Ear Bugs

by wjw on November 11, 2007

I am always surrounded by music, this despite the fact that I rarely seem to get around to turning on the radio or playing a CD. There is a radio station in my head, though like a Top 40 station it just plays the same songs over and over.

Today I made a point of listening to what was echoing in my brain and making an actual playlist.

Today’s selections:

“Code Monkey” by Jonathan Coulton.

“The Internet is for Porn” from Avenue Q.

“Going Up the Country Blues” by Sippie Wallace, though sometimes the Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur versions intrude.

That Hollies song about the bus stop and the umbrella, which I heard in a store and couldn’t shake.

“Bambole'” by Baka Beyond.

“Hocus Pocus,” originally by Focus, but it’s been going through my brain for so long that I seem to have evolved my own arrangement involving an alternate rhythm section. I really need to be saved from this one.

What tunes are humming in your minds?

Alyx November 11, 2007 at 1:55 am

We just sang “The Internet is for Porn” in a cabaret, and it’s been in my head off and on ever since.

This afternoon I eased out of a nap to the sound of XTC’s “Mermaid Smiled,” and couldn’t decide if it was coming from within my head our out. Kelly eventually told me the stereo was, in fact, on.

Kelly November 11, 2007 at 3:04 am

My choir director swears that “Copa Cabana” can get rid of any earworm, and because the rhythm of the song changes so often, it rarely forms an earworm itself.

It works every time I’ve tried it.

dubjay November 11, 2007 at 10:44 pm

I remember that when I was in college I would often fall asleep to the sounds of KUNM, our local college station, and then wake on Sunday morning to their program “The Singing Wire,” dedicated to American Indian music.

So I’d be half asleep, and from somewhere I’d here this chanting:

“HEY-yey-yey-yey-yey, HEY-yey-yey-yey-hey, HEY-yey-yey-yey, HEY HEY HEY yey-yey-yey-yey-yey . . . “

It really made sure that my head was in a weird space when I woke up.

Another fun thing about the Singing Wire show was the dedications: “From Robert Chewiwie of Isleta Pueblo to Sarah Rain Flower of Santa Ana Pueblo, here’s the Corn Dance . . .

“HEY-yey-yey-yey-yey, HEY-yey-yey-yey-yey . . . “

Bruce November 12, 2007 at 8:01 pm

The most frequent music that goes thru my head is the middle movement from Beethoven’s 7th Symphony.

It would be nice to say that’s because I am a high-brow, artsy-fartsy classical music snob, but the truth is I picked it up from multiple viewings of ZARDOZ. (It was about five years before I found out it was actually Beethoven’s work.)

Phy November 13, 2007 at 3:26 am

Flight of the Conchords, The Humans Are Dead

Kathleen November 13, 2007 at 5:25 pm

When Walter and I were traveling around Turkey, he complained that some annoying tune was stuck in his head. I said, “I can cure that.”

I did a couple of lines of “Istanbul is Constantinople,” and that did the trick. It became Walter’s theme song for the rest of our trip.

Never suggest a tune unless you’re willing to listen to it!

–Kathy

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