Do bluegrass and old-time singers mumble more when singing religious songs? Or are listeners more prone to get it wrong when hearing hymns and gospel songs? Either way I’m aware of more sacred mis-hearings than with songs with other themes.
“Wicked Path of Sin” was written by Bill Monroe and recorded by him in 1946 as a vocal quartet with mandolin breaks. Subsequent recordings by Wilma Lee & Stony Cooper and by The Stanley Brothers retained both the quartet format and the mandolin leads. All were outstanding performances. All were sung clearly. And yet the song produced an outstanding mondegreen:
In this awful world of sorrow
In this Wicked Pathos Inn
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In the mid 1990s Kate and I had a gig at a concert hall in a shopping mall in Vancouver BC. We were backstage waiting listening to the opening act. It was the fabulous duet Clifford Perry and Laurel Bliss with whom we would later tour in a double-duet show. We could hear their set clearly, or so we thought. But then they seemed to sing
I won’t have to cross Jordan alone
He’s assigned all my sins to a clone.
Well that sure stopped us in our mental tracks, you better b’lieve it.
The real words, we soon found out were
I won’t have to cross Jordan alone
Jesus died, all my sins to atone.
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In 1952 Don Reno and Red Smiley recorded a beautiful rendition of “I’m Using My Bible For A Roadmap”. The opening lines of the chorus produced two mondegreens. The real words are
There’ll be no detours in Heaven,
No rough roads along the way.
the mondegreens:
There’ll be no Negroes in Heaven
Nora froze along the way
“Nora froze” brings back memories of when I discovered Walt Kelly’s comic strip Pogo and the delight I took in its wordplay. I had just learned to read. One Christmas in the Sunday funnies Pogo featured a parody of “Deck The Halls With Boughs of Holly.”
A reminder of the real words:
Deck the halls with boughs of holly
Fa la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to be jolly
Fa la la la, la la la la.
The parody:
Deck us all with Boston Charlie
Walla Walla Wash and Kalamazoo
Nora’s freezin’ on the trolly
Swaller dollar cauliflower
All-ey-ga-roo
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“Just A Little Talk With Jesus” has been recorded many times and sung countless more times in homes, churches, and jam sessions.
The first line of the chorus is
Now let us have a little talk with Jesus
I expect it was a child who heard this mondegreen:
Now let us have a little chocolate Jesus
And why not? Chocolate Easter bunnies abound at Easter. Why not chocolate Jesuses? In the mind of a child, I mean.
“Just A Little Talk With Jesus” was composed by Cleavant Derricks and published by Stamps-Baxter in 1937. I first heard it by the Virginia Trio featuring the three part harmony singing of Jim and Jesse McReynolds with Larry Roll. I was about 12 years old. Jesse’s mandolin playing was just about the greatest thing I had ever heard. I had been playing mandolin about a year. I knew exactly what he was doing and I could tell how he did it. And I couldn’t do it. That’s what it’s like to be 12.
Seven years later I heard the song again. I was in the Bahamas with Peter Siegel, sitting in Edith Pinder’s backyard hearing a new “greatest thing I had ever heard” and recording it too. Edith was a fabulous singer. The singing of her daughter Geneva and husband Raymond kept her tethered to earth while her brother Joseph Spence, the greatest guitar player I had ever heard, played astonishing accompaniment. He became world famous as a soloist. This was deserved but this was only half of his music. I think he was at his best when he accompanied singers.
He was also a first class mondegreen generator. He can be heard on a concert recording singing “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” as
Will The Serpent Be Unbroken.
That’s already an immortal mondegreen but it gets better. He follows up his first utterance of that line with spoken words:
“I dunno if it’s a snake or what”
and later he laughs and says, in case nobody noticed:
“I don’t know the words.”
Our recordings of Spence and The Pinder Family can be heard on various Nonsuch and Rounder albums. They sound just as good today.
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I was about 14 when I heard a recording by Don Reno and Red Smiley called “Passing of Time”.
I was puzzled when they seemed to sing
Just another Decca lotion to heaven
With the passing of time.
I had some Decca records and I aware of pink calamine lotion but what the heck was “Decca lotion”?
Later I found out they were actually singing
Just another day closer to heaven.
Another Reno and Smiley gospel song was “Springtime In Heaven”. The first verse begins
God promised us a mansion up yonder in the sky
I heard it right but some of my teenage friends heard something else:
God promised us some action up yonder in the sky
It’s easy to hear Red Smiley’s vocal that way.
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Albert Brumley composed “I’ll Fly Away” nearly 100 years ago. It is said to be the most-recorded gospel song. And yet it produced a mondegreen.
It begins:
Some bright morning when this world is o’er
I’ll fly away, fly away
But someone thought they heard:
Some bright morning when this world is o’er
I’ll fry an egg, fry an egg.
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In the early 1960s someone asked a friend of mine
"What’s a fen-dory?”
It turned out to be a reference to the Flatt & Scruggs recording of “Reunion In Heaven”. The chorus begins
What a wonderful time we’ll have up in glory.
The mondegreen was
What a wonderful time —— we’ll have a fen-dory!
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I was about 14 or so when I found a 7 inch Decca record (without lotion) that raised the hair on the back of my neck. The singing and playing were scary good. It was Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Quartet singing “Lord Protect My Soul”. One of the verses ends :
You’ll find out that your silver and gold
Won’t pay the price to protect your soul
What I thought I heard was
You’ll find out that your shivering bones
Won’t pay the price etc
Another mondegreen of that same line of verse comes from Japan:
You’ll find out that your shivering boats
Won’t pay the price to protect your soul.
Not much of a rhyme but what an image!
Another quartet from the same group on the other side of the record was “Walking In Jerusalem Just Like John”.
I heard this (and still do):
Oh Judas praises at the homey’s shoulder
I’ll meet you there at the first cross over
I have no idea what the real words are. It is usually transcribed as
Jesus took the cross upon his shoulder
But it doesn’t sound like that on this record.
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In 1951 Bill Monroe’s older brother Charlie recorded “My Lord’s Gonna Move This Wicked Race”. The last line of the first verse goes
Said he’s gonna raise, gonna raise him up a nation
That shall obey, that shall obey.
Can you guess the mondegreen? It’s a perfect homonym.
Said he’s gonna raise, gonna raise him up a nation
That shallow bay, that shallow bay.
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