Worms crawl in, worms crawl out
By DougJ, Head of Infidelity February 25th, 2012
What are the worst ear-worms you have ever experienced?
For me, it’s John Mayer’s “Daughters”, which has afflicted me for the better part of the last decade (the “girls become lovers who turn into mothers” part), “Sister Golden Hair”, which threatened my already tenuous hold on sanity last fall (the annoying guitar intro part), and a battery commercial Stevie Wonder did in the early 80s (“you can depend on me”, don’t pretend you don’t know it, fellow oldsters) that my therapist suggested I try to forget.
Posted in Music, Open Thread, Readership Capture
Last year: pumped up kicks & moves like jagger.
February 25th, 2012 at 9:58 pm
@Felanius Kootea:
Moves Like Jagger isn’t even all that catchy.
February 25th, 2012 at 9:58 pm
Bryan Adams:
February 25th, 2012 at 9:59 pm
I once had “King for a Day” by the Thompson Twins stuck in my head for a solid week. It was really starting to wear on me after about Day 3.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:00 pm
I have a lot, but unless one is stuck in my head at the time, I usually can’t remember them. One that always gets me for a few days whenever I hear it is the chorus “I Think I Can” by Animal Collective, which is actually more annoying because it’s not just some happy pop song but a descent into musical madness. Also, “Smooth Criminal” by MJ and a lot of Tom Lehrer stuff, but that’s probably because I just listen to them too much.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
867-5309…. Seriously, satellite radio has been running commercials on the sports talk channels and the company used that phone number. I hear the commercial and it’s enough to get the song stuck
February 25th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
867-5309…. Seriously, satellite radio has been running commercials on the sports talk channels and the company used that phone number. I hear the commercial and it’s enough to get the song stuck
February 25th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
Tegan and Sara, “Living Room.”
February 25th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Musicians have different kinds of earworms, and they’re more constant.
I didn’t notice when I had the stroke last November, but they went away. I only noticed when they came back, maybe three weeks later.
The constant recurring ones I’ve had for years, are the fanfare in the last movement of Mahler’s First Symphony, and the first movement of Bruckner’s Fourth. But anything and everything can, and does, show up; the power of suggestion is very strong.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
I just read a reference to Safety Dance this morning and it’s been in my head all day. Must…resist. If I hit youtube it’s all over.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
My wife teaches music, and I have an infant. Pretty much any song can become an earworm if you play it often enough… It can be a song emanating from a Fisher Price toy, or a Raffi song. Raffi is an earworm terrorist.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
I don’t think I’ve had an earworm that persisted for more than a few weeks. My current earworm is “Act Naturally.”
My biggest annoyance these days is songs that I am just completely, totally, utterly tired of. It seems like I can’t turn on the radio for more than an hour with out hearing Cake’s The Distance or Offspring’s Come Out and Play. I HATE those songs.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
@jrg:
Apples and bananas. It’s demonic.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Every day I’m shufflin’.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
@gogol’s wife: For. Real.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
That fucking J.G. Wentworth opera commercial.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
You don’t know ear worms unless you have lived..and shopped…in Japan. The stores here have a jingle that they play CONSTANTLY in the store. One that has a particularly strong kung fu is K’s Denki, and electronics shop, but most of the big box stores have a jingle and they bore into your mind and stay they forever. It is a pretty insidious marketing tool.
It must be absolute hell for the people who work in those stores, though…
February 25th, 2012 at 10:13 pm
@S. cerevisiae:
877 CASH NOW!
Just shoot me.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
I heard Fastball’s “The Way” TWO days ago, and it’s still with me. Fortunately I like the guitar parts.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love” in my head for a full day during probably the worst hangover I’ve ever had in my life.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:17 pm
There was a Capt. Crunch jingle once. I think I’ve lived long enough to finally escape. Possibly recover. Oddly enough, my one bout of actual musical hallucinations was more intriguing than anything else and I figured out I was hallucinating almost at once.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
@khead: That darn Cars for Kids commercial. 1-877-Kars4kids on an unending loop.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
In the mid 70s…..Anything that came out of Barry Manilow’s mouth. A bit more recently, Don’t Worry, Be Happy and Who Let the Dogs Out? where among the most intolerable ones.
I think iTunes has lessened the frequency of unwanted ear worms.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
@S. cerevisiae: Got me too. A few times.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
This.
I’ll be at work and find myself needing to calm myself down, and this pops right in there. It doesn’t even have lyrics, and it still worms me ears!
February 25th, 2012 at 10:19 pm
That fucking zither music from The Third Man.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:21 pm
Theme song to the movie Seems Like Old Times. Had that shit in my head for three days straight and it periodically pops up now and again. Good thing that I really like that movie.
Edit: Just popped up in my head.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:21 pm
@Felanius Kootea: I kinda like “Moves Like Jagger” but I would love a parody called “Looks Like Richards” ;)
February 25th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Occasionally, this hypnotic jewel from “Silence! The Musical!” lodges itself in my brain. It’s simultaneously awesome and horrifying.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Some internet security expert suggested an unforgettable, to you, way to come up with good passwords is to use the first letters of first lines of favorite songs. Extra credit if it has capitals, numbers and punctuations associated with it. You can always add a year in there somewhere too.
Who knew ear worms can be useful. I’d tell you mine but then you could break into my computer and steal my fortune.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
@urizon:
I actually enjoy having that in my head.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
1. Incredibly annoying instrumental of “The Alley Cat” that some asshole insisted on playing many times during a college theater sketch comedy thing.
2. The jingle for a public radio pledge drive when I was like 6 years old. I still remember the station’s goddamn phone number.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Baker Street. Sax intro.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
“You save big money
you save big money
when you shop Menards!”
Since their employees have access to things like nail guns I am amazed there are so few incidents of bug-eyed insanity. I like the stores but that incessant jingle would make me want to hurl myself into a wood chipper.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
@darkmatter:
That is a great movie. Luckily I can’t remember the theme song, unless it’s the actual standard “Seems Like Old Times,” which is kind of earwormy.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
“Sugar Sugar” by the Archies haunted me an entire backpacking trip. Death by bigfoot would have been welcomed.
Once worked with somebody whose dread was the “Mister Ed” theme. All you had to say was, “A horse is a horse, of course” to her and she’d say something really salty. Which was quite amusing from such a proper lady.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
The Rapture’s “How Deep is Your Love,” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qfxCvwyxms especially (ironically) the part that goes, “Let me hear that so-o-o-o-o-o-ong” over and over. (But luckily I do like the song.)
