When You Wrote Me Off Like Iowans Do
This Clay Aiken lament proves that mondegreens are alive and well in popular music lyrics

By: John Shepler

One of the things that I loved about Clay Aiken during the American Idol competition was his clear, distinct voice on music lyrics. As soon as his first album length CD, "Measure of a Man", was available, I got a copy and popped it in the car's CD player. Once again, I was enjoying the clarity of Clay Aiken's voice in stereophonic brilliance. I knew the songs were specially selected to produce a work of creativity and high class music. Imagine my shock when halfway through the CD I heard him sing:

"And when you wrote me off like Iowans do...."

What could Iowans possibly have against Clay Aiken? His clean cut charms seem tailor made for Midwestern values. I thought it was only presidential candidates who got pummeled in Iowa.

I listened again. It sure sounded like the Hawkeye State was more than a little disgusted with the American Idol finals. I pointed out this fact to my wife, sitting next to me in the car.

"You idiot," she exclaimed, "like I was doomed. He's singing "when you wrote me off like I was doomed" not like Iowans do. The song's got nothing to do with Iowans."

And so another mondegreen is born. Mondegreen is the classy term for misunderstood song lyric. Mondegreen refers to Lady Mondegreen, the subject of a folk song that Sylvia Wright thought she had heard in childhood within the lyrics "They had slain the Earl of Moray and Lady Mondegreen." Many years later, Sylvia discovered that the real lyrics of the song were "They had slain the Earl of Moray and laid him on the green." She described this in a 1954 magazine article for the Atlantic and coined the term mondegreen to refer to any misunderstood song lyric.

So, why do we hear mondegreens? In my case it might be a misspent youth in radio broadcasting with headphones cranked way too high. Now I'm grateful that I can still hear lyrics at all, even if they do sound like something other than the songwriter intended. For others, rock and roll concerts have probably taken their toll, along with squealing children, lawn mowers, hostile bosses, factory machinery and just about any vacuum cleaner. No wonder we need volume controls now to boost our telephone conversations. We Boomers are headed down that one way slide into geezer territory and bionic enhancements (they used to be called hearing aids).

That doesn't completely explain the phenomena. Teenagers routinely report hearing mondegreens on their CD and MP3 players. Some of this might be blamed on audio distortion induced by low battery voltage or headphones that have taken too much of a beating. Some is probably fairly attributed to the music recording process, which uses sophisticated audio processing equipment to tailor the quality of the voices and instruments. Indeed, some producers have gotten so sophisticated that they can likely get by without any lyrics at all. You can't possibly understand a word the singer is uttering underneath those fuzzy guitars and overpowering drums, so why pay good money for songwriter royalties?

The real truth is probably just human nature. We see ghosts and hear things go bump in the night. Why wouldn't we hear alternative song lyrics? And hear them we do. In fact, mondegreens have been the subject of no less than four books by Gavin Edwards. My favorite is "Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy: And Other Misheard Lyrics." The title is based on a famous Jimi Hendrix song called "Purple Haze." In the late 1960's a lot of people walked around in their own personal purple haze. They heard nothing odd in the lyric, "scuse me while I kiss the sky." Today we might question that as a potential mondegreen. What others heard in that song was a real mondegreen, "scuse me while I kiss this guy."

Gavin Edwards, Jon Carroll, Scot Hacker and others are dedicated to finding and archiving mondegreens for the education of current and future generations. It just isn't right to let people go on thinking that the legendary musician-poet Bob Dylan would pen such a line as "the ants are my friend, they're blowin' in the wind." Any self-respecting survivor of the flower power generation has a duty to make sure we know "the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind." We may be less inclined to right the wrong being done to the Creedence Clearwater Revival lyric, "there is a bad moon on the rise." Many of us still sing "there is a bathroom on the right," and see no particular long term harm in it.

As far as Clay Aiken is concerned, I now clearly understand that he is in no way dissing the fine citizenry of the great state of Iowa, nor are they dissing him. However, I'm still not sure I completely understand every nuance of the messages in "Measure of a Man." Sure wish they had printed song lyrics on the back of that poster inside the box. But then, wouldn't that take half of the fun out of listening to music?

Now, where DID I put that ear wax remover?

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Books of Interest:

Learning to Sing by Clay Aiken. All about his life, his dreams and what it all means to him. If you love Clay, you must have this.

When a Man Loves a Walnut: And Even More Misheard Lyrics by Gavin Edwards. The author who gave you two other volumes of misunderstood song lyrics, "Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Pants," returns. This edition pokes fun at hard-to-understand warblings from such rockers as Nine Inch Nails, Pearl Jam, and Bruce Springsteen.

Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly: And Other Misheard Christmas Lyrics by Gavin Edwards, Ted Stearn (Illustrator). Not even Christmas songs are not immune from being misunderstood. How about "He's making a list, chicken and rice." Too much Christmas cheer can be hard on the lyrics.

Also visit Books-A-Million for an excellent selection of new books, magazines, e-books, audio books and more at low, low prices. Who is Books-A-Million?

For more exciting posters, visit our John Shepler Poster Store and our New Art Under Glass .com for the best in fine art prints at excellent prices.

Also visit these related sites:

Measure of a Man - Buy Clay Aiken's album from Barnes&Noble.com and decide for yourself what the lyrics say.

What Did That Song Say? - Read my original take on mondegreens and how they are everywhere from cartoons to Christmas carols.

All My Love and Kisses - A virtual fireworks of kisses explodes on your screen, accompanied by music. A dancing page of passion to light the fires of romance. See if you can identify the musical background!

American Idol on Fox - The "voice of the people" is likely to change the face of the music industry far beyond what anyone imagined when this talent show was launched. Keep up with what is happening on American Idol on this official site.

Clay Aiken .com - The official site for tour dates and news about Clay.

Contact Clay Aiken - Write to today's pop stars and let them know what you hear in their songs.

High Speed Internet Service - FREE instant online availability and pricing check for DSL and Cable Internet service. Take half a minute and see what's available for your location.

 

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© 2003 - 2008 by John E. Shepler. Linking to this article is welcome, but no online republication is permitted. Print media republication rights are available at reasonable rates. Contact me at: John (at) JohnShepler.com

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First Published: October 18, 2003

Last Updated: April 6, 2008

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