We Built This City on Sausage Rolls

And other misheard lyrics in my life.

Howdy Horn Honkers.

The other night my pal Tommy and I were on Twitter in our DMs discussing one of our favourite subjects: Bob Dylan.

We’re both wide-ranging music fans so there’s a few crossroads where we handily meet up, put our feet up and chat a while. Bob Dylan is one of those rest stops.

I mentioned I recently read the lyrics for Dylan’s “Jokerman” and was disappointed to find I’d heard a phrase in the song incorrectly.

Tommy countered with a misheard lyric from “Tangled Up In Blue” that it turns out we both misinterpreted and suddenly I realized I’d been singing it wrong since I was 12.

I was shook.

“Mondegreen" is the proper definition for a misheard lyric. In other words (pun intended) when you were a child and thought the song was called “He’s Got The Whole World In His Pants” that’s what that was. There’s even a book by Gavin Edwards with that title, chockfull of misheard song lyrics, a few of which I contributed when he put out a call years ago.

There’s so many mondegreens floating around the sound waves that Edwards wrote two more books on the subject, “When A Man Loves A Walnut” and “‘Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy.”

While misheard lyrics are not exclusive to rock music they flourish in the genre. Especially in classic rock. Back then we might have first heard a song on AM/FM radio in the car (not the best sound quality) or perhaps got song lyrics sideways because one or more of us was higher than God’s hairline.