February 25th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
@Spaghetti Lee:
I’m the same way. Its almost like a dream, its real while its going & when its gone I can’t recall it. The other weird thing is that it is always a song I hate. Commercials used to get me bad but the last few years my trusty mute button has eliminated that particular form of torture. Its also a lot worse when I’m going through a particularly deep depression episode.
I always wonder what causes ear worms
February 25th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
Early ‘80s: My baby takes the morning train. Sheena Easton. I’m leering even of mentioning this for fear it will return.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
We got a stuffed dog toy shaped like a Dreidel that played the Dreidel Song. It was the only toy that the dogs didn’t immediately pull the squeaker out – instead they played it over & over.
But there’s only one way to get an earworm out of your head. Concentrate on the one song that drives out all others:
February 25th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
@The Dangerman:
Had that one too.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
The ’80s were a bad time for ear worms. Someone upthread mentioned “Safety Dance,” but the worst for me was the Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).”
(Warning: do not click this link.) I tried to avoid it, would hear it anyway, and then it would be stuck in my mind for days. And the only known cure for an ear worm is an even worse song. Although I do not think it is a worse song, Big Country’s “In a Big Country” was sometimes an antidote. (Click this link only if you clicked the previous one.)
ETA: I just thought of “Come on, Eileen.” [Shudder]
February 25th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
@jrg:
Fruit salad. Yummy yummy.
If you don’t know the horror that is the Wiggles yet, you will. I’m a mere aunt, and that one still lives in my head 10 years later.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
@KG:
I see your Tommy TuTones and raise you with Jessie’s Girl. If Jessie’s Girl had been named Jenny, who knows the damage that could have been done.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
The Theme from Mahogany is the worst. I don’t even want to think about it or it will start going through my head. What I hate is when you get a MASH-UP of two songs going through your head. Sometimes the Theme from Mahogany will bleed into the theme from the tv show Taxi. THAT is a carousel ride of madness.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
I actually like both Safety Dance and 500 Miles. But then, I have a higher than average tolerance for synthy cheese.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
@Schlemizel:
Not necessarily depressed, but they’re bad when I’m tired, hungry, or bored, certainly.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
Hmm, lots and lots of ear worms for me. I have a bit of a photographic memory for music and I associate what I’m doing with what I’m listening to. When I look at a piece of crown moulding in the kitchen I immediately hear the song I was listening to when I installed. And not just the song, but the exact version (Foo Fighters For All the Cows, from a bootleg). So I spend a lot of time walking around my house just hearing songs from when I painted a wall, built a piece of furniture, etc. Instead, I have anti-earworm songs, which I can always call up to make the others go away. My main two:
Aquarela do Brasil and Radiohead’s The National Anthem.
Why those two? They have very distinctive intros that I can quickly recall.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
@efgoldman: Oh, man! I’m pushing 60, and I’ve had Bruckner 4 in my head since I was 5! Not too bad a thing, though, compared with “It’s a Small World, After All” and “The Song that Never Ends.” It is, and it doesn’t. Ugh!
February 25th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
@LM:
This is how you can tell how old I am—you say “How Deep Is Your Love” and I think BeeGees.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
It is against the rules chez Q to even mention the name of a certain Neil (allotrope of carbon, not antonym of old) because the fucker could write such awful, and also quite earwormy songs. That’s as specific as I’ll get, lest I cause discomfort for anyone.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Just click it.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
I have vanquished all my bad ear-worms. I make this play in my head instead. Don’t blame Kim Fowley, blame Mister Crowley and the REO, we will rebuild again …
February 25th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Also, Europe, The Final Countdown.
And Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:34 pm
@gogol’s wife:
Seconded. Plus it always calls to mind that great last scene.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
I have a co-worker who likes to whistle in our lab. He usually chooses Christmas carols, but one day he just dropped a couple notes and my mind leaped to fill the void – “76 Trombones”. That damned thing followed me for a couple days.
I also have the bad habit of tossing a phrase through my mind, which then leads to a line of lyric (could be any damned song). Voila, self inflicted ear worm. Case in point, I now have afflicted myself with “Take a Letter, Maria”. I have a whole catalog of schlocky 60’s and 70’s tunes to call on for that sort of torment.
Why do I do this to myself?
February 25th, 2012 at 10:36 pm
@RSA:
This frightens me deeply.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
“I Want to Kiss You All Over” by Exile. I blame long road trips when I was a child and my father’s mix tapes.
Eight-track mix tapes.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
I’m pretty sure I’m older than you, Doug, but I had to Google the Stevie batteries commercial and it was new to me. Maybe it just didn’t get played much in Canada.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:38 pm
I think I had Fine Young Cannibals “She Drives Me Crazy” stuck in my head through most of the late 80’s.
To go along with that: My grandmother was an avid reader of old-school tabloids back in the day when the covers were about how many men Liz Taylor had lined up to marry and the usual line-up of pregnancy by alien abduction. One of the stories was about a guy who cannibalized his girlfriend and kept her head in the freezer. The picture of the guy looked exactly like the Fine Young Cannibals lead singer, and, no, I don’t think it was coincidence. The story freaked me out so much I would literally cover my ears when the song came on and run out of the room.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:38 pm
So far this is my favorite thread ever.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Baker Street is a good song though
February 25th, 2012 at 10:39 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wky5H1xC6-I
February 25th, 2012 at 10:40 pm
@Mnemosyne: I had to look that one up. I’m so, so sorry for you. That one’s bad.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:40 pm
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Neil had some good songs before he went Vegas, e.g., “Kentucky Woman,” “Brooklyn Roads,” “Girl (You’ll Be a Woman Soon).” Heard the last one on Sirius coming up from Atlanta Tuesday.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:41 pm
@Steeplejack:
It’s staged a little differently, but the funeral scene in Scorses’s The Departed always reminds me of that scene. Deliberately, I assume.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:41 pm
We have a 4 and a half year old daughter, and sometimes I get the music to “Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends” stuck in my head(thankfully, though, not the words). Someone help me.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
We have a 4 and a half year old daughter, and sometimes I get the music to “Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends” stuck in my head (thankfully, though, not the words). Someone help me.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
@YellowJournalism: Reading that just brought Blue by FYC into my head. Luckily, I like the song.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Mambo No. 5 was popular when I was in high school
For certain values of popular I mean
February 25th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
“Wannabe,” by Spice Girls. My 13-year-old was torturing me with it the other day, and now I cannot get the f***ing tune out of my head.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:45 pm
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, you’re probably right about that.
