Sandee from New York City thought that she was the only person who had misunderstood a line from the song “Ladies Who Lunch” from the Stephen Sondheim musical Company, memorably performed on Broadway by Elaine Stritch. Years later, however, she learned that Stritch had had the same misunderstanding. Such an instance of words misheard is known as a mondegreen. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Ladies Who Lunch Mondegreen”
We’ve talked before on the show about misunderstanding song lyrics.
And we heard from Sandy Cohen of New York City, who wrote to say that she had a similar problem with a phrase in the song “Ladies Who Lunch” from the Broadway show Company, the Stephen Sondheim show.
The lyrics go, “Another long, exhausting day, another thousand dollars, a matinee, a pinter play, perhaps a piece of Mahler’s. I’ll drink to that and one for Mahler.”
And she didn’t know of the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, so she thought Mahler was some baker who made terrific cakes.
And so a piece of Mahler would have been, you know, a piece of Mahler’s.
Yeah, yeah.
But she was heartened to learn that somebody else had that same misunderstanding, and that was Elaine Stritch, the actor who memorably sang that song on Broadway.
In her one-woman show years later, she said that she had that same misunderstanding.
Before she did the role or while she was performing it?
I think while she was performing it.
That’s interesting.
It just kind of becomes a batch of sounds, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, and you just kind of assume.
That’s wonderful.
A piece of Mahler’s.
Mondegreens.
That’s the word for it, right?
Yes.
Mondegreens.
Yes.
Where we misunderstand a phrase as something else that kind of makes some sense.
Right.
Like, excuse me while I kiss this guy.
The classic one.
Yes.
