• Mood: amused

New Word for the Day: Mondegreens

So, I was doing my usual "lurk on the Straight Dope Message Board instead of doing something productive like write my lynnvetational fic," when my little eye catches sight of this little beauty:

D'oh! Misheard lyrics in an oft-heard song

Must. Resist. Must. Not. Read. Must. Not...

Oh, hell.

I mean, there's nothing funnier than misheard lyrics?

It's educational, too! Seriously, I didn't know there was a word for misheard lyrics ("mondegreens"), so ignorance has been fought. Thanks Straight Dope!

Anyway, in clicking around a few links, I, unh...

Well I learned that I had been seriously mishearing the lyrics to "Blinded by the Light" (written by Bruce Springsteen, sung by Manfred Mann's Earth Band).

For years, I mean years, I thought the lyric went:

Blinded by the light.
Wrapped up like a douche,
You know I holler in the night...

Now before 10 minutes ago, I would've sworn that these were the lyrics. I would've been convinced I was right.

Okay, so it makes exactly zero sense that Bruce Springsteen would write a song about being "wrapped up like a douche" (you know...those see-through cellophane baggies that all douches are wrapped in), although I could totally see why he'd "holler in the night" over being "wrapped up like a douche."

Unh, turns out that the actual lyrics are:

Blinded by the light,
Revved up like a deuce,
Another runner in the night...

o_0

Okay. That actually...makes a whole lot more sense. A deuce is a type of muscle car and, unh, yeah...

Springsteen is more likely to write about being revved up like a car and less likely to write about being wrapped up like a douche. Cars are more his thing.

That actually tops this one friend of mine who was absolutely convinced for years that Mr. Mister was singing "carry a laser" instead of "kyrie eleison" in their 1985 hit 'Kyrie Eleison.'

I set her right with the following conversation:

Me: Unh, you do realize that it's kyrie eleison and it's Latin for 'Lord have mercy,' right?
Her: Nah, it's 'carry a laser.'
Me: *shakes head*
Several friends: *shake heads*
Her: You guys sure?
Me: I've got 8 years' worth of Catholic school that tells me you're very wrong.

At least 'carry a laser' makes a buttload more sense as a mondegreen.

Carry a laser
Down the road that I must travel
Ca-ca-carry a laser
Through the darkness of the night
Carry a laser
Where I'm going, will you follow
Carry a laser
On a highway in the light...

Yeah. That actually makes more sense than kyrie eleison now that I think about it...