Those hacked-off trees in The Third Man always get me. Plus: black-and-white photography for the win.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
@trollhattan:
Wow, my sympathies, I don’t know if I would have survived that one.—For me there are good earworms and bad earworms. Somehow, over the years, I seem to have developed the ability to suppress bad ones almost immediately. The good ones I don’t mind.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
“Tempted by the Fruit of Another” and “Black Coffee in Bed”, both by Squeeze. Gawd, I hate those songs.
“Heartbeat” by King Crimson.
There are others, but I’m afraid to think about them because then they’ll rattle around in my head for days.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Styx…Too Much Time on My Hands…mid-90s. It took about a week to get it out of my melon. Now that I’m thinking about it, it might be back. Dammit.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
@Steeplejack:
Had to make them the right height.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
A guy calls his doctor and says; “Hey Doc, I think I’m going Crazy, I’m losing my mind; it’s been 3 weeks and I can’t stop singing that “What’s New Pussycat” song in my head…and the Dr. says “It sounds like you have Tom Jones Syndrome.
The guy says “Tom Jones syndrome?! Is that common?” and the Dr. says ‘It’s Not Unusual”.
Badda Booom.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:51 pm
She’s a model and she’s looking good
I’d like to take her home with me, that’s understood
Playing hard-to-get, she smiles from time to time
It only takes a camera to change her mind
February 25th, 2012 at 10:52 pm
@S. cerevisiae: that’s exactly why I refuse to shop there. Talk about the unintended consequence of bad advertising…
February 25th, 2012 at 10:53 pm
For those of you old enough, Me And You And A Dog Named Boo and Seasons In The Sun are the ultimate earworms of all time.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
it’s the bass line that gets me. use Underworld to erase the Big Black earworms
February 25th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
@billgerat:
we had joy, we had fun
February 25th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
@The Dangerman:
I’m glad you mentioned that, because I always thought it was by Queen. Whoever, if I never heard it again it would be too soon.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
@some guy: Awesome version of People Got To Be Free (which must be somebody’s earworm) featuring the hook from that Kraftwerk song here.
You’re welcome!
February 25th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
Chumbawamba, Tubthumping. Also an antidote to earworms (if you like it that is).
Bonus West Wing Tubthumping:
February 25th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
The theme to Gilligan’s Island.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
Whitney Houston’s Saving all My Love For you, been in my head since she died. Not a bad song to have a earworm.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
@Friday Jones:
Is it any wonder?
February 25th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
@billgerat: Damn you, now I’ll have Terry Jackson running through my head all night. Must admit that I still have the 45.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
@The Dangerman:
Heard to the text of any Emily Dickinson poem. Try it.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
@some guy:
God help us.
February 25th, 2012 at 10:59 pm
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
LOL. OCD production designer run amok. Hope he never worked again.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Since I had four older brothers who each had their separate Led Zeppelin phases, I fucking hate “Stairway to Heaven” because I heard it about eleventy-bajillion times. And now it’s stuck in my head again.
I hate you all.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Last night and this morning, my earworm was the theme song to the opening theme to “Spice and Wolf”, a particularly boring anime series that seems to be inordinately preoccupied by economics in a Renaissance European country:
http://youtu.be/W6q1AWnjNiU
This afternoon, my annoying earworm was “The Logical Song”.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
@some guy:
Old McDonald, he made us work, but then he paid us for what it was worth
February 25th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
@Sibelius: Except there was no link. Sorry, look for it though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1eIPID9noM
February 25th, 2012 at 11:03 pm
@some guy: aaaaaai! and no damn muskrats either!
February 25th, 2012 at 11:03 pm
@efgoldman:
This is new on me; more?
Every Christmas Season, I get theme Gilligan mixed up with Frosty the Snowman. Must have the same beat or something.
Also, since we’re mixing/conflating things, Dark Side to Wizard of Oz. It’s really quite amazing given they claim it isn’t true.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:03 pm
@Martin:
I turned iTunes to shuffle to take Led Zeppelin out of my head, and a Boomtown Rats song came on that I specifically associate with walking around Honolulu in the rain by myself when we went there for my brother’s wedding when I was 16.
It’s weird what specific memories music will trigger.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:05 pm
i’ve had the song ‘titty twister’ by diesel boy stuck in my head for 14 years or so. every day, in one way or another, it pops into my head.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:05 pm
Sometimes a particularly clever bit of Beethoven or Schubert will get stuck in my head, but I barely notice because it’s not at all grating.
I think I have mentioned here before the no-fail can’t-miss earworm cure: Walk On The Wild Side
February 25th, 2012 at 11:06 pm
I have a line from Neil Young’s Campaigner, “even Richard Nixon has got soul”. It’s quite maddening and I think of it every time I go up the stairs in my house. Gods may know why, I don’t.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:06 pm
“Start wearing purple, wearing purple… Start wearing purple for me now. All your sanity, and wits they will all vanish, I promise. It’s just a, matter of time…” Thanks Gogol Bordello…
February 25th, 2012 at 11:06 pm
Was trying to balance the force by thinking of good ear worms. Can’t find a clip of the Peter Gunn outro. It’s not the well-known theme song; it’s just one guitar arpeggio used with a graphic at the end of each segment of an episode, but it really sticks with you.
Also: the end of Johnny Rivers’s “Secret Agent Man.” The opening riff is great, of course, but check out the nice little finish at 2:55.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Great, great, GREAT topio, DougJ.
So many turds. A few:
“The Night Chicago Died”-?
“Afternoon Delight”-?
“Raise Your Glass” (Pink’s invented word, “dancey,” makes my toes curl)
Bob Seger’s “Main Street”
“Lee Shore”-Crosby, Stills & Nash
“Bound & Gagged”-the Nuge
February 25th, 2012 at 11:07 pm
@sfinny:
Actually, it was Terry Jacks.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
Everybody knows that the bird is the word…
February 25th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
@Jay:
Paper Lace and the Starlight Vocal Band, respectively, for the first two.
No, I won’t apologize for knowing that. This is important stuff.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:11 pm
@billgerat: Oops.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:11 pm
@Jay:
The guitar part, right?
February 25th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
@S. cerevisiae: Oh dear… thanks for that contribution Senor Griffin.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:13 pm
@Spaghetti Lee:
You fuckers. You fucking fuckers. ARRRGH!!
