more on mondegreens

I've posted before about "mondegreens" — those lyrics, usually in popular song, that everybody just seems to hear wrong.

In general, they happen when there's a phrase that hits wrong in some way. Maybe it's just stressed on the wrong syllable. That other post is about Taylor Swift's famous "all the lonely Starbucks lovers," which is really "got a LONG listOF ex-LOVers," which is how you'd never say it.

Sometimes, it's just sloppy enunciation from the singer, especially in genres like rock-n-roll, where sloppy enunciation is considered enviable. "Louie Louie" got the FBI to waste millions of American taxpayer dollars, just from sloppiness.

But, other times, it's a phrase no one would ever say. Think of one of the most misunderstood lyrics in American pop: "revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night." 

That phrase is great poetry. If you told someone that it was W. H. Auden, they might believe you.

Revved up

like a deuce

another runner in the night

But it's terrible pop music. No one would ever ever say that. Period. 

In pop you have to say things the way people say them. It's a demotic art. That's the whole point.

On the plus side, it *sounds* great, just in terms of a bunch of sounds. Unlike Swift's LONG list OF ex-lovers, this matches word to musical rhythm perfectly. 

Sing it out — go ahead, out loud, right now: "Revved up lack a deuce, anuther runner in tha naight!!" It's got a great rock-n-roll mouthfeel.

But it's still a terrible pop lyric. And, because it's something no one would really say, people misunderstand it all the time.