I was exercising yesterday morning listening to Bob Dylan(remembering my college fitness level) when I heard a song from his Blonde on Blonde album. My vinyl copy of the set has “Tepperman” written on it. Since I know no one named Tepperman I assume I borrowed it from someone who had borrowed it. At any rate if you happen to read my blog, I have your album.
As Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again played I remembered that the lyrics always made me think of me caught inside one of Alexander Calder’s giant mobiles. It seemed an apt description of some states of mind and I never questioned the image.
Years later Charlie and I were at a Bob Dylan concert when he whispered to me “This is the only song about Mobile, Alabama.” Since Charlie is from Mobile I realized, much to my chagrin, that I had misheard the lyrics for years. The singer, stuck in Alabama, would have much preferred to be in Memphis, Tennessee.
I began to think of other words I have misheard. As a child I thought that the Pledge of Allegiance referred to “one country invisible” instead of “one country indivisible.” With the present state of things I may have been on to something. At Christmas I sang happily of the “round young virgin”(’round yon virgin) in the carol. Made sense to me.
I hope you will add some of your own misheard lyrics.
Saved By Words 
The album Hunky Dory by David Bowie is one of my all-time favourites. On the track ‘Andy Warhol’, these are the opening lyrics.
“Like to take a cement fix
Be a standing cinema
Dress my friends up just for show
See them as they really are”
As it was about Warhol, I heard the first line as ‘Semen fix’, and for many years believed that to be the case. Then one evening a friend was discussing what Bowie meant by a ‘Cement fix’, and I realised my mistake. 🙂
(I did tell her, and she laughed.)
Best wishes, Pete.
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Your hearing actually makes more sense.
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My feisty dad belted out a Sunday School song, singing “FIGHT in the corner where you are.”. It should have been “BRIGHTEN the corner where you are.”
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Sounds reasonable to me.
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Great post. I’m sure I’ve misheard or misunderstood lyrics but can’t recall at this moment. I do know that I never understood the lyrics to the song, ‘Louie, Louie’, the Kingsmen version. But, like a lot of people, when dancing to it in the 60s, I’m sure that I sang the dirty lyrics. Even today, if you listen, it’s hard to understand them. Ahhh, the 60s, what a time to be a young person😎😂
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Were there any actual lyrics? Wouldn’t that be funny if they mumbled on purpose to keep us guessing.
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Yours is a wonderful example. My favourite was the schoolboy singing of “our souls” in church
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I bet a lot of us misheard lyrics in church.
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As someone familiar with many old songs, I happened to know that the song you mention is not the only song about Mobile — there are several others, including one which goes back even farther than this Waylon Jennings’ rendition:
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Wait until I tell Charlie. He will be delighted. Even though he lives in Yankee country he still has his Southern roots.
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I can relate to doing this quite often.
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Ha! This has happened to me more frequently than I care to admit! I remember years ago saying to my brother, ‘I love that new song about Canada.’ Which song?’, he asked. ‘You know the one, I said and sang it, ‘Can-a-da. You sure do shine.” He looked at me incredulously and said, ‘you mean, DIAMOND GIRL?’ Um, I guess I do! 😉 🙂
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Perfect. My daughter thought the song “smile on your brother” was smile on your booger when she was three. It cracked her up.
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Heehee! That would crack me up too! 😉 🙂
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And in one of those odd twists I found out that misheard words or phrases that make sense are called eggcorbs
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I will use that word from now on. Dazzle my friends with my arcane knowledge.
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Hubby & I were talking about this last night Elizabeth with the song ‘Kumbaya, my Lord’, I did some research & found the original lyrics are ‘Come by here, my Lord’! But accents lent it to ‘Kumbaya’ a song we often sang here in childhood & I often wondered what that word meant. Now I know!
Blessings, Jennifer
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I love that you found that. For some reason I learned this at the same time I learned Kumbaya and it has always been a comfort.
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😊
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