Clears brain.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:13 pm
@Spaghetti Lee:
Ah, One Hit Wonders.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
@efgoldman:
also, the mcdonald’s slogan ‘i’m lovin’ it’ is said in exactly the cadence a woman does use when she “dabs” following a urination.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
@Steeplejack:
Another good niblet: the opening eight seconds of the Toys’ “A Lover’s Concerto.” It promises more than the song ends up being.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
Just a small town girl…
Living in a lonely world…
February 25th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
This week it was animal by miike snow.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
“My Lovely Horse”
(In its defense, it’s supposed to be bad.)
February 25th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
mommy’s all right, daddy’s all right, they just seem a little weird.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Every Christmas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG5MT3sCKBg Sisters, sisters…..
One year it was there until February. Pumped up kicks was a recent blight. And “All you’ll ever be is mean…”
But any number of the others mentioned have been at various times. One remedy is to hum, “Galveston”. Don’t know why it works.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
And now I have to hunt my late grandfather down because he gifted me with the earworm of Like a Dime Store Cowboy instead of Rhinestone! Interminable cartrip with that and those damn muskrats.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
I have a friend who would rather go blind than deaf because she is convinced the last song she heard before she lost her hearing would be “All that she wants is another baby” by Ace of Base.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow don’t stop it’ll soon be here
February 25th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
@Spaghetti Lee:
You ’70s-sotted fuckers have pulled me in. “She’s gonna love me in my Chevy van . . .” Damn your eyes, sir!
February 25th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Damn you – it took three years after a trip to Disney World and 30 times on that FSM-forsaken ride with my (then) 4-year old to get it out of my mind, and now it’s back.
@Comrade Mary: Agreed – I don’t remember that either.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Its about to be “Stupid Boy” by the Geardaddies as soon as Zellar takes the stage….
February 25th, 2012 at 11:24 pm
“Imaginary Lover” played at 45rpm sounds like Stevie Nicks is singing the lead vocal.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:24 pm
@Spaghetti Lee:
StarLAND Vocal Band. mrs efgoldman had the whole album memorized, back in the day.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
It seems like the past week, it’s been “I Will Always Love You” because that has been played practically every time Whitney Houston has been referenced on tv. Not the whole song, just the “AAAnndd IIII—-III-yyiiiii….will always love YOOUUUUU whoooooowwwooooo I, I willl always” in a loop.
I used to work retail, so I’ve got three years worth of Musak queued up and ready to go, and it all blends together, and I hear mash-ups in my head like “Dancing on the Ceiling” and “Let’s Hear it for the Boy” (do not try this at home). Did you know the Gilligan’s Island theme can be done to “Ghostriders in the Sky”? That’s all I heard for weeks after I figured that out.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
I heard this dub step version of pumped up kicks before I heard the original version. It got stuck in my head for three weeks.
http://youtu.be/LXO-jKksQkM
February 25th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
This kutiman “song” called My Favorite Color got stuck for a month, but it’s seriously cool so I didn’t mind too much:
http://youtu.be/nIl4LkHYRkg
February 25th, 2012 at 11:27 pm
@Steeplejack:
I’m a fan of a lot of cheesy 70s/80s stuff that I’ve always been told is the nadir of human creation, but I’ll admit that “The Night Chicago Died” is a bit too much even for me. Maybe I’m able to like them at a remove because I’m too young to have lived through them. (And this may be a matter of opinion, but when your generation’s musical avatars include Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and LMFAO, you may find the likes of Styx or Chicago to actually be less embarrassing.)
February 25th, 2012 at 11:27 pm
After I saw the Eyes of Laura Mars I had Let’s All Chant stuck in my head for a month
February 25th, 2012 at 11:27 pm
And this mashup sample fest from Pogo got stuck for at least a couple months:
http://youtu.be/ttQSs35Z7nE
February 25th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
“Ee-ee-vil woman” by ELO
“God Only Knows” by Beach Boys
“YMCA” Village People
February 25th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
I still find myself humming “Obladih Obladah” almost a week after Cole’s post.
Fucker.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:30 pm
@Tim in SF: Well, yeah! Awesome music, brilliant dancing.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:30 pm
One foot on the brake, and one on the gas
There’s too much traffic, I can’t pass
February 25th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
@Comrade Mary:
God, I wish I knew how to download that my desktop. That is an awesome cure.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Pina colada song.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
@Steeplejack:
Oh, God, that video led directly to a collage of Bread’s “Baby, I’m-a Want You” with dewy pictures of a young Susan Dey. A long-ago crush that I thought I had buried. Anyone remember the movie First Love? (Not to be confused with the Brooke Shields train wreck Endless Love.)
I need a drink. Several, actually. Fortunately I brought this back from Atlanta.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:33 pm
OK, in the memory of Don Cornelius:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xvKdRy4dmk
February 25th, 2012 at 11:35 pm
@Spaghetti Lee: Actually, no. No, it’s no wonder. (I’m here, aren’t I?)
Plus…the photos. Those will keep me from being President, as well. Thank Dog there was no FaceBook or MeTube then.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
I had “Synchronicity 2” stuck in my head for two weeks once…
Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky
February 25th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
I was at a Menard’s hardware store once when the power failed just before I was ready to check out. On the plus side, the jingle stopped playing.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
@billgerat: There’s a little download icon right below the player. Just right click to save the 3.7 Mb file.
The guy is mad talented. This post includes a song about his wife’s elbow, and includes a link to the appropriate music video (made with his wife’s permission).
February 25th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
Okay, this is a good ear worm: Sagat’s “Funk Dat.” I used to work with a fellow programmer who could crack me up just by starting a technical discussion with “Question? . . .” in that certain way.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
@Steeplejack:
Yep. That’s one for me.
And my surefire cure for earworms is “Sunglasses at Night”. Just start singing that and the earworm is gone.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
at some point a relatively brief romance with a woman who fit the description, put the line “i don’t know, but i’ve been told, big legged woman ain’t got no soul” into my head.
the earworm outlasted the acquaintance.
here is another one that comes and goes and has for some time,
you’re doing your best not to understand, there’s nothing i have you can hold in your hand, and i’m thinking maybe we just shouldn’t try”
February 25th, 2012 at 11:42 pm
@Villago Delenda Est:
Awesome. The big Philly sound.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:43 pm
@Violet:
But then you’re stuck with “Sunglasses at Night.” Ngrr!
February 25th, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Unless I missed it, I can’t believe no one has mentioned LP’s Into the Wild, otherwise known as the Citi Thank you card song (“somebody left the gate ooopppennnnn, come save us a runaway train…”)
February 25th, 2012 at 11:44 pm
@Steeplejack: Yeah, that’s not an earworm, that’s just sweeeeeet.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:47 pm
@Steeplejack:
Yep. But it gets rid of anything else. I’ve even used it on friends.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:49 pm
When is eemom gonna show up with some Clash song?
