dear anon: this little post is a messed up version of a line in the song "First Few Desperate Hours," off the album "Tallahassee" by The Mountain Goats. the real line is actually not far off: "when cloven-hoof prints turn up in the garden..." i'm amused by my mis-hearing because of how it seems to have been generated. "Prince" came to my ear faster than "prints," but "Turnip" makes almost no sense, as you imply. of course, the word sounds like "turn up," but i suspect my mind wouldn't have fastened on "turnip" without "garden" following just after. because of the strength of that association, the mistake has cemented over time, so that i'm *always* now tempted to hear/sing "Prince Turnip," despite knowing what the actual lyric is. i think the story of Peter Rabbit is also playing into this. it's like my friend's mis-hearing of the Simon and Garfunkle line from "America": "I said, 'Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera." she heard, "...'Be careful, his BLOWTORCH is really a camera." this is, one, hilarious, but also semi-appropriate. suspecting that a fellow bus passenger is a spy associates him more closely with blowtorches than bowties, despite the words diverging quite widely after first syllable. we like to notice the way that the agents by which meaning is constructed through language can sometimes work against one another. see also the leotard/lyotard post below.
i love your explication of that little piece of mis-hearing. upon further review, i was pretty amused by the way a poem i hadn't read since high-school crept in to my mis-reading of your mis-hearing: lots of lines from "in just" begin "when..." and there's the "goat-footed" character, and garden :: spring? i like that. also, in general, mis-hearing lyrics? fun.
in other news, i was completely convinced during my initial infatuation w/ st. peter's in philly that (atheistic) rufus wainwright's chorus on "beautiful child" was "...beautiful child of God." (nope, just "...beautiful child again." alas!)
Your dear roommate just about ruined a line from Death Cab For Cutie's /I Will Follow You Into The Dark/ for me, when she did a Rudolph the Reindeer impression at "Illuminate the NOSE on their vacancy signs". =)
yes, andrew, but "illuminate the 'no's" sounds exactly the same as "illuminate the nose." that was a perfectly legitimate mistake, since nose is more common than "no"s.
my sister thought CCR's "there's a bad moon on the rise" was actually "there's a bathroom on the right." and how about jimi hendrix with "excuse me while i kiss this guy?"
as i recall, the FB misheard prince's seven: "all seven and we'll watch them fall, they stand in the way of love and we will smoke them all with that intellect and the sidewalk fair"
21 comments:
it reminds me oddly of cummings. but...?
mountain goats, revised.
dude, totally shoulda reminded me of that first. have been listening to nothing else. hmmph.
cf First Few Desperate Hours
speaking of coursers, your deer departed.
FB:
sometimes I follow you, and sometimes the stuff you say makes no sense at all.
desperately seeking context,
-your old anon friend
dear anon:
this little post is a messed up version of a line in the song "First Few Desperate Hours," off the album "Tallahassee" by The Mountain Goats. the real line is actually not far off: "when cloven-hoof prints turn up in the garden..."
i'm amused by my mis-hearing because of how it seems to have been generated. "Prince" came to my ear faster than "prints," but "Turnip" makes almost no sense, as you imply. of course, the word sounds like "turn up," but i suspect my mind wouldn't have fastened on "turnip" without "garden" following just after. because of the strength of that association, the mistake has cemented over time, so that i'm *always* now tempted to hear/sing "Prince Turnip," despite knowing what the actual lyric is. i think the story of Peter Rabbit is also playing into this.
it's like my friend's mis-hearing of the Simon and Garfunkle line from "America": "I said, 'Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera." she heard, "...'Be careful, his BLOWTORCH is really a camera."
this is, one, hilarious, but also semi-appropriate. suspecting that a fellow bus passenger is a spy associates him more closely with blowtorches than bowties, despite the words diverging quite widely after first syllable.
we like to notice the way that the agents by which meaning is constructed through language can sometimes work against one another. see also the leotard/lyotard post below.
dear the fb,
my blowtorch is really a camera!
i love your explication of that little piece of mis-hearing. upon further review, i was pretty amused by the way a poem i hadn't read since high-school crept in to my mis-reading of your mis-hearing: lots of lines from "in just" begin "when..." and there's the "goat-footed" character, and garden :: spring? i like that. also, in general, mis-hearing lyrics? fun.
in other news, i was completely convinced during my initial infatuation w/ st. peter's in philly that (atheistic) rufus wainwright's chorus on "beautiful child" was "...beautiful child of God." (nope, just "...beautiful child again." alas!)
hi amelia
hi ross!
Fire Boss--
Your dear roommate just about ruined a line from Death Cab For Cutie's /I Will Follow You Into The Dark/ for me, when she did a Rudolph the Reindeer impression at "Illuminate the NOSE on their vacancy signs". =)
am: yes, i never had the heart to correct you on the rufus lyric.
oh language! its pleasure! its ruination!
you never had the heart??? OUCH! (i'm still singing it that way, though.)
you liked it so much! why take that away?
yes, andrew, but "illuminate the 'no's" sounds exactly the same as "illuminate the nose." that was a perfectly legitimate mistake, since nose is more common than "no"s.
my sister thought CCR's "there's a bad moon on the rise" was actually "there's a bathroom on the right." and how about jimi hendrix with "excuse me while i kiss this guy?"
i still don't know if it's "count our blessings and our thumbs" or "count our blessings on our thumbs," or which is preferable.
er, "my blessings," whatever
when i was a fan i was a really big fan of both the beatles song and the nickelodeon television show..you know, hey dude.
there need to be more comments on this thread.
indeed there do. any other lyric mishaps to speak of?
as i recall, the FB misheard prince's seven:
"all seven and we'll watch them fall,
they stand in the way of love
and we will smoke them all
with that intellect and the sidewalk fair"
which should be "savoir faire"
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