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There are no ‘Starbucks lovers’ in Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” — why do we keep botching song lyrics, Vinay Menon wonders.
Starbucks curated a Taylor Swift playlist to celebrate her Eras Tour this summer.
As TMZ reported at the time: “Cleverly, the playlist is called ‘Starbucks Lovers’ — referencing the line in ‘Blank Space’ — and it has 122 tracks!”
Yes, this would be clever — if Ms. Swift had name-checked the java behemoth in her monster hit. But the lyric Swifties and TMZ still hear as “all the lonely Starbucks lovers” is actually “got a long list of ex-lovers.” No Starbucks.
In addition to ruling the universe, Taylor is also the Queen of the Mondegreen, a term Oxford defines as “a misunderstood or misinterpreted word or phrase resulting from a hearing of the lyrics of a song.”
She sings the words “saddest fear.” People hear “stratosphere.” She sings “you come and pick me up no headlights.” People hear “you come and pick me up no head lice.” I pray she never sings, “I’m shaking up with gravis melts, see.” Her fans might hear “I’m breaking up with Travis Kelce” and burn Arrowhead Stadium to the ground.
This week, scientists announced they had discovered the cause of itching. Per NPR, it’s a bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, that releases an enzyme triggering the urge to scratch. This is me scratching my head. But now that this medical mystery is solved, it’s time for scientists to figure out why our ears keep tricking us when we listen to music.
Business Insider rounded up the “funniest misheard lyrics of all time” this month.
These include an Elton John classic, in which many listeners wrongly replace the titular “Tiny Dancer” with “Tony Danza.” Selena Gomez’s “Good for You” includes the line, “I’m 14 carats.” She may regret not going with a higher precious metal weight after many of her fans believed she was making a scatological confession: “I’m farting carrots.”
ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” includes the chorus, “See that girl / Watch that scene / Diggin’ the Dancing Queen.” But to some, this disco homage still gets mistranslated as a diabolical Stephen King plot: “See that girl / Watch her scream / Kicking the Dancing Queen.”
Last month, to raise awareness for hearing loss, Rick Astley re-recorded “Never Gonna Give You Up” — with the misheard lyrics.
A couple of years ago, people debated the first line of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.” Some swear Mary’s dress “sways.” Others say Mary’s dress “waves.” This is the sonic equivalent of that 2017 viral photo brouhaha in which some viewers believed a dress was blue-and-black while others declared it white-and-gold. Even neuroscientists weighed in on rods-and-cones synaptic perception and chromatic adaptation.
Here’s the thing: if the high foreheads can get serious about dresses, itching and, also this week, the causal link between red wine and headaches, why not study mondegreens?
I would appreciate an explanation as to why I still botch lyrics in everything from the Beatles to the Shins, Lady Gaga to Lana Del Rey, Prince to Public Enemy. What’s wrong with me? Why is my brain imagining words? And could this phenomenon somehow be related to why I also struggle to decipher my wife’s weekend chore list?
Friends, please listen to Steve Winwood’s “Valerie.” Really concentrate when he sings: “Love songs fill the night / But they don’t tell it all / Not how lovers cry out / Just like they’re dying.” To this day, swear on my life, I hear that last line as, “Just like Dan Daoust.”
It makes no sense. Why would a British singer mention an ’80s defensive forward and faceoff specialist on the Toronto Maple Leafs in a song about a woman named Valerie? Now, a psychologist might say, “Well, you first heard that song as a kid when you were obsessed with the Leafs and this created an aural and cognitive cross-signal.”
But if that were true, I’d also hear “Bill Root” in the Imagine Dragons and “Miroslav Frycer” in “Son of a Preacher Man.” I do not. I just hear “Dan Daoust” in “Valerie.” By the way, Swifties and TMZ, I also hear “Starbucks Lover,” as does Taylor’s mother.
A couple of weeks ago, the Hollywood Reporter published a story about misheard lyrics in popular music. These included Starship’s “We Built This City,” which was built on “rock and roll,” not “sausage rolls.” Celine Dion will have you know the heart — not hot dogs — goes on. Adele is chasing pavements, not penguins. And in “The Final Countdown,” the band Europe declares “we’re heading for Venus,” not “we’re working for peanuts,” though the latter may well have turned into a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy.
Scientists need to solve mondegreens. Why do we hear what we hear instead of what the singer is singing? CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising” gives it away in the title. There is a bad moon on the rise. There is not a baboon, bedroom or bathroom on the right. At no point in Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” is there a wino down the road with stolen Oreos.
Now that science has cracked itching, it’s time to scratch mondegreens. Let’s say I’m on a bus and a fellow passenger with headphones is blasting “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” Then he suddenly warbles, “The girl with colitis goes by.”
Is this a mondegreen or should I switch seats?
If we can ever solve misheard lyrics, we might discover how we subjectively interpret everything from politics to the world order. The Rolling Stones could be a Rosetta Stone.
Where have you gone, Dan Daoust?
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Credit belongs to : www.thestar.com
