Do You Hear What I Hear?

[benchen71]

Off the couch! I learned a new word ("mondegreen"). Thanks, Jay!

[KayW]

Fantastic puzzle. Monday grin accomplished Thanks, Jay!

[MarkWoychick]

Off the couch - great puzzle concept and execution, Jay!

[Darth]

Rolled off the couch... This was interesting and fun. Thanks, Jay!

[So I first heard TobyMac's lyric "It's way beyond me" on a car radio. It sounded like "It's gravy on me" -- so although I know differently, I still tend to hear it that way. Funny how the brain works.]

[Bird Lives]

Thirty listeners heard lyrics yesterday and completed the mondegreen:
Abide (TS)
Al Sisti (TS)
1. Schmeel
2. DIS
3. DCBilly
4. ajk
5. ChrisKochmanski
6. Matthewl
7. boharr
8. Hector
9. Mikey G
10. rjy
11. Laura M
12. Meg
13. whimsy
14. andeux
15. JM
16. LesY
17. Jaclyn
18. Lobsterboys
19. KayW
20. benchen71
21. Wendy Walker
22. lbray53
23. Bbaack
24. Pair O Ducks
25. SJMcK
26. Jim23809
27. Darrell
28. MarkWoychick
29. AaronT
30. Darth

(If I have inadvertently left you off the list, please let me know.)

Not a bad start considering a couple of the imperfections in the puzzle. There have also been several contributions to the Monday Muggles Mondegreen archive, though in some cases, given my limited knowledge, I wish the contributors had also give the correct lyric or the song title.

Nudges Wednesday (earlier on request).

[BarbaraK]

Haven't had much time for meta-ing this week, but gotta share my personal mondegreens anyway:

Get Down
"I'm just like a cat on a haunted roof". Honestly now, that makes about as much sense as the real line, doesn't it? (For the Tennessee Williams play too, for that matter.)


and
Aldonza from Man of La Mancha
"Born on a donkey to die on a donkey". Now this one I always knew didn't made any sense. A donkey? But with that in my head, I never could figure out what it really was until I heard a different singer.

[Bird Lives]

This one seems to be playing harder that I thought it would. Only four more solvers have checked in.

31. markhr
32. Sharkicicles
33. LB800 solved at 18:49 on 4/18/2023
34. Mr Tex

Maybe the nudges will help. These are in addition to the “clarification” I posted on Monday (#6)_

Seven entries are mondegreens. The initial letters of those entries do not spell anything and are irrelevant to the solution. So are the other letters in those entries. But you probably figured that out already.


Each mondegreen clue has the relevant part of the lyric. But there are two other elements for each song: the title and the performer. Only one of these is important.

You probably tried the initial letters of the titles and got nothing.. That’s because there’s nothing there to be gotten.

That leaves the performer. But most of the performers have more than one name or, in the case of groups, more than one word in their name. Which to use?

Several other entries not related to the meta are names. The clues for these entries share a relevant two-word phrase that might help answer the question in the previous nudge.

If this were a better constructed puzzle, the key letters would be in order in the grid. But in this case, they should be read sequentially in the clues.

[CPJohnson]

Finally got it....needed most nudges. Thanks, Jay!

[Dow Jones]

Nudged off the couch. Thanks for the meta.

[minimuggle]

Enjoyed the grid and the journey of exploring the songs. Now even after the nudges I am still enjoying the couch. It is just not coming to me.

[HeadinHome]

Ditto to minimuggle - I had all those things, and the one nudged as important, and still don’t see anything spelling or suggesting anything. Maybe I’ve just never heard of this one.

[Dave C]

I got it, but needed all the nudges.

[TeamDoubleTow]

We needed all the nudges and a little bit of back solving. We appreciated the Wednesday grin!

[TMart]

Off the couch - thanks Jay!

[woozy]

Ditto to minimuggle - I had all those things, and the one nudged as important, and still don’t see anything spelling or suggesting anything. Maybe I’ve just never heard of this one.

Me three. I had figured out all the six nudges but got absolutely no-where with them.

[woozy]

And....

Well, I swore I was lost and couldn't go anywhere at all with it. I did everything right and I couldn't get it no matter what I did.

So I bitch and moan for some clarification and the response is "well, you got what you got" and in hindsight it's completely obvious and inconceivable how I couldn't see it. (Doncha hate it when that happens.)

So got it. This is the puzzle I always wanted someone to create. Too bad when someone did I couldn't get it.

[Abide]

Bird Lives wrote:

The goal was to bring about a — what’s the term I’m looking for? — ah yes, a Monday grin.

I just caught this....

[JeanneC]

I’ve always loved these little gems, especially from music radio. Alas, I have not conquered this one. I’m sure it will sit in the back of my head all through the WSJ puzzle this weekend!

[BarbaraK]

Finally got to this. Very nice!

[Bird Lives]

With twenty solvers joining the ranks, the post-nudge total now stands at 50

31. markhr
32. Sharkicicles
33. LB800
34. Mr Tex
35. MisterDJ
36. jbird
37. michaelm
38. Snood
39. Rayyan Choudhury
40. Steve M
41. Dow Jones
42. kamashdad
43. Tmart
44. CAe39
45. Dave C
46. BarbaraK
47. Teamdoubletow
48. SeamusOL
49. woozy
50. Beth Tyrpin

Until the reveal on Saturday, I’m not sure there’s more to say, so I may go into radio silence – top 40 radio silence of course. But keep those requests and dedications coming. Sending this one out to all the guys and gals on De Luca Street (as Mick said, “’cause you see I’m on DeLuca Street”) and especially to the girl with colitis who keeps going by.