Dire Straits “Money for nothing and chicks for free” |
It’s been six months,
She hasn’t shutup once.
-The Tubes-
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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. |
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
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