The Tragic Death and Second Life of Lady Mondegreen

 In a 1954 interview, writer Sylvia Wright talked about one of her favorite poems as a child, "The Bonny Earl of Murray."  The poem ends on a very tragic note, as the Earl dies.  For Wright, this tragedy was compounded in that she believed another character had also died, a "Lady Mondegreen."  That this figure was never mentioned until her death was somewhat odd.  It was only later in life that Wright discovered that she had misheard the line, which was actually "and laid him on the green," which is where the earl's body was placed after his death.  The term mondegreen was coined for the mishearing of a line or song lyric from this interview.  I've been of fan of such things since the late 90s when I saw a book about such lyrics, Scuse Me as I Kiss This Guy.  The title is taken from a frequently misheard lyric from "Purple Haze" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  The actual lyric is "scuse me as I kiss the sky."  In all fairness, the actual lyric doesn't make too much sense, especially when compared to the mondegreen.  As was never able to purchase the book, but I would always try to look at it, or one of its sequels, whenever I visited a book store.  While I never bought any of the books, I did get the spin-off calendars when I opened my own book store.  Unfortunately, the calendars ceased being published after about seven years after I opened.  I kept some of the funniest pages to look at from time to time.  I ultimately did find another book with misheard lyrics, but I sold it, after having it for many years.  The book included two other types of bungled language, eggcorns and misanthropes.  The former is the coining of a new word from bungling up saying the actual term.  The latter is an accidental or intentional use of the wrong word in a situation, mostly found in literature as a deliberate character feature.  Every now and again, I get the notion to find more on this subject, particularly new material.  There are a few websites, including one that may have been attached to the original books Kiss This guy, but I haven't been able to prove it.  With the advent of captioned music videos, as well as the widespread use of internet searches, one would think that such occurrences would be rarer, but they are still out there.  I will end today's post with an example found in that second book I mentioned.

            I can see Cleveland now, Lorraine has gone.   

            I can see all lobster claws in my way.

Now, what was Johnny Nash singing about.  First, why wouldn't Lorraine want him to see Cleveland?  Was she a demanding woman who hates the Browns? (But then, who likes them?) Or, is she a woman of great proportions who physically blocked his view until she stopped aside?  Unfortunately, he now sees lobsters.  Cleveland is on a lake, not an ocean, so where did the crustaceans come from? Or, was there a catering accident and there are only the claws before him?  So many claws.  Of course, these aren't the actual lyrics, but they are funny.  The actual lyrics are below.

            I can see clearly now, the rain has gone.

            I can see all the obstacles in my way.

But seriously, the first line is the title!  If you heard that, you know the first line