This puzzle cache is being put out for GAG31 by MAPSIT and waxwing454. In the spirit of the GAG event, we’d really appreciate it if you didn’t find or log it before the start of the event at 18:00 on October 20, 2023. Because this is a puzzle cache, it probably doesn’t need saying, but just in case … The cache is not at the posted coordinates; going there will not help you find the cache, and would likely be really, really hazardous to your health.
Perhaps it's the relative volumes of instruments and vocalizations, or the pace of the songs, or perhaps even the ingestion of certain substances, but Rock and Roll is well-known for lyrics that are mumbled, garbled, intentionally ambiguous, and/or simply misunderstood or misheard. Hence, for example, the FBI’s 2-year investigation into the lyrics of “Louie, Louie” to assess whether it was obscene. For an account of that exercise, see https://www.loudersound.com/features/what-happened-when-the-fbi-tried-to-decipher-the-kingsmens-louie-louie
For this puzzle cache, you’ll embark on a whirlwind tour of some of Rock and Roll’s most famous misheard lyrics. (It'll be fun!) You’ll get the misheard version, and have to set the lyrics right, take some digital roots, and then do a bit of simple math to get the cache coordinates. But don’t worry (be happy!). [Thank you, Bobby McFerrin.] This is intended to be easy stuff. We’re going to give you not only the name of the song and the artist, but also the number of alphabetic letters in the correct response (i.e., we don’t count spaces and punctuation), and for any of you who are still having problems, as a last resort, we also give you the web site that served as our source. (http://www.keno.org/classic_rock/misheard_rock_lyrics.htm).
Oh yeah, and a geochecker too. One can’t get much more supportive than that without turning the cache into a traditional, which wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.
Here’s how it works,
- For each of several mondegreens, i.e., instances of misheard lyrics, denoted by letters A through J, we give you the title of the song, the name of the performer, the misheard lyrics (with the misheard parts conveniently marked off by vertical bars), and the number of characters in the “official Keno correct versions.” You figure out the correct version and take the digital root of the characters in that correct version, and that’s the value for the letter. Thus, each letter corresponds to a single digit.
An example, probably unnecessary, but we want the difficulty rating to be accurate, will illustrate this. Suppose that mondegreen X reads –
X) [A gratuitous example?] Authority by John Mellencamp “When I fight with |Dorothy, Dorothy| always wins.” (18)
Here, the song is given as “Authority Song,” with artist John Mellencamp. The misheard lyrics are “When I fight with |Dorothy, Dorothy| always wins” and the number of alphabetic characters in the correct version is shown to be 18.
You draw on your Rock n Roll background knowledge and/or research skills (or maybe just the title of the song) to recognize that “Dorothy” should really be “authority,” with the appropriate 18 characters, and you calculate the digital root of authority, authority as 4, so that X = 4. Easy peasy.
- Then you do some simple math (only addition and subtraction with single digits) with the A through J values you’ve derived to get the coordinates for the cache. We even provide a geochecker for the solved coordinates
- Well, then, yes, you do have to go and actually find the cache and sign the log. Kind of anticlimactic, really, and not nearly as funny..Stay safe when you park and do your mini-bushwhack.
OK, here are the instances –
A) [Useful to know?] Bad Moon Rising by CCR “There’s a |bathroom on the right|” (16)
B) [A little catty?] Call Me Al by Paul Simon “You can call |meow|.” (4)
C) [Hungry and thinking about food?] You May Be Right by Billy Joel “You |made the rice, I made the gravy|.” (21)
D) [A music box figure?] Tiny Dancer Elton John “Hold me closer, |Tony Danza|”.(10)
E) [A vegetarian’s plea?] Give Peace a Chance by John Lennon “Give |peas| a chance.” (5)
F) [Gratuitously insulting someone who is dead and thus can’t respond?] I’m So Tired by The Beatles “And curse |the walls around me| …(16)
G) [Thinking sympathetically of the medically afflicted?] Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by The Beatles “A girl with |colitis goes by|” (16)
H) [Unreasonably spicy?] Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet “searchin’ for my lost |chicory sauce|.” (12)
i) [Canadian-style apology?] Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix “Scuse me while I kiss |this guy|.” (6)
J) [A word to the wise?] Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin “|There’s a wino| down the road” (13)
OK, now that you’ve got your ten values, the location of the cache, in the usual NDD MM.mmm, WDDD MM.mmm format, is –
N45 [C+1-J] [D+E] . [i+F-B] [G] [A], W075 [G-C-1] [C+F+1] . [H-G-J] [F] [D+F-A-B]
(with each number in square brackets resolving to a single digit)
Supplementary notes:
- As indicated by the difficulty rating, the inclusion of some of the key misheard words right in the song titles, the multiple levels of support, including character counts, the source web site and a geochecker, the puzzle solution is not rocket science. Don’t worry, be happy, (thank you Bobby McFerrin) have fun,.
- The dangerous animals noted in the attributes are primarily earworms, which might distract you while you are driving, though coyotes have been seen in the area, and there might be ticks.
- For the etymology of Lady Mondegreen, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen
- Don’t forget to look in the gallery for an at least mildly amusing graphic illustration of a mondegreen.