One of the most persistent mondegreens1 plaguing me since childhood has been a lyric in the impossibly camp theme tune to Godzilla, in his Hanna Barbera cartoon incarnation. Yes, that's the one featuring the unmentionable comic relief baby dinosaur, who only gets an easy time of it from cartoon purists thanks to the existence of Scrappy Doo.
Never having taped an episode, I never got the opportunity to replay the offending lyric endlessly until its true meaning resolved itself. My 25-yr-old memory of the song is;
"Up from the depths,
Thirty storeys high,
Breathing fire,
HE STANDS in the sky,
God-zil-la!!!"
"Stands in the sky"? Actually it sounded more like STAND, but that would be even more daft.
All praise the internet, for it is from these bountious streams that all wisdom can be drunk. I just downloaded an episode of this long-forgotten series, and it only took a few loops to ascertain the pure and lovely truth;
"Up from the depths,
Thirty storeys high,
Breathing fire,
HIS HEAD in the sky
God-zil-la!!!"
There, now it makes sense. Quarter of a century of wondering ended at the stroke of a mouse. Some people think the internet is a bad thing. What do I think? I think I wish I could get John Hurt's gig for a tenth of the money, mostly...
1 Look it up...
1 comment:
Wow, I've learnt two important things already this morning. I must admit that I had failed to worry about the Godzilla lyrics for the last 25-odd years despite the same misremembering/mishearing, but it's good to have it cleared up anyway. Many thanks for introducing 'mondegreen' to my vocabulary, though.
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