Mondegreen of the day

I always thought the lyric went like this: “Strumming my face with his fingers.”

And then I listened to an episode of Soul Music, and I realized that I’d always had it wrong. It’s fate : “Strumming my fate with his fingers.”

And then I listened further and realized that I had just replaced one mondegreen with another. The word is pain : “Strumming my pain with his fingers.” A quick search will confirm that many a listener has mistaken face and fate for pain.

The Soul Music episode about “Killing Me Softly with His Song” is excellent. Like every Soul Music episode, it hits matters of life and love and loss. Proceed with caution. The episode touches — just touches — on the ugly history of composer credit. You can read about more about that at Wikipedia. Notice that I haven’t named any names here.

[I have to admit it: I still prefer face.]