February 25th, 2012 at 11:49 pm
Parts of Michelle Shocked’s “Come a Long Way” stick in my mind at odd moments when I’m driving.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:49 pm
@Ed in NJ: That was one of the ones I was going to mention. According to research, one of the reasons for earworms is that your brain hangs onto incomplete things, so you can actually get rid of one by hearing the entire song. But for that one, there’s just the one snippet and I had no idea if it was even a real song. So thanks for that, really.
There’s another one that I’m trying very hard not to remember, because it was a song I can’t stand and it was stuck in my head for weeks not long ago. I will curse DougJ’s name forever if I happen to think of what it was.
One of the most annoying earworms I ever had was John Ashcroft singing “Let the Eagle Soar.” Seriously. Even once I knew that hearing the whole thing might get rid of it, there was no way I was going to seek it out.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:50 pm
If you really wanna fuck with people, in your office around 10AM, start humming the theme from the Love Boat.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
@Mnemosyne: My Lovely Horse is a masterpiece. You take that back!
February 25th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
@Tim in SF:
it’s exciting and new
February 25th, 2012 at 11:54 pm
@Violet: I often use “American Idiot” to beat earworms into submission. It doesn’t always cure them permanently, but it always seems to work at least for a while.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:55 pm
@Comrade Mary: Only because for awhile it was everyfuckingwhere.
I have to admit for a Hollywood ego band 30 Seconds to Mars isn’t all that atrocious. Work Dawg says they suck live though.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
@Vixen Strangely: And you can do the lyrics of the Addams Family theme to Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner.”
February 25th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
@Tim in SF:
That is really cool!
February 25th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Spice girls…wannabe.
February 25th, 2012 at 11:58 pm
This thread is somewhere between an irresistible wrapped present and a bomb that will go off if we
reload
just
once
too
often
February 26th, 2012 at 12:06 am
I think I originally got this from someone here, but School Food Punishment’s “You May Crawl” has a lot of ear-worm potential. I find myself dragging it out every few days to listen to it a few times.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:08 am
well, whenever I fall asleep with the tv on, I usually get the “time life greatest songwriters 30 cd set” infomercial that jars me out of my slumber, and damn if i don’t put the pillow over my head for a few minutes before I finally reach for the remote the turn it off. And hey, lay off sister golden hair.
Well, I keep on thinkin’ ‘bout you, Sister Golden Hair surprise
And I just can’t live without you; can’t you see it in my eyes?
I been one poor correspondent, and I been too, too hard to find
But it doesn’t mean you ain’t been on my mind
February 26th, 2012 at 12:10 am
I’ve been plagued with “almost heaven, west virginia” for a few days now.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:11 am
Every single song John Mayer has done is a candidate for the worst ear-worm ever.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:13 am
Can be defeated if you can change it to “Shaving all my love for you.”
I’m hoping out of respect for Whitney, all singers imitating her “I’ll settle on that note, eventually” style will go on to something else. It’s time.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:13 am
I’ve had an earworm for the last couple of months that’s such a great song that I haven’t made an effort to make it go away yet. It’s “Segun El Color” by Ruben Blades and Willie Colon. I think it’s from the ‘70s but I didn’t hear it until ‘88 or so and didn’t put it in the pod till recently. I have no idea what I’ll do if I get sick of it ….
February 26th, 2012 at 12:14 am
@Comrade Mary:
Ain’t seeing it. I’ve bookmarked it, so that’ll have to do.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:14 am
A jazz ear worm: Grant Green, “Sookie, Sookie.” I used to have a recurring dream about a former girlfriend stripping to this song. Weird. She was not the stripper type. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) I guess that’s what dreams are for.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:17 am
Great. A fucking plague thread.
May the theme from “Bonanza” haunt you all.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:17 am
@Yutsano: Weirdly, I never heard that one before. No earworm yet induced, either.
Want an eyeworm? Here’s a very pretty Russian girl transforming herself into Jared Leto.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:18 am
@Friday Jones:
You just had to mention that song. It was one of my sister’s favorites and she just about wore out the turntable playing it all the time. I like a lot of their other tunes but that song just drove me nuts.
What’s funny is that Tommy Shaw lives about 25 miles north of here and we see him in town on occasion.
Short guy but damned good with a guitar.
One song that I really came to hate was Manic Monday. One job I had they played a local radio station over the factory audio system during the work day and that song was on heavy rotation at the time.
I hope the master is lost in some accident and the recordings suddenly self-erase.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:19 am
@BruceFromOhio:
Out of respect for the Blues Brothers at Bob’s Country Bunker, I’d like to suggest the “Rawhide” theme. Ye-haw!
February 26th, 2012 at 12:21 am
@billgerat: I refuse to be defeated! Here’s the direct link: please right click to download.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:21 am
@efgoldman:
Not only Gilligan’s Island but Yellow Rose of Texas works too. Just hum along with
Because I could not stop for death he kindly stopped for me
The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality…
February 26th, 2012 at 12:21 am
@Lojasmo:
I always thought Luscious Jackson’s “Naked Eye” was by the Spice Girls, even after I was reminded about a hundred times that it wasn’t. Just thought of it because it seems to fit with the Grant Green song above.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:22 am
I have mutant music running through my head, where the Velvet Underground will be singing, “She’s a Femme Fatale” and it merges into “White Flower Days at Macys.”
February 26th, 2012 at 12:24 am
@BruceFromOhio:
Yeah! Derng-dah-dah-derng-dah-dah-derng-dah-dah-derng-dah-dah-derng-dang!
February 26th, 2012 at 12:26 am
@Friday Jones:
Ooh…utterly rotten. Loved Styx as a kid. rush too!
Tom Sawyer!
February 26th, 2012 at 12:28 am
@Steeplejack: Oh, I LOVE that! Not to be confused with Snoop’s “Oh, Sookie”, of course.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:32 am
ok, just a little whodini, and this thread will be complete
freaks come out at night
February 26th, 2012 at 12:32 am
“her name was Lola, she was a showgirl…..”
and now I have to hope that I haven’t Von Zippered myself…...
February 26th, 2012 at 12:33 am
Recently, it’s been that “WHY-EE-AY-EE is Superman DEAD?” piece of shit song. TOTALLY ridiculous.
I saw that stupid band like three times in high school. I wonder what Burger King those dudes work in now.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:33 am
Oh, and lest I forget .
February 26th, 2012 at 12:34 am
@piratedan: or else I’ll have to go out and buy a five, five dollar, five dollar footlooooong…..
