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What's your favorite lyric from a song?

Just curious what stays with people...
arthursmuck
n80
2,117 posts
 
I had never heard the term mondegreen. Comes from a Scottish ballad:

Ye heilands and ye lowlands,
O whaur hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl o' Murray,
And laid him on the green;

with "him on the green" being misheard as mondegreen.
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almarg
9,670 posts
 
More completely, "laid him on the green" was misheard as "Lady Mondegreen." As described in the article I linked to in my previous post:

In November, 1954, Sylvia Wright, an American writer, published a piece in Harper's where she admitted to a gross childhood mishearing. When she was young, her mother would read to her from the “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” a 1765 book of popular poems and ballads. Her favorite verse began with the lines, “Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands / Oh, where hae ye been? / They hae slain the Earl Amurray, / And Lady Mondegreen.” Except they hadn’t. They left the poor Earl and “laid him on the green.” He was, alas, all by himself.

Regards,
-- Al
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
@roxy54: Thank you for the correction! Crown Of Creation remains a long-time favorite! Bought my first copy back in the late Sixties! That one's long-gone but I have a new pristine re-issue (that sounds fine!).
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
And I saw the Airplane perform that song on the old Ed Sullivan Show on a Sunday night! Grace Slick wore black-face makeup!
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,831 posts
 

Oops, reading back a few pages I saw that tostadosunidos had already quoted the Dylan line I did above, for which I had shortly thereafter complimented him. The old gray matter ain’t what it useta be.

Iris Dement: "God may forgive you, but I won’t

                          Yes Jesus loves you, but I don’t"

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