From
MLive.com
Bumbling through life with a head full of mondegreens
Brad Flory,
brad@lifeinplaid.com
September 10, 2014 at 1:42 PM
Pop superstar Stevie Nicks probably would consider me a poor listener. MLive file photo.
JACKSON, MI – Shame is easier to bear now that my social impairment has a name and a scientific basis.
The disease is called mondegreenism, and my case is severe. It's a chronic failure to correctly hear and comprehend song lyrics.
Laugh if you must.
Song-related disorders sound trivial to normal people, but a certain stigma is felt by those who battle this affliction.
My latest embarrassment came two weeks ago, when I sang along with the car radio to a classic hit song by Stevie Nicks.
"Just like the word we know," I sang. "Sings a song something-something singing."
My wife, who has witnessed many such episodes during her difficult years at my side, turned in disbelief.
"Even you cannot possibly listen to that song and hear 'just like the word we know,'" she said. "It's 'just like the white winged dove.' WHI-tte Wing-ED Dove."
The shock was profound.
"Are you telling me she's singing about birds?" I yelped. "Who cares about birds?"
Patiently my spouse explained that doves are not the point of the song, but I was lost. Incapacitated by mondegreenism, I had no clue what Stevie Nicks was saying even after hearing it for three decades.
Dozens more examples could be cited, because this began in childhood. I have only a dim idea of what some of my favorite songs are about. Time and again, the lyrics I hear prove to be absurdly wrong.
People assume I am a poor listener, and maybe they are right. But now I have an excuse.
"Did you know there is a word for messed-up song lyrics like the ones you hear?" my wife asked one recent day. "They're called mondegreens."
Running to the dictionary, I found this definition: "a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung." The first known use of the word was in 1954.
Further research revealed certain people feel prone to mondegreenism, and scientists actually study how songs are processed between human ears.
One study found music is handled in part of the brain called the superior temporal sulcus, or STS, according to a 2010 article in NewScientist magazine.
"In the middle of the STS, the lyrics and tune were being processed as a single signal. But in the anterior STS, only the lyrics seemed to be processed," the article said.
Next time you hear someone sing ridiculously incorrect lines to a song, remember that we have brain damage. Our anterior superior temporal sulci don't work right.
Bumbling through life with a head full of mondegreens is no picnic, but the stigma feels better with an excuse. It's not me, Stevie, it's my sulcus.