Friday, October 30, 2015
An eccentric misunderstanding
Years ago, in my high school yearbook, there was a photo of a saxophonist from our jazz band. The caption said he was playing "Witchopera's Bowl." When I read that, I thought, "I'm in the jazz band, too, and I don't remember playing a tune called 'Witchopera's Bowl.'" Then, it dawned on me. The tune was actually "Woodchopper's Ball" by Woody Herman, which we did play. The caption writer apparently misheard the song title. To me, "Witchopera's Bowl" sounds like an avant garde production you'd see acted out on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" I can just imagine a candy dish coming to life and singing melodramatically to trick-or-treaters. (i.e. "You're taking twice as many Snickers as anybody else! For shame! For shame! They'll make your stomach ache!") Of all the ways that song title could have been misheard, I thought that was especially unusual.