We are all accustomed to the phenomenon that a person might mishear a song lyric or other publicly recited phrase. “to the republic for Richard Stands.” “scuse me while I kiss this guy.” It turns out there is a name for this. It is called a Mondegreen.
What got me thinking about this, of course, was my recent blog article that mentioned Bad Moon Rising. “There’s a bathroom on the right.”
Anyway so now you can save up this really good word “Mondegreen” and put it to use in just the right setting.
Thanks for this Carl. I enjoyed reading how the term was coined. I regularly suffer from mondegreen. I tend to hear the “music”, i.e., melody, harmony, and syncopation, before and over any words. I usually need to hear a song several times just to begin to hear the words.
Years ago, NPR had an interview with Mr. Fogerty where he mentioned his amusement that anyone could have miscontstrued the lyrics (in view of the fact that the correct lyrics essentially restate the title of the song). After numerous requests as to what the lyric meant, they would sometimes sing it as “there’s a bathroom on the right” as a joke.