Thursday, May 5, 2011

Monkey brothers and wandering minstrels.


I'm about to make a confession.
Sometimes, I can be one of those people who is always right. Even when I'm not.

I know, we're a total disgrace to humanity aren't we, not to mention irritating, especially at dinner parties.

When I feel well-versed in a subject, it hasn't been unlike me to morph from a sweet little girl into a charged-up finger-waving know-it-all, pushing my point across dinner tables over innocent tossed salads and second bottles of savignon blanc. Someone shut that woman up!, I'd hear myself think.

Oh but sometimes I do get it wrong.

When I was much younger and much dreamier, I used to want to be an actress. In fact, I was one for awhile. I even got... wait for it... acting work. Yes, I was paid to act in things. Amazing, isn't it.

All us Sydney-based actors had our photos printed at a little hole-in-the-wall studio called The Jungle Boys. It was run by a group of young guys from inside their home; a seedy little basement dressed in Nirvana posters, Star Wars figurines and the faint stench of marijuana. But that's where everyone always went to get their photos printed. The Jungle Boys.

One day I secured my biggest acting coup yet: a top Sydney agent. I was all of about eighteen years old, about the size of Kylie Minogue, and bursting with industry knowledge and research. I couldn't wait to show this off during our first meeting.

I sat down with my impressive new agent and rattled off my plans for that week, including getting my photos printed at The Monkey Brothers.

"The what?", he asked, puzzled.

"The Monkey Brothers," I repeated firmly.

Uh, what kind of agent is he if he doesn't know the pot-smoking Monkey Brothers?

"Do you mean The Jungle Boys?", the agent asked.

I blinked.

"Oh, yes I meant the Jungle Boys."

I'm not sure what came next, my beetroot-red face or the entire agent's office howling with laughter.

Screw those darn Jungle Boys and their pot.

Then there was the time I kept serenading my then-boyfriend with the magically haunting Stevie Wonder track All in Love is Fair.

There is a line in the song that goes, "the future none can see". Except I thought it was, "the fusion none can see."

I'd sit there gazing lovingly into his eyes and singing, "the fusion none can see..." and couldn't quite work out why he'd look back at me a little oddly and rather amused, although he never said anything.

One time I even hand-wrote out the lyrics in a card and gave them to him:

But all is changed with time
The fusion no one can see
The road you leave behind
Ahead lies mystery

And the worst part was: he was a professional musician. He loved Stevie Wonder. Of course he knew I had got it wrong. He still never said anything.

And I was, once again, the idiot.

My dear auntie once told me she was had been talking about the band The Traveling Wilburys at a party and called them The Wondering Minstrels. Ahh, bless her. I wonder where the Wondering Minstrels are right now... likely hanging out with their mates the Monkey Brothers.

What about you? Have you ever got any song lyrics wrong in embarrassing situations?

2 comments:

  1. the song wannabe by the spice girls....i sang the line "make it last forever" as "making love's forever" :P
    still not as bad as a friend who went on and on singing "im only gonna break break my break break my heart"
    xD

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice post. I was once convinced the lyrics of Romeo and Juliet went "And all I do is kiss you, through the bars of Orion.." rather than "the bars of a rhyme.." Argued aplenty about it with a friend :)

    ReplyDelete

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