mondegreens / Jackson beans

[Bill Palmer]

"Kind of Drag", sung by an artist/group now unknown to me, always sounded
like "Canada Dry".

Also, the redoubtable Boy George had what I suppose was his biggest hit with
"Karma Chameleon" which I always thought was Come-a, come-a, come-a, come-a,
come-a to me, Leon"  til otherwise apprised by my then preteen son.


Bill Palmer

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Mandel" <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, December 13, 2009 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: mondegreens / Jackson beans


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: mondegreens / Jackson beans
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Scot LaFaive <slafaive at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I heard one today on The Bob and Tom radio show. A comedian was saying
>> how
>> he went to a Starbucks where someone ordered a "black eye" coffee and
>> when
>> they announced the order as ready it sounded like "black guy" as if the
>> order was for a black guy in the crowd. How true is this? Who knows, but
>> I
>> could see it happening.
>>
>> Scot
>
> AFAIK "mondegreen" is used only to refer to mishearings of lyrics and
> other
> texts ("I led the pigeons to the flag..."). The about.com article I cited
> earlier says
>
>>  Coined in 1954 by the writer Sylvia Wright and later made popular by San
>> Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll, a "mondegreen" is a word or
> phrase
>> that results from mishearing or misinterpreting a song lyric (or any
>> other
> text, for that matter).
>
> See
> -
> http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/07/08/merriam-webster-welcomes-the-mondegreen.htm
> - http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/mondegreens.shtml
> as well as the dbs Ben Zimmer listed:
> - http://www.amiright.com/
> - http://www.kissthisguy.com/faq.php
>
> m a m
>
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