Category: Lyrics

Mondegreen

A mondegreen is simply the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing that as a girl she had misheard the lyric “laid him on the green”

in the Scottish ballad “The Bonny Earl of Murray” as “Lady Mondegreen”. Most of my mondegreens are from song lyrics with my favorite being Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising that I still hear “There’s a bathroom on the right” with the correct line being “There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise”.

I believe that a lot of lyric misinterpretations come from mumbling singers, hard to hear sections of a song and accents of the lyricist. In the good ole days, you couldn’t just look up the correct lyrics in Google or even know a song title unless you happened to catch the DJ introducing the song.

Jellyfish – The King is Half-Undressed (1990)

“She dots her i’s
with a smiley face”
The King is Half-Undressed was the first song I heard by this incredible band, Jellyfish. This was the video I saw and knew I was going to like them. None of their music ever disappointed!

Written by Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning

So this is where she stands at night
On this cold avenue of lights
The red and greens but mostly reds
For you he’s stopping

In seeing him she knows him less
His stick is wet, she’s half undressed
And all and all they’re both obsessed
With so much nothing

I know it’s hard for you to see
What lies behind’s a mystery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed

She dots her “I’s” with a smiley face
A work of art in all but taste
The fool deserves the bed he’s made
Where idiots slumber

Divine she is to aire this fate
A crack of smile through all this hate
Means nothing more in this nervous state
Of so much nothing

I know it’s hard for you to see
The truth behind is misery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed

Blue autumns
Sunshine kisses
Hearts and flowers
And broken wishes

I know it’s hard for you to see
What lies behind’s a mystery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed

I know it’s hard for you to see
The truth behind is misery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed

  3. Hi For 20 years i believed in alien life on other planets,i witnessed a UFO myself hovering over a chemical…

SS Edmund Fitzgerald

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was owned by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and was registerd in the Port of Milwaukee. She first launched in 1958, built by Great Lakes Engineering Works.

She was a lake freighter 729 feet in length, 75 feet wide, and carried taconite ore pellets from mines near Duluth, Minnesota to ports in Detroit, Toledo and others. She was the largest ship to haul iron ore on the Great Lakes.

On her final voyage the Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin (Nov 9, 1975) with a full load (25,400 tons). With a seasoned crew and Captain (Ernest M. McSorley) on board, they were joined by a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. The weather turned bad the next day.

The Arthur M. Anderson received two messages from the Edmund Fitzgerald. The first  “I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I’ve ever been in.” and the second, and last, was “We are holding our own.”

Only two empty lifeboats were found and no crew. A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft found the sunken ship 4 days later. The Edmund Fitzgerald was broken in half and some have recently speculated that the front was on a giant wave and the rear on another tearing the hull in half.

Continue reading “SS Edmund Fitzgerald”

I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight

Writers: Buddy Buie, Robert Nix, Dean Daughtry

I picked up the paper this morning
And read all the daily blues
The world is one big tragedy
I wonder what I can do

About all the pain and injustice
About all of the sorrow
We’re living in a danger zone
The world could end tomorrow

But I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
Tomorrow I might go as far as suicide
But I won’t let it bother me tonight

Life on the street is a jungle
A struggle to keep up the pace
I just can’t beat that old dog eat dog
The rats keep winnin’ the rat race

But I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
The world is in an uproar and I see no end in sight
But I won’t let it bother me tonight

I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
Tomorrow I might go as far as suicide
But I won’t let it bother me tonight

Lord, Lord, Lord
We got nothing but trouble
I’ve done all I can do today
So bartender pour me a double, right now

But I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
The world is in an uproar and I see no end in sight
But I won’t let it bother me tonight

I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
No I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
Tomorrow I might go as far as suicide
But I will not let it bother me tonight

“Late Lament”

Graeme Edge

Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day’s useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white.
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion?