Mondegreens and ‘We didn’t start the fire’

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This is an evergreen topic: Misunderstood song lyrics, also know as ‘mondegreens’. There are some classic ones everybody knows, and some where you wonder if they are truly mondegreens or not really attempts at humor. Why they are called ‘mondegreens’ and more of them ….

I was at a guitar workshop recently. It was really fun. 15 acoustic guitars, two electric ones, a key board and some volunteers for the singing came together to practice, arrange and record some songs together.

One of the songs we tackled was Amy Macdonald’s song: This is the life

I like Amy Macdonald, but I must admit, this one line of the chorus of this song always escaped me. I had an idea for the meaning of the whole song, but this one line….

And you’re singing the songs, thinking this is the life, and you wake up in the morning and you …….. hipposize ???

For some reason, I never checked the internet. Maybe because there was no really checkable internet when the song first came out, and later I just forgot. But having played it at the workshop, I now finally know what she sings and I am happy to have finally filled this blank 🙂 (And your head feels twice the size).

The following text is part of a longer article from the newsmagazine ‘Newsweek’:

50 Famously Misheard and Misunderstood Song Lyrics, Explained – Newsweek

The word mondegreen is defined as a misheard word or phrase that makes sense in your head, but is, in fact, incorrect. The term was coined in a November 1954 Harper’s Bazaar piece, where the author, Sylvia Wright, recalled a childhood mishearing. According to the author, when she was young her mother would read to her from a book called Reliques of Ancient Verse. Her favorite poem from the 1765 book went like this: “Ye Highland and Ye Lowlands / Oh where have you been? / They have slain the Earl o’Moray / And laid him on the green.” Wright, however, heard the last line as “And Lady Mondegreen.”

A mondegreen actually takes place between auditory perception (the physical act of hearing) and meaning-making (when our brains imbibe the noises with significance). This is essentially what happens in the childhood game of telephone. As one friend whispers a word or phrase into another’s ear, it can become wildly distorted, and a totally different word or phrase can come out the other side. The acoustic information that’s received and the interpretation a brain comes up with simply don’t match up. It’s not exactly entirely clear why this happens, we just know that it does.

Below you find some of the song lines discussed in the article above.

Can you name the song and the correct lines before checking the source (link above)?

  1. Hold me closer Tony Danza 
  2. We built this city on sausage rolls
  3. All the lonely Starbucks lovers
  4. A year passed by since I broke my nose
  5. This is the dawning of the Age of Asparagus
  6. Here we are now in containers
  7. Kicking your cat all over the place
  8. I want to hold your ham
  9. Then I saw her face, now I’m gonna leave her
  10. Wrapped up like a douche, another rumor in the night
  11. There’s a bathroom on the right
  12. Like a virgin, touched for the 31st time
  13. We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning said the worst attorney
  14. You’ve been outright offensive, for so long now
  15. There’s a wino down the road
  16. I travel the world in generic jeans
  17. See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen
  18. Poppadam preach
  19. Excuse me while I kiss this guy
  20. In a glob of Velveeta, honey
  21. The ants are my friend, they’re blowing in the wind
  22. The girl with colitis goes by
  23. I can see clearly now, Lorraine is gone
  24. It doesn’t make a difference if we’re naked or not

Number 13 has led to a follow up topic. In the verses of his song, Billy Joel lists loads of historical references before he sings the chorus: We didn’t start the fire.

There are many things you could do in class with this song, one being going through all the names and events mentioned and see if you can relate to them. How many do you know or even remember what they are about. How many actually are there? Probably too many for going through each and every single one, but just browse through and see which ones might grab your attention.

In 2023, the rockband Fall Out Boy covered the song, but rewrote the lyrics. Great. Really interesting to compare the two versions. Fall Out Boy didn’t list quite as many, but they do come close.

When we did this in one of my groups, we realized that not all references were to something ‘fiery’ and we wondered why they were included. In the end you could say, as the wikipedia entry above does, in both songs the list is one of cultural references and historical events in focus at different times (not all of them leading to fires that need(ed) to be fought.)

Billy Joel’s song spans the decades 1950ies to 1980ies, and ‘Fall Out Boy’ the decades after until today. Check both songs and maybe discuss if there are any events you miss.

All References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained | Britannica

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