February 26th, 2012 at 12:35 am
How many else here can pull up any Schoolhouse Rock song needed? Who else can right now sing the preamble to the Constitution? How about the creepy ‘figure 8’ song? Or my favorite, the verb song?
February 26th, 2012 at 12:36 am
@Martin: VERB
that’s what happening! for me the creepy one was “Hey little twelvetoes“... but ymmv but my fav was the E-LEC-TRI-CITY song
February 26th, 2012 at 12:38 am
@Comrade Mary:
Good one. Or Steppenwolf’s “Sookie, Sookie,” either. (Actually, this would be a good stripper song too.)
February 26th, 2012 at 12:38 am
@Martin: I can’t recite the preamble to the constitution without singing it. And then I’ll unpack my adjectives.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:39 am
Ennio Morricone songs
Haven’t had any bad worms in a while and I can’t remember who the last bad one that I had.
Though I had this one occasionally playing in the mental background for about 15 years – until I found this video again on YouTube.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:40 am
Love me love me
Say that you love me
Fool me fool me
Go on and fool me
February 26th, 2012 at 12:40 am
@Martin:
I think Yutsano is our go-to guy for all things Schoolhouse Rock. I’m so old that I saw it only when I was sick or slacking off work.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:41 am
Eels: Last Stop this Town from Electroshock Blues and E’s earlier The only Thing I Care About and A Most Unpleasant Man from Broken Toy Shop.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:41 am
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Rasputin (Russia’s greatest love machine).
February 26th, 2012 at 12:42 am
toto coelo, i eat cannibals
this one is better than pr0n on betamax.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:42 am
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis:
Each time I hear Seger refer to a beat as “smoky,” I want to die in an excruciatingly hot fire.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:43 am
@thor heyerdahl:
My favorite ’60s theme: The Avengers.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:45 am
@Martin:
Not creepy: GLORIOUS!
Original Blossom Dearie version
Eliott Smith cover
February 26th, 2012 at 12:45 am
@MikeJ: When my son was in elementary school he needed to memorize it and was complaining about how hard it was. My wife and I immediate sung it out loud together for him. Freaked him the hell out.
Anyone else here ever “Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese“?
February 26th, 2012 at 12:45 am
@Steeplejack: Alice in Chains’ “Rooster” is the best song I’ve ever seen stripped to (weird sentence construction…sorry).
February 26th, 2012 at 12:45 am
On my band’s website, one of our rotating slogans is “Helping you remember songs you hoped would remain forgotten.”
That’s right. We specialize in earworms. One of them is “Sister Golden Hair”.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:46 am
How about some “Sunshine on a Stick“?
February 26th, 2012 at 12:47 am
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
Kudos, sir. Hadn’t thought of that one in ages. Makes me think of Nu Shooz, “I Can’t Wait.”
February 26th, 2012 at 12:48 am
@Martin: A slab, a slice or chunk of? A snack that is a winner, and yet won’t spoil my dinner?
February 26th, 2012 at 12:49 am
@Martin: Heh, I loved the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:50 am
No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs” makes me pray for my own death. If I hear even a measure of it, it’ll be in my head all damn day.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:50 am
@Martin: Don’t make me bust out the Brady Kids. I’ll do it. I’m crazy enough.
@Steeplejack: Even I have to have a favorite. Accident-prone angels FTW!
February 26th, 2012 at 12:53 am
I have to admit for a Hollywood ego band 30 Seconds to Mars isn’t all that atrocious
RONG. As in so wrong you spell it “RONG”. Jordan Catalano is SO self-impressed for no reason it makes me want to hurl.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:55 am
I don’t think any generation had as many earworms planted as those of us that were in the Schoolhouse Rock sweet spot. When my kids were learning their multiplication tables, there was no way I could help singing “Elementary, my dear, 2 times 6 is 12”
February 26th, 2012 at 12:56 am
@Boudica: It might help if you used Iz’s version. Not that there’s anything wrong with West Virginia, of course.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:58 am
The worst earworm I ever had wasn’t a song, but it lasted at least two decades. It wasn’t constant, but every so often it would hit and I’d spend at least 20 minutes trying to figure out what the hell it was.
It was this weird high pitch that descended to another one in a weird, quavering way, and then repeated almost exactly the same. For years, I thought I had made it up. Other times I could swear I’d heard it before, right on the tip of my tongue, but even after repeating it out loud a few times, I’d give up yet again.
Until finally one night I was watching “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and it clicked. Clarence is being roughed up by Bert, and he calls out to his fellow angel, “JOOO-SEPH! JOOOO-SEEEPHH
”
My freaking first name. It was Henry Traver’s distinctive line reading of my first name that had haunted me all that time. I was so hacked off, you can’t imagine. Luckily, figuring it out dispelled its power.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:00 am
@L b Jeffries:
Ugg yes. I’m not even close to old enough to remember when this came out either. My latest (don’t know who who sings it) is that “I need heeeero come and save me, I need a heeero come and save…” FUCK! I don’t know what comes after that part which just makes it worse.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:03 am
@Yutsano:
The Good Eleven. Great title! I think we could get greenlighted on that Monday, either as a caper flick or some sort of ninja/anime thing. Get me a three-page outline stat!
I have nothing for Schoolhouse Rock. I do like it when rockers go on Sesame Street. Feist, “1-2-3-4.”
February 26th, 2012 at 1:03 am
@Comrade Mary
That worked! Thank you.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:04 am
@Steeplejack:
That’s only because you want to see Katy Perry’s tits.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:08 am
Republica – “Ready to Go”:
It’s a crack, I’m back yeah I’m standing
On the rooftops shouting out,
Baby I’m ready to go
February 26th, 2012 at 1:08 am
@Martin:
Hey, I’m just there for the kids. If some cleavage happens to bust out, that’s just a bonus.
ETA: Oh, yeah, it’s still there.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:10 am
Someone wrote the word “sunshine,” and now I have “Walking on Sunshine stuck in my head. Fuck you all. This thread has been one of the best and worst things to happen to me all week.
Here’s a few more earworm greats, just the same:
“Straight Up” by Paula Abdul
“U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer
“Take On Me” by A-Ha
“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart
“Mr. Sandman” (can’t remember who sings it)
February 26th, 2012 at 1:11 am
I wonder, did people have earworms before the phonograph and the radio were invented?
February 26th, 2012 at 1:15 am
The original Mr. Sandman: The Chordettes
A slightly more piquant version
And choleric aves get the worm!
