Mondegreens on Radio Ga Ga this Saturday

Have you ever got the words to a song wrong and felt like a right nong?? Well, fear not, you’re not the only one who’s wrong. This weeks Radio Ga Ga features what we know as “Mondegreens”. The term “mondegreen” was coined by Sylvia Wright in a 1954 Atlantic article. As a child, young Sylvia had listened to a folk song that included the lines “They had slain the Earl of Moray/And Lady Mondegreen.” As is customary with misheard lyrics, she didn’t realize her mistake for years. The song was not about the tragic fate of Lady Mondegreen, but rather, the continuing plight of the good earl: “They had slain the Earl of Moray/And laid him on the green.”

Some famous mondegreens you will hear are The Go Go’s first big hit “Our lips are sealed” but many thought it was actually “Alex the seal” whilst others misheard Belinda Carlisle’s vocals as “Our vicious seal”. Was Juice Newton a dental hygeine obsessed vocalist “just brush my teeth before you leave me” or did she really just want him to “touch her cheek” before departing the scene? In Pink Floyd’s “Brick in the wall” are ducks really a hazard in the classroom or were they more concerned with dark sarcasm? All will be revealed this Saturday morning between 10am and 12 noon on Radio Ga Ga. If you have a mondegreen suggestion, email it to studio@nullsouthernfm.com.au or SMS 0404 000736

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