"A Greek Calliope" & other misheard song lyrics

This is Calliope, the Muse of Epic Poetry in Greek mythology.

This is Katy Perry, who does not sing about Calliope.

I like to sing.  Loudly, and mostly in the privacy of my house or car.  Since I spend a lot of time chauffeuring kids around in my minivan, I do much of my singing while driving.  For singing aloud, I don't claim any sort of refined taste in music.  Catchy tunes are best.

Speaking of catchy tunes, I really like the Katy Perry song "Roar."  It's a motivating and empowering sort of pop anthem.  I sing it loudly whenever it comes on the radio.  This is surprising, I know, but my teenage sons do not pay attention to me when I sing loudly in the car.  They tune me out as best they can and may even pretend I'm not there.  Ear buds are sometimes deployed.  But my daughter, who is eleven, often sings along with me.  At the very least, she pays attention to what I'm singing.  So, several weeks ago, when we were running errands, "Roar" was playing on the radio.  I'm belting out - "So I sat quietly, a Greek Calliope..."  

I'd been singing that exact lyric for months.  But on this occasion, my daughter says, "Um, mom, I don't think that's what she's saying."  And at that moment, I knew that Katy Perry probably would not be singing about Calliope.  A bit too erudite, I think.  Also, it doesn't make any sense.  In Greek mythology, Calliope is the muse of epic poetry.   She's said to be Homer's muse for the Iliad and the Odyssey.  It wouldn't make sense to refer to Calliope - a muse, an inspiration for Homer's epics - in the same line as "so I sat quietly."  But I did so love singing it that way!  And Katy Perry isn't my only victim.  At one point, I thought the chorus/title to the popular Taylor Swift song "Twenty Two" was "Swimsuit." Which doesn't make sense at all.  But I guess I didn't think about it too much.  I mostly focus on the part "dress up like hipsters," because I live in a neighborhood that actually has a lot of hipsters in it.  Although, I don't dress up like them.   

I don't always take song lyrics so lightly.  There are songs that have special meaning to me, and music whose words inspire me.  But when it comes to catchy tunes, my desire to sing is apparently much stronger than my interest in accurately understanding the words.  Sometimes, I don't even really try to understand the lyrics.  "Every Rose Has a Thorn" by Poison was on the radio the other day.  I was singing along, and my daughter asked me, "What's he saying?"  My response: "I'm not sure.  I just kind of make it up.  You know - Greek Calliope."  "Greek Calliope" has become my code word for "just making stuff up."    

I discovered, just today, that there is actually a word for this sort of mishearing.  It's called "mondegreen."  Mondegreen, according to Merriam Webster, is "a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung."  The word's origin comes from the mishearing in a Scottish ballad of “laid him on the green” as “Lady Mondegreen.”  I really do learn something new every day, whether it's the precise lyrics to a song or the word to describe mishearing them! 

*****

What song lyrics have you misheard?

Katy Perry’s Lyrics	Mary’s version
I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath Scared to rock the boat and make a mess So I sat quietly, agreed politely	I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath Scared to rock the boat and make a mess So I sat quietly, a Greek Calliope