I have a handful of songs that rotate unbidden through my brain at any given moment. There’s always one spot for a recent earworm. Right now that spot is occupied by Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
A couple of the songs that have taken up long-term residency in my brain are “Pump It Up” by Elvis Costello, and REM’s “So. Central Rain,” which is my number-one lifelong earworm.
What song gets stuck in your head?
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Aside from the myriad of catchy Disney songs my kids have on repeat, right now it's probably a tie between "Anita" by Pacifica (one of my favorite new bands) or "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty.
I am checking back in here because I can't get Go All The Way by The Raspberries out of my head b/c -you know why. Give it a spin if you haven't lately.
I have so many lately! Just wake up with ear worms. Ugh ”Paul” by Big Thief and “hello in there” by John Prine This week it’s been an old one, “rock n roll” velvet underground. Probably because I’ve been driving so much lately and it had a perm place in my cassette deck in the 80’s.
Right now it's '4 Stars' from Girls5Eva (which is choice, btw), and the news theme from Australia's ABC when I was growing up, is always in there ... just waiting to play.
First memories, Simon and Garfunkel, hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again because in visions softly creeping, left it seems when I was sleeping, and the vision that is planted in my brain, still remains. . . Then SOUTHERN CROSS, got out of town on a boat sailing forthe southern islands, sailing a reach before a following sea …. How many times I have fallen, spirits are using me, larger voices calling, what heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten “ next Peaceful Easy Feeling, “ I like the way your sparkling earrings lat against your skin so brown, and I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight with the stars all around, Then Eagles, Already Gone, and Don Henley, the entire album Age of Innocence, more memories to follow
I've had ALL of those songs stuck in my head at some point. The Simon & Garfunkel problem is real. Sad hours in the back of a family car on tense road trips. Yeesh.
