“If music be the food of love”… Tricia McGill

Find Amethyst and all my other books here on my BWL author page

“Then play on.” Please. William S certainly had a way with words. My English teacher at high school had a passion for Shakespeare and even kept a miniature statue of his bust on her desk. Unfortunately for silly young me, I didn’t appreciate his works way back then and was more into soppy romances as my mother called them. William sure had a good idea of what love was all about. “The course of true love never did run smooth” is another of his good lines. Visit this site and see many of his other famous quotes: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/william_shakespeare

However, this blog is not about him or other playwrights or dramatists, but more about songwriters. I have always wanted to write lyrics, but never possessed a musical bone in my body. I was encouraged years ago by my family never to sing at family gatherings again as I am so out of tune it is not funny. But, I love listening to lyrics when they tell a good story. I am not a fan of modern music unless it be country. I’m a died in the wool country music fan. I love Country music so much, especially when the lyrics almost bring me to tears as they tell of a broken heart or reminisce about a perfect, but poor, childhood much like the one I had.

Elton John is not a Country music man, but his Lyricist Bernie Taupin is a master of telling a story in a song. Add Elton’s music and you have a perfect match. I have many favourite Country musicians but my number one is Alan Jackson. Strangely, I rarely listen to music while writing as I find it draws me out of my story while I am busily singing along. I never listen to the radio while driving (can’t take the ads) but always have my own music playing and probably know the words to just about every top hit that Alan Jackson has produced. I became familiar with his work in my line dancing days. That man has certainly mastered his craft. Anyway, I can sing off key to my heart’s content while alone in the car. When the dogs are with me they often bark and it just occurred to me that perhaps they are telling me to shut up!

Of course, I can’t list all my Alan J favourites but here is just a small selection, and I hope you can see where I am coming from.

Here in the Real World:

Cowboys don't cry, and heroes don't die
Good always wins, again and again
And love is a sweet dream, that always comes true
Oh, if life were like the movies, I'd never be blue
But here in the real world, it's not that easy at all
'Cause when hearts get broken, it's real tears that fall
And darlin' it's sad but true, but the one thing I've learned from you
Is how the boy don't always get the girl, here in the real world

(Sad but so true for lots of people)

House With no Curtains:

We still wear our rings
We still say I love you
We both play the part oh so well
But everyone knows
It's just a sad show
And we're only foolin' ourselves
It's like living in a house with no curtains
The whole world can see what's inside
You can turn out the lights in a house with no curtains
But heartache has nowhere to hide

And here is the chorus to one of my all-time favourites, Small Town Southern Man:

And he bowed his head to Jesus
And he stood for Uncle Sam
And he only loved one woman
(He) was always proud of what he had
He said his greatest contribution
Is the ones you leave behind
Raised on the ways and gentle kindness
Of a small town Southern man

Remember When.

Remember when
I was young and so were you
And time stood still and love was all we knew
You were the first, so was I
We made love and then you cried

Of course, it helps if you also hear the music that goes along with the words, but if you would like to see more of his lyrics then go here: https://www.azlyrics.com/j/jacksonal.html

Kenny Rogers is another whose music I can listen to all day and all night (and often do at night) No one sings a song about unrequited love quite like Kenny.

The words written by Bonnie Raitt to “I can’t make you love me” are probably just about the saddest song of unreturned love, ever, and it has been sung by a few but none make me want to weep for lost love as Kenny can.

'Cause I can't make you love me if you don't
You can't make your heart feel something it won't

Another tearjerker that Kenny sings plaintively is, “Share your Love With me” written by Bobby Blue Bland

It's an ill wind that blows no good
And it's a sad heart that won't love like it should
Oh, how lonesome you must be, and it's a shame
If you don't share your love with me.

While driving back from taking the doggies for a walk in the park this morning, this Kenny favourite played and I realised I just cannot leave it off my list.

Handprints on the Wall: Songwriters Nelson Blanchard and Scott Innes

Days go by so quickly
Summer turns to fall
Seems like only yesterday
That you began to crawl
So don't be afraid to take that step
I'll catch you when you fall
I don't mind if you leave behind
A few hand prints on the wall

If you don’t join me in thinking this is one of the best songs ever written about a father’s love for his child then take a look at this video with Kenny singing that a guy put up on YouTube after the birth of his twins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGyzIEPNnd4

I defy you not to be moved.

