mondegreens hitting closer to home than previously thought
I don’t generally mishear lyrics, I usually just don’t hear them at all. Me knowing the lyrics to a song involve a lot of intense listening and memorization. Otherwise, I have always just kind of gibberished along with a tune. Improvisers are very good at playing along and hiding their lack of knowledge.
Therefore I thought I was immune to the mondegreen — mishearing a phrase or lyric, like “‘suse me while I kiss this guy” or a friend of Moya’s who sang loudly about “Big ol’ Jen in the lighthouse” (instead of “big ol’ jet airliner”)
But somehow I just discovered that Creedence Clearwater Revival, in their song Down on the Corner, reassure the listener:
You don’t need a penny just to hang around
when I thought this:
You don’t need a pinhead just to hang around
No matter that my line is a little offensive, makes no sense, and would’ve taken half a second to look up to confirm its utter wrongness.
In my defense, I AM one of those Americans who say PEN and PIN really differently, as opposed to some lead singers who are just trying to confuse me.
When I was young, I always thought they were singing:
“Down on the corner, out in the street,
Billy and the Butt-boys are playin’….”
What or who are Butt-boys? I wasn’t sure, but that’s what it sounded like to me.
I thought it was “pinhead” forever. It was only a couple of years ago that I realized he was saying “penny.”