The War of 1812: The Movie

Wikipedia Wanderings - 4.28.10

I’ve been entertaining myself at work (while working diligently, of course) by putting together a playlist of songs about people who are messed up on drugs or alcohol.  It led to my finding this list of Top 10 Heroin-Inspired Songs, and this list of The Top Ten Cocaine Songs of All Time.

This led to my going to Wikipedia to learn about all the different songs and versions of songs called “Cocaine Blues.”

I also hadn’t realized that the Stranglers’ song “Golden Brown” was about heroin, which led to…

“Golden Brown” - The Stranglers, #2 single in the UK, 1981

-> mondegreen - a misheard song lyric or line from poetry, coined by Sylvia Wright in Harper’s Magazine in 1954. She had misheard a line from the 17th-century ballad “The Bonny Earl of Murray” as “They have slain the Earl O’ Moray / and Lady Mondegreen.” The actual lyric is “And layd him on the green.” (A famous modern example would be Jimi Hendrix’s famous line, “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.”)

-> soramimi - from Japanese “empty ear,” or “mishearing,” is like a mondegreen, but from another language to like-sounding words in your own. 

Japanese comedian Tamori has had a long-running “Soramimi Hour” segment on his TV program Tamori Club, where he and his co-host watch mini-skits based on soramimi kashi submitted by the audience.

One example given is The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” becoming “idiotic public urination” (“Aho na hōnyōhan.”) For a great example into English, check out the YouTube videos of Buffalax, especially this one.

My personal soramimi example? These were the lyrics to the Beatles song “Michelle,” according to 6-year-old Jeff:

Michelle, my bell,
Sunday monkey won’t play piano song
Play piano song…