Although you may not be familiar with the term, I'm sure you're probably all familiar with the rock lyric phenomenon known as the "mondegreen." This is the term for misheard lyrics, whether it's Jimi Hendrix making out with another guy, or John Fogerty giving directions to the bathroom. I'm been guilty of this quite a few times myself. My favorite instance is the Warrant song "Heaven." By misunderstanding two lines of the song, I complete misunderstood the narrative behind it. Here's what I thought the opening lines were:
Got a picture of your house.
You're standing by the door.
It's black & white and faded,
and looking pretty worn.
See the fact without a word.
See the wedding in the back.
Memories of a greater man,
they're really coming back.
Now, from the highlighted lines and the rest of the song, I pieced together the story here. In his younger days, the singer had been in love with a girl. It seemed like they'd really last. It seemed like they were going to share their lives together. It seemed like "Heaven" wasn't too far away. Sadly though, things don't always work out. The promise of their relationship didn't hold, and now he's left looking at old photographs and regretting his lost love. He sees the "fact" of the wedding and that she moved on and married someone else. He sees it "without a word", because...well, it's a photograph. It would be nice, touching, and make perfect sense if it wasn't for the fact that the highlighted lyrics should actually read:
See the factory where I worked,
silhouetted in the back.
Ohhhh...Oh, I see. This is just a story about how they were young and he worked in a factory or something. Yeah, that's pretty deep. Thanks a lot Warrant for ruining the song with your "actual" lyrics. Okay, moving on.
In the world of country music, I've noticed a somewhat similar phenomenon. The problem here isn't mis-hearing the lyrics. I can understand the words just fine. It's just that sometimes in the interest of rhythm and rhyme schemes, sentence structure gets sacrificed. I know what they're trying to say, but if I really feel like being a smart-ass (which I usually do) then it's easy to take these things the wrong way. Here, I'll show you what I mean with the Colin Raye song "Love, Me":
I heard those words just hours before
my grandma passed away
in the doorway of the church
where me and Grandpa stopped to pray.
"Look over yonder, boy. There's a church where we can pull on over and get some prayin' done."..."But Grandpa, I think Grandma's starting to stroke out. She's twitching all funny and foaming at the mouth."..."Well, bring her along. Ain't no better place to die than the house of the Lord. Let's just hope we don't lose her before we get her through the door. Yee Haw!" Or then we have the Bryan White song "Rebecca Lynn":
I said, please, Becky would you marry me
prom night in the car out by the curb.
Alright Becky, maybe it's not my place to give relationship advice, but I think this guy might be moving a little fast. I know he bought the corsage and paid for dinner, but isn't a little much expecting you to marry him on Prom night, and in a car out by the curb of all places? Not exactly a girl's dream wedding, and how is this supposed to work? Where are the guests supposed to sit, the back seat? Heck, where's the minister supposed to be? Maybe the "car" is a taxi and the driver doubles as a justice of the peace. Maybe he's talking euphemistically. Maybe he's talking about getting "married" in the conjugal sense. If that's the case, we'll leave you kids alone and move on to the Billy Ray Cyrus song "Could've Been Me":
My buddy John said you looked real pretty,
and you acted like you were in love.
He said the preacher asked for objections,
and he thought about standing up.
Well, I told John he must have been crazy,
because you were just about to say, "I do."
He just gave me a wink and said all he could think
was it could have been me with you.
Now, technically, I suppose there's no problem with the grammar or sentence structure here, but I can't be the only one who thinks that last line sounds just a little tiny bit like John is proposing a union with Billy Ray that's still illegal in many states, especially with his heavily suggestive wink. Hey John, I appreciate that you're trying to be a good friend and everything, but you gotta give poor Billy Ray some time here. Can't you see that he's still trying to get over this girl? Be patient, man. Just don't come flying out of the closet like that when the guy's clearly got a broken heart.
Anyway, see you all later.