February 26th, 2012 at 1:17 am
@Steeplejack:
i’d rather jack than fleetwood mac? the reynolds girls
February 26th, 2012 at 1:17 am
We don’t need no education
We dont need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it’s just another brick in the wall.
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:18 am
@Librarian: “I come from Alabama with my Banjo on my knee”
February 26th, 2012 at 1:18 am
@Librarian: There you are, sitting in church, and Uncle Shamus gets up and sings his most beloved rendition of “At the Cross”: At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light…
You go home, you’re eating preacher meat with the family, and all the time, in your head, you’re humming, “At the cross, at the cross…”
I’m going with a YES.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:20 am
@Comrade Mary: There’s a current TV commercial in the Bay Area (at least) that uses that song, and it drives me up the wall every time it comes on. I have to hit the mute button.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:20 am
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
Cool! From the comments: “I find vodka helps me to love it even more!” Words to live by.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:21 am
I’m out. All this ear-worm musical stuff has overloaded my delicate circuits. The skull is starting to talk to me. “Drink, Steep. Drink deep. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!”
February 26th, 2012 at 1:26 am
Gosh I love these worms around here, they’re just long enough, you know? I love the rapping singers, sure the major rapping people like Disc Jockey Jazz Man and the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, M&Ms, Most Definitely, Snoop Poopy the Dog, and Two Packs, but also the little rapping singers like those Asian kids in the Wu Tu Clan, Young MC and the Funky Bunch, and Vanilla Ice Cube. My wife Ann listens to various rapping musics in her two Cadillacs and on our family’s orbital space weapons platform/vacation cottage, just like all you fine Americans out there. There’s a rapping song that really captures the spirit of America, it’s “Deep Cover” by Doctor Drew and Snoopy Poop, do you know it? Won’t you sing it with me right now?
Creep with me as I crawl through the hood,
Maniac, lunatic, call ‘em Snoop Eastwood
Kickin dust as I bust fuck peace
And, the mothafuckin drug police
You already know I gives a fuck about a cop
So why in the fuck would you think that it would stop
Plot, yeah, that’s what we’s about to do
Take your ass on a mission with the boys in blue
Dre, (whatup, Snoop) yo I got the feelin
Tonight’s the night like Betty Wright, and I’m chillin
Killin, feelin, no remorse, yeah
So lets go straight to the motherfuckin’ source
And see what we can find
Crooked ass cops that be gettin niggaz a gang of times
And now they wanna make a deal with me
Scoop me up and put me on they team and chill with me
And make my pockets bigger
They want to meet with me tonight at 7:00, so whassup nigger?
What you wanna do? (What you wanna do?)
I got the gauge, a uzi and the mothafuckin 22
so if you wanna blast, nigga we can buck ‘em
If we stick ‘em then we stuck ‘em so fuck ‘em!”
...
Yeah, and you don’t stop (cause it’s 1-8-7 on an undercover cop)
Yeah, and you don’t stop (cause it’s 1-8-7 on an undercover cop)
February 26th, 2012 at 1:27 am
@Martin:
I am completely convinced that I don’t know my 8s multiplication tables because that cartoon freaked me out so much that I would turn it off every time it came on.
I still love “Interjections!”
February 26th, 2012 at 1:28 am
And everyone here knows about my addiction to adverbs, of course.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:30 am
Sometimes I wake up with an earworm that came from nowhere, one that I dreamed.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:32 am
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I’ve heard that adverbs are super addictive. Like, you use one “loudly” and you can never go back to “loud”. It’s just never the same again.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:32 am
@fasteddie9318:
Thank you, DJ R-Money, the mighty Mittster, the funky fister. You should do that in your campaign ads.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:33 am
(I don’t know if you can, but can you get an order for Ons, that’s O-N-S,
Junior Market, the address is 1934 East Anaheim, all the windows are
busted out, and it’s like a free for all here,
and uh, the owner should maybe come down here and see if he can secure his business,
if he wants to)
April 26th, 1992
There was a riot on streets
Tell me where were you?
You were sittin’ home watchin’ your TV
While I was participating in some anarchy
First spot we hit it was my liquor store
I finally got all that alcohol I can’t afford
With red lights flashin’, time to retire
And then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire
Next stop we hit, it was the music shop,
It only took one brick to make the window drop
Finally we got our own P.A.
Where do you think I got this guitar that you’re hearing today?
(“Call fire and tell them respond local station out to meet us at Anaheim. It’s uh, flaming up good.” “10-4 Alamidos at Anaheim”)
When we returned to the pad to unload everything
It dawned on me that I need new home furnishings
So once again we filled the van until it was full
Since that day my livin’ room’s been much more comfortable
‘Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here
It’s getting harder, and harder, and harder each and every year
Some kids went in a store with their mother
I saw her when she came out she was gettin’ some Pampers
They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the Mexican
And not for the white man
But if you look at the streets, it wasn’t about Rodney King
In this fucked-up situation and these fucked-up police
It’s about comin’ up and stayin’ on top
And screamin’ 1-8-7 on a mother fuckin’ cop
It’s not in the paper, it’s on the wall
National guard
Smoke from all around
(Units, units be advised of an attempted 211 to arrest now at 938 Temple, 9-3-8 Temple,
thirty subjects with bats trying to get inside the CP’s house…he thinks out there trying to kill him)
‘Cause as long as I’m alive, I’ma live illegal
Let it burn
Wanna let it burn, wanna let it burn
Wanna wanna let it burn
(I feel insanity)
Riots on the streets of Miami
Whoa, riots on the streets of Chicago
On the streets of Long Beach
In San Francisco
Riots on the streets of Kansas City
Tuskaloosa, Alabama
Cleveland, Ohio
Fountain Valley, Paramount, Victorville
Eugene, Oregon
Eureka, California
Hesperia
Santa Barbara
Winnemucca, Nevada
Phoenix, Arizona
San Diego
Lakeland, Florida
fuckin’ 29 Palms
(Any unit to assist Frank-74, Willow at Caspian… structure fire and numerous subjects looting)
(10-15 to get rid of this looter)
February 26th, 2012 at 1:33 am
@Friday Jones:
If you want to sound like a moron you can “think different”.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:37 am
@Librarian:
Legend has it that when Verdi was rehearsing Rigoletto before its premiere, he would not allow “La donna e mobile” to be rehearsed in the open theater because he knew it was the “hit single” of the opera and would be immediately stolen and sung by every gondolier in Venice. And he was right.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:38 am
@Friday Jones:
Seriously, I love them. I’ve actually gotten notes about my writing saying I use adverbs too much. I can’t imagine why.
