I never really listen to the lyrics in songs. To me they are just another instrument of sorts. It is a good thing that I never tried to listen to these lyrics.
The person posting the video here states, "The quintessential misheard lyrics song! A true 90's classic, this may be one of those rare songs that NOBODY has ever really heard the true lyrics!!! It may even be a mystery to the band! "
There is ambiguity in what we hear, when we see the pictures and words, which are in a different modality, we resolve the auditory ambiguity with the visual information. This video is hysterical!
here are the actual lyrics
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/pearl+jam/yellow+ledbetter_20106395.html
Those lyrics that Kim posted are the best ones I've seen for this song. I've heard the live version of this song many times and it seems they change everytime I hear it. I'd bet that those are probably the real lyrics, but every time Eddie sings it it seems like he just mumbles it and the lyrics change completely. I don't think there are two identical versions of this song...so that kinda throws you off. On a side note, that was a pretty funny video, interesting how we can interpret the pictures as the "right" lyrics, potato wave lol!
Potato wave was definitely my favorite line as well...
Ellen Degeneres has a stand up skit about not knowing the words to songs too...Here's the link. The clip is about 10 minutes long, but the song lyrics part runs from 2:40-3:45 or so, if you don't want to listen to the whole thing.
http://www.psychologicalscience.com/maclink/2009/02/misheard-lyrics-why-is-this-so-funny.html#comments
I also found another website through youtube yesterday. It is produced by some rap artists who make songs to help students remember...It explains how they help students on their website noting mneumonics and appealing to different learning styles (both psychological components involved with memory and learning). I was hooked just after listening to the 44 Presidents song and literally can't get it out of my head now. I don't know much of the psychology behind the use of mneumonics but I thought this was a great use of it.
http://www.educationalrap.com
I had the actual lyrics up while the video was playing and I don't really hear those words at all! Though I'm thinking it was either because seeing the pictures and reading the associated words on the video overrode what the real lyrics were even though I was comparing them or it was because I watched the youtube video without the comparison first. When words are mumbled like that you may not be picking up all of the auditory sounds, which leaves it ambiguous and open to interpretation by the individual. Also, the mind can play tricks on you, leading you to believe that you heard or saw what you wanted to see. I don't know if this will really work on here but I'll try to illustrate it. As my book explains, when people are shown something like this phrase:
Mary had a
a little lamb
they see what they want and expect to see. They see "Mary had a little lamb," and not "Mary had a a little lamb" like what was really there. And it's not just visual. Another example given by my book had an airline pilot and his co-pilot proceeding on an airplane take off. The pilot thought his co-pilot looked depressed and told him to "cheer up", but the co-pilot thought he heard "gear up" and raised the wheels before the plane left the runway. These examples show what a perceptual set is, which is a mental predisposition that influences what we perceive and why we believe something is one thing and not another. That may be at work here in the video, because seeing pictures and reading words influences what we think we're hearing. And I actually liked the whale in the box or a bag. :-)