Okay, perhaps these songs are not always perfect grammatically, but add great music to the words and without doubt they touch the heart, and isn’t that what we all wish with our writing.

Let me finish with the words of Abba:

“So I say,
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing. Thanks for all the joy they're bringing.”

How barren the world would be without music—no matter what your preference.

My Web Page

I'll Never Leave Your Pizza Burning: An examination of misheard words, phrases and lyrics, by Kathy Fischer-Brown

The English language is rich with idioms, odd turns of phrase, and regional colloquialisms. For a foreigner trying to learn English (whether it be of the American, British, or other variety), it can be a daunting task...even tricky…to say the least. Same with children just starting to talk. How we hear and interpret these words and phrases can often have a lasting effect on how we speak them.

Which brings me to one of most entertaining…and even amusing... of these curiosities of warped perception, the “mondegreen."

Coined in “The Death of Lady Mondegreen,” a November 1954 essay published in Harper’s Magazine, the mondegreen was writer Sylvia Wright’s explanation for misheard words in a favorite poem of her childhood. The Bonnie Earl o'Moray from Thomas Percy’s “Relics of Ancient English Poetry” contains the following:

Ye Hielands and ye Lowlands,
O, whaur hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl o' Moray,
And laid him on the green.

To Ms. Wright’s young ears, the words sounded like this:

Ye Hielands and ye Lowlands,
O, whaur hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl Amurray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

To quote the author, "The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original."

Better? Judge for yourself.  How many of you, having listened to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon,” misheard a certain lyric as I did? (“There’s a bathroom on the right”—surely useful information.) The Beatles were masters of creating mondegreens. For example: “The girl with colitis goes by,” "She's got a chicken to ride," and “All my luggage...” The Rolling Stones in "Beast of Burden" promise, “I’ll never leave your pizza burning” (I'd have no other guy). Annie Lennox had it right when she  promised, "Sweet dreams are made of cheese." And what about that cute, cuddly critter, “Gladly, the Cross-eyed Bear"? National anthems are not immune, and in this instance, more than true: “O, Canada, I stand on cars and freeze.” For all you Boomers, did you know that Davey Crockett was “killed in a bar when he was only three”? Let’s not forget The Young Rascals and their loving threesome, “You and me and Leslie.” But the most famous of all has to be Jimi Hendrix with his “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.” I could go on.... But I'm sure we all have our own personal mondegreens.

I first became acquainted with mondegreens in a hilarious 1978 article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, titled “I Led the Pigeons to the Flag,” in which William Safire, tongue in cheek, stated that some guy named Richard Stans was the most saluted man in America. Despite his politics, I was a big fan of  Safire's "On Language" column, reading it religiously every week. This one, in which he tackles the "misheard," was arguably one of his best. He called the misinterpretation of words and phrases “false homonyms,” or “The Guylum Bardo Syndrome.” He presented a lovely thesis on how some misheard words and phrases have actually found permanence in our lexicon. He cited a few etymologies, such as the evolution of “spit 'n’ image”—often spelled now as “spitting image”—and how “kit and caboodle” is sometimes written “kitten caboodle,” which he described as “a good name for a satchel in which to carry a cat.”

"Mondegreen" turned out to be Safire’s preferred label for this phenomenon of substituting perfectly reasonable words where the actual ones are ripe for misinterpretation. It also lends support to Wright's assertion that modegreens are, in many cases, better than the actual rendition. This is especially apparent as it applies to the poor Earl o’Moray.

Safire closed his brilliant piece by expressing how much more romantic and appropriate it is that, instead of simply being “laid on the green” to die a cold and lonely death, the earl had company. Perhaps he even held the hand of the beautiful Lady Mondegreen, “both bleeding profusely, but faithful unto death.”

Yes, I will agree with Sylvia Wright. Some mondegreens are infinitely better than the original.

 

Links to Sites Featuring Mondegreens

(Not by any means comprehensive)

The Phrase Finder

Senior Times

Kiss This Guy

Kathy Fischer-Brown is an author of historical fiction, whose novels are published by BWL Publishing, Inc. Find her at: http://bwlpublishing.ca/authors/fischer-brown-kathy/
or
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004BMAG7U