:-)
February 26th, 2012 at 1:39 am
@Mnemosyne: And of course the singer for “Interjections” also did a nice feminist anthem. This would never get produced without major controversy today.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:41 am
@Boudica: Aha, the alternative German national anthem.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:42 am
@MikeJ: Truly. (Or did you want me to reply, *true?) That is one of my little itty bitty pet peeves. I sound like I have weird case of Tourette’s when I watch television: they say “hurt bad”, and I say “-ly”. They say “sit quiet”, and I say “-ly”. They say…well you get the idea.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:44 am
@Yutsano:
Let’s face it, at least three-quarters of the stuff produced for kids in the 1970s would be banned today, starting with Free To Be You And Me.
(Added linky for the young ‘uns.)
February 26th, 2012 at 1:47 am
@Martin: Well, yeah. Don’t you?
February 26th, 2012 at 1:48 am
@Mnemosyne: I think Lolly Lolly Lolly actually did damage to writing in this country. We could do with fewer adverbs.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:51 am
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, yeah, but I don’t go to Sesame Street to get hooked up with that kind of thing.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:51 am
@Martin:
I don’t even know you anymore, man.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:52 am
@Martin: Prude.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:52 am
@Martin: Once you realize the guy who acts Elmo is a 6’4” black comedian, you recognize Sesame Street can be quite diverse in any number of matters.
February 26th, 2012 at 1:54 am
Sorry about that big long paste of Sublime lyrics…
February 26th, 2012 at 1:58 am
Just to be clear, I have no opinion on Katy Perry’s boobs, what with being a straight woman and all. But I am shocked at Martin’s anti-adverb stance.
Good day, sir. I said good day!
February 26th, 2012 at 2:08 am
@Mnemosyne: I have an opinion on both. Also too, I am not so judgmental or patriarchical as to think that your status as a straight woman disqualifies you from having an opinion about Katy Perry’s boobs.
February 26th, 2012 at 2:12 am
@Mnemosyne:
It’s an anti-over-adverb stance. Somewhere along the way we were taught that if a sentence doesn’t have at least one -ly word in it (and preferably more), that we fucked up. I blame Lolly.
February 26th, 2012 at 2:41 am
@Martin: I take the Hemingway approach to editing. Delete every word that is not necessary to telling your story. Doesn’t always show up in comments here because I am not carefully editing.
February 26th, 2012 at 2:44 am
If no one else has mentioned it yet, “That’s Not My Name” by the Ting Tings.
I actually like that song, but I’ve noticed that the thing about earworms is that they are songs I can’t remember enough of the words to sing much of the song. If I know all the words it loses its power over me. I realized that I have the same issue with “Come On Eileen”.
February 26th, 2012 at 2:53 am
You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up, you put the lime in the coconut and call me in the morninnnnnng
February 26th, 2012 at 3:21 am
Many horrible competitors for worst, tactfully not mentioned.
But for best :
Hendrix Voodo Child Slight Return
dominated my consciousness during the Paleozooic and Mesozooic. I was never without it.
Summertime
which I sang for a whole summer, once.
The Rain Song, Led Zeppelin
for when it rains
Birdland from Weather Report’s Heavy Weather
of all earworms the most benign
You Can Call Me Al
February 26th, 2012 at 3:59 am
I have had whitney Houston’s How Will I Know and I Wanna Dance With Somebody tag teaming in my brain for the last 2 weeks.
Best earworm antidote: almost any Warren Zevon song. I am particularly enamored of “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” for this purpose but “When Johnny Strikes Up the Band” and “The Envoy” also work nicely.
February 26th, 2012 at 5:06 am
Leo Kottke;s earworm cure: imagine the offending melody played backwards. If you can’t do this, well, you should have been born with Leo Kottke’s brain!
February 26th, 2012 at 7:26 am
I get earworms all the time, so it’s hard to remember the worst. Right now it’s “Rollin’ In The Deep” dueling with The Civil Wars’ “I’ve Got This Friend”, both of which are fine by me.
February 26th, 2012 at 8:22 am
The hook in Springsteen’s ‘Girls in Their Summer Clothes’ has been my recurring worm all winter. But I’m kind of an old lecher.
February 26th, 2012 at 9:23 am
I heard Paul McCartney doing a cover of ‘Gonna sit right down and write myself a letter.’ The first two lines keep repeating and repeating….
February 26th, 2012 at 9:30 am
Tom’s Diner (Suzanne Vega) is an ear worm antidote. For particularly tough ones that I encounter – several listed above and I will never donate a car no matter how much good it does – I make up lyrics to the melody.
i.e.
I am sitting with my lap top
I am reading several blog posts
I am sipping on my coffee which has gotten slightly cool
de de de de de….
Rinse, repeat
February 26th, 2012 at 10:55 am
@DougJarvus Green-Ellis: it’s the chorus that gets me – that annoying moooooooooooooves like jagger bit.
February 26th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Late to the game, but The Stampeders’ Sweet City Woman has been the reset/default song in my head for a loooong time. Bon, c’est bon, bon bon, c’est bon bon…
February 26th, 2012 at 1:48 pm
@Mnemosyne: Mark Twain wrote about earworms, and I think the essay was before the gramophone.
February 26th, 2012 at 2:14 pm
If you don’t have kids, you have no idea how annoying an earworm can be.
February 26th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Kids today …
You young’uns have it easy.
try Mairzy Doats … ?
Elmer’s Tune ?
BTW, ever tried singing the words to “Deutschland Uber Alles” to the theme music from “All Things Considered”?
February 26th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Popcorn
February 27th, 2012 at 11:12 am
@opie jeanne: a buff trip slip for a three-cent fare
a pink trip slip for a five-cent fare
Punch Brothers punch, punch with care
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
Ever since I read this jingle in a Homer Price book as a kid this ditty has periodically come back to torment me. In fact that was what the story was about, Homer’s entire town being afflicted neigh unto madness by this earworm.
I didnt find out for years the damned thing had been let out upon the world by none other than Mark Twain, and the Homer Price story just incorporated it.
Funny, years later, once I read the whole ditty in the Twain essay, its power diminished and pretty much ceased to be an earworm.
I forgot what Homer had to do to break the spell and save himself and the townsfolk from endlessly repeating it.
February 28th, 2012 at 1:58 am
I’ve had this sweet little Motown tune stuck in my head all week. The tragically short-lived Tammi Terrell doing a Stevie Wonder tune, All I Do (Is Think About You).
March 3rd, 2012 at 1:20 pm