This week I'll be mostly in a very, very mad world

It's a very, very,
errr, mumble cough...

For years, in fact decades, a generation of us have convinced ourselves that we know exactly what Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith meant when they sang the line at the end of Mad World: "It's a very, very, mad world, halogeon world".  Or something like that.  When singing along in the back of the car, it was always best to cough or mumble at that point, rather than sing it out loud and embarrass yourself.  Conversations in the school playground, or in later years in the back of a Peugeot 505 estate on the A2, would always end badly: "I think it sounds like imagian."  "Imageean? That's not even a word!"  "Well neither is halogeon."

Of course misheard lyrics are nothing new.  There's a whole website (not a very good one) dedicated to the subject at kissthisguy.com.  Yes, yes, Hendrix: "Excuse me while I kiss this guy".  There was also a survey a while back, listing some favourites like: "See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen".

Surely the best are from Dharma and Greg: "She's a black magic woman, she's got to take a pebble out of me" and "I want to rock and roll all night and part of every day".

Then there's the all time favourite Billy Idol classic "Rabally Edge".  (You know who you are!)  ("Rabally? That's not even a word!"  "Well neither is halogeon.")

But back to Mad World.  For a few years now I've been convinced that it's "Illogical world".  That's certainly what they seem to be singing on 'Secret World - Live in Paris'.  But I've not met anyone with the original LP and lyric sheet to check.  I've never bumped into any kleptomaniac girls out there who might still have copies of Smash Hits dating back to 1982 and could dig out the special feature Tears For Fears lyrics page.

Of course we've got the internet now.  Lyrics.com, eLyrics.net, metrolyrics.org, some-other-useless-lyrics-site.co.uk, etc.  They are all, as we know, full of the same old ropey, spelling-mistake-infested, best-guess efforts, uploaded by people with too much time on their hands.  But it's always worth having a check.  I run a quick google of Mad World lyrics round about once every couple of years.  Nothing useful ever turns up.

So imagine my surprise (or "imagian" my surprise) to find the official word from Curt Smith on the subject.  Apparently, the line is "Halargian world".  Now I've got to tell you, that sounds like a wind-up to me.  Have a watch of this duet with Gary Jules and tell me you don't think he's messing with the lot of us.

I'm gonna stick with "illogical world".  Or maybe just mumbling and looking at the floor.