“Rock the Cat Box” by The Clash

According to this article, The Clash’s “Rock the Cat Box” (i.e. “Rock the Casbah“) is the third most misquoted of all rock lyrics.  There’s also Jimi Hendrix’s “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” (instead of “kiss the sky”).

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll used to write periodically about mis-heard song lyrics.  (Maybe he still does, for all I know.  I haven’t looked at the Chronicle much since leaving the Bay Area nine years ago.)

Jon Carroll calls these misquoted song lyrics “Mondegreens,” named after an Olde English folk song lyric that went “…and laid him on the Green,” which somebody mis-heard as “Lady Mondegreen.”

Other examples in the linked article include Elton John belting out “Hold me closer, Tony Danza” and Van Halen’s 1984 hit “Animal!”

For my own Mondegreens:  when The Doors came out with their 1968 hit “Love Me Two Times,” I thought Jim Morrison was singing “Amnesty Child.”  And the Little River Band’s 1979 hit “Lonesome Loser,” I heard as “Lofty Bluebird.”

I’ve had others too, but those two are the most blatant.