Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Hear, Hear

I've mentioned before my particular proclivity for waking with a random song stuck in my noggin. But I realized the affliction is broader, striking me at odd times throughout the day.

So, in the interest of scientific inquiry, I have for the past week or so documented each instance of earwormery, hoping to discover some unforeseen pattern or otherwise illuminate my condition.

Alas, no pattern do I see. But it seems my subconscious has a pretty terrible taste in music. The results:

  • "The Way" by Fastball—Sitting at my desk, not having listened to any music that day.

  • "Wagon Wheel" by Old Crow Medicine Show—Getting ready for bed, having played a show (but not this song).

  • "Like a Virgin" by Madonna—Walking to the bathroom at work.

  • "Poison" by Alice Cooper—Sitting in silence in my dining room, strolling around the interweb.

  • "If I Only Had a Brain" by Arlen and Harburg (Wizard of Oz)—sitting at my desk, writing an e-mail.

  • "Escape" by
    Enrique Iglesias—Waking up in my bed. (Yeah. I don't know either.)


UPDATE! Today was even worse:

  • "I'm Your Lady" by Celine Dion—Sitting at my desk sipping coffee. AHHHHHHHHH!

5 Comments:

Blogger mandy said...

I mean this lovingly, Sparks (<-- I see Stanley and think "Sparks", go figure or go Flickr), but I'm going to punch you in the face for getting "The Way" stuck in my head.

23/1/08 8:08 PM  
Blogger The Modesto Kid said...

"Like a Virgin"...walking to the bathroom sets up some crude comments which I will not make.

24/1/08 11:35 AM  
Blogger The Modesto Kid said...

This morning I have an earworm of Dylan and the Band singing "Million Dollar Bash" (or maybe of myself singing that song in the manner of Dylan and the Band -- yeah I think that's what it is), which I was listening to in the car this morning, and it occurs to me that maybe one of the primary reasons for listening to music is to give myself pleasant earworms. I mean check out this amazing lyric:

I looked at my watch
I looked at my wrist
I punched myself
In the face with my fist
I took my potatoes
Down to be mashed,
And I headed on over to the Million Dollar Bash.

25/1/08 9:09 AM  
Blogger Stanley said...

You know, I tend to enjoy it when people quote Dylan's lyrics, but I've never personally taken the time to get into his music. And at this point, his body of work seems almost too voluminous to approach in any sensible fashion. Is there some recommended starting point or plan of action?

25/1/08 9:20 AM  
Blogger The Modesto Kid said...

I agree, his corpus is huge and intimidating. Speaking from my own experience, what really pulled me in was "Bringin it all back home". But, I was 13 -- it might be different now.

There are different places to start depending on what you like. I'm into folk music so my favorite records are his first and the recent "World Gone Wrong" and "Good as I been to you". For distilled Dylan your best bet is "Bringin it all back home", "Hwy 61 Revisited", "Blonde on Blonde", maybe with preference given to Hwy 61. A lot of people recommend "Desire" and "Blood on the Tracks"; I do not think they have aged as well.

"The Basement Tapes", from which "Million Dollar Bash" comes, is sort of more a The Band record than a Dylan record. I recommend it highly but it's a little orthogonal to finding out about Dylan.

25/1/08 11:55 AM  

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