the ever growing list of people that heard “grave” as well. You can add me as well. You can also add the person who transcribed the lyrics [here](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/seal/kissfromarose.html), too. They start out with “grey,” but they switch to “grave” for a lot of the later usages in the song. (I checked several others, too, but most of them seem to use “grey” consistently). ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/65 "2005-05-09T19:55:32Z")
> [@The Chao Goes Mu](#): > > 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. A friend thought it was “Tent devil in the freeze aisle” ---
**Author:** ![MisterThyristor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@MisterThyristor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MisterThyristor)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/66 "2005-05-09T19:57:37Z")
That’s hilarious, I think that Seal’s _Kiss From a Rose_ has got to be one of the more popular recent mondegreens. Myself, I couldn’t figure it out and couldn’t be bothered to look it up, so when I sing along in the car I usually sing “I’ve been kissed on the nose by a train” just for humor’s sake, and the fact that that’s what falling in love feels like. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/67 "2005-05-09T20:18:29Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > "It’s an orangy sky > always it’s some other guy > it’s just a broken lullaby > bye bye love > bye g-bye love > yeah bye bye love > bye bye love-ov-ov-ove " > > (from [sing365.com](http://sing365.com)) I think the lyric being referred to is in the background, near the end of the song. It always bothered me, I thought it said “systematic anticline” whthat is.) The line I remember from the innersleeve said “it’s just an automatic line” ---
**Author:** ![melondeca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@melondeca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melondeca)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/68 "2005-05-09T20:43:47Z")
My boyfriend was singing along to Live’s The Dolphins Cry and I almost fell on=ver when he belted out the line _“Yeah I was lost in a spoon of peas”_. My own personal mondegreen occurred when I found out that the lyric in Train’s Drops of Jupiter is _“And that heaven is overrated”_, not _“And **Van Halen** is overrated”_. ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/69 "2005-05-09T20:50:14Z")
More Beatles: When I was five I was sure that the payoff line in _Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite_ was: “And tonight Mister Kite is having his meal!” I was thoroughly spooked by that song, and thought it was about some horrific creature, half man, half predatory bird, who did unspeakable things. Not a mondegreen, but I just reminded myself that, at the same age, I was spooked by _Strawberry Fields Forever_, which I thought was about a guy taking his son to some strange place called Strawberry Fields, where he would leave him forever. I still get chills remembering that. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/70 "2005-05-09T20:51:59Z")
Just thought of another one.In “Metro” by Berlin: Always wondered why she was “swimming through a pile of cheese”! 😛 ---
**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, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/71 "2005-05-09T20:53:30Z")
Regarding “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.” I have never, not once in many many listenings of the song, been able to hear any kind of coherent phrase made of actual words from the main refrain of the song. My little brother, AFAIK (this was some time ago), hears it as “Tenth Avenue Freestyle.” ---
**Author:** ![TheInterruptingCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9c0ed/32.png) [@TheInterruptingCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheInterruptingCow)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/72 "2005-05-09T21:05:49Z")
My ex-wife heard the lyrics to **Canary in a Coal Mine** by the Police as: “You live your life like you were Larry in a coma.” ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/73 "2005-05-09T21:23:14Z")
I may have mentioned this before, but when I was a kid, I thought that the French lyrics to O Canada said _Et ta valeur, deux fois trompée_ (and your valour, tricked twice) instead of _Et ta valeur de foi trempée_ (and your valour, steeped in faith). Tori Amos is a good one for this, especially “Tear in your Hand.” I thought the first lines were: All the world just stopped now So you say you don’t want to stay together anymore _Hit me_ - take a deep breath babe, If you need me, _kneel, kneel me,_ hanging out with the dream king _You should hide, write a word_ I don’t believe you’re leaving _in trust, men should make_ the same ice cream… In fact, they are: …_Let me_ take a deep breath babe, If you need me, _me and Neil’ll be_ hanging out with the dream king, _Neil said hi, by the way_ I don’t believe you’re leaving _'cause me and Charles Manson like_ the same ice cream… Not much more explicable, as you can see (except if you know that Neil is Neil Gaiman). Don’t even get me started on “smashing up a pool room”. I’ve had a couple good ones with the Pet Shop Boys, too, such as hearing “this kind of painful pretense” for “this _fin-de-siècle_ pretense” in “Decadence.” ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/74 "2005-05-09T21:26:08Z")
My sister thought Elton John was saying, **"Rocket man, burning all the trees off of the lawn."** Instead of, "Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone " ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/75 "2005-05-09T22:36:49Z")
The national anthem. When I was too young to know better, I always heard it as “Jose, can you see?” And know that I know better… I still hear it wrong. I have to make an effort to parse the damn thing right. I blame growing up in Southern California–“Jose” was a more common word in my vocabulary then the phrase “Oh, say”. ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/76 "2005-05-09T22:43:00Z")
> [@hillbilly queen](#): > > My sister thought Elton John was saying, > > **"Rocket man, burning all the trees off of the lawn."** > > Instead of, > > "Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone " I still hear that line as _Burnin’ up the streets of everyone_ ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/77 "2005-05-09T22:56:59Z")
Not exactly a mondegreen, but I was always puzzled by the line “You took me from the shelter of a mother I had never known” in the song “Band of Gold.” I mean, how sheltering could she have been? I only just realized a couple of days ago that the “I had never known” part actually ties in with the next line, which is something like “the love of any other.” (It’s given a little differently on every site I tried.) ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/78 "2005-05-09T23:38:40Z")
My brother Josh’s rendition of “Avalon” by Roxy Music: > [@](#): > > Now the pony’s older, and Sir Tiger. > Then the Sea of Carmen had a narwhale. > Mulch communication and a morsha. > With a conversation, or a norsha. > Babble on! > > Will the Shambuck think you had a narwhale? > When the bards come fading, add a Fooker. > Is the picture tingling, ever Mormon? > And you test the nation with a narwhale. > Babble on! > > Person, derson. > Berson, gerson. > > When you voice your mother, there’s no organ. > Would you help me, Danson, out of Norway? > Babble on! > > (repeat “Babble on!” to fade) ---
**Author:** ![Potato\_Pancakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Potato\_Pancakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Potato_Pancakes)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/79 "2005-05-10T00:11:55Z")
I’m surprised I haven’t seen this Elton John one: When he sings “Hold me closer, tiny dancer” a lot of people hear “Hold me closer, Tony Danza.” Not a real mondegreen for myself, although it is my favorite. The one that comes to mind as having happened to me had to do with a fast food restaurant instead of a song. We have a lot of Whataburger restaurants out here in AZ. I must have heard it in a radio ad as a kid because for a long time I had the impression they were called “Waterburger.” \*(How do they make these fantastic water burgers?!?) \* It turns out I wasn’t alone, when I grew up a friend of mine had thought the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862/80 "2005-05-10T00:24:58Z")
> [@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 My boss actually thought it was “N\*\*\*\*\* in the bathroom,” and was horribly upset that I was listening to such racist music in the store. It took me at least an hour to figure out what she was talking about. This is the same boss who thought that “Don’t stick your finger in my pie,” in “I’m Moving On,” by Yoko Ono was “Don’t stick your finger in my c\*\*\*.” It’s always the most innocuous songs that give her the most trouble. **Alias** , I’d forgotten all about the extra hotel and the hair on a locket. I just figured they were playing Monopoly, and he was cheating. I recently realized that it’s “Body and beats, I stain my sheets,” and not “When I eat beets, I stain my sheets,” in “Blister in the Sun.” The disgusting mental images still come up every time I hear that song, but maybe I’ll forget them with time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-mondegreens/302862.md?page=5)