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".

This week I'll be mostly mishearing lyrics

Let me screw this into your shoe?

Now I've been wanting to put together a misheard lyrics vid for YouTube for about a year now. I keep getting started with something, but never really get very far.

I was reminded of this when, for reasons that I won't go into at this point, someone read out a handful of French sentences to me over the phone last night which I was required to write down.

But having French sentences read out to me over the phone is nothing to do with this week's blog. My point is, however, that those pesky French don't pronounce just about any of the letters in the entire alphabet. I mean, why bother putting 's' or 't' or even 'x' on the end of a word if you are just going to say 'uh' instead?

Moving on (and trying to get to some sort of point (please (I hear you say)))...

So here's the thing. Trying to understand these French sentences that were being read out to me over the phone is suspiciously similar to trying to understand the lyrics to just about any Earth Wind and Fire song. When we were on holiday a while back, we fell about in the car while listening to EW&F's Let's Groove, convinced that the chorus went "Let me screw this into your shoe, It's alight! Aaalight!"

So, back to YouTube. It's all well and good coming up with a misheard lyrics vid, but you've got to pick your song carefully. The classic misheard is of course Wishmaster, with almost 5 million views at the time of writing.

So, I've decided on an Earth Wind & Fire track (and no, it's not Let's Groove), and I've got the lyrics mostly sorted. Got the storyboard sorted too. Just need the drawings (hello Abbie), and to remember the password to the YouTube account that I opened a year ago and never used.

Might have it finished by this time next year. Don't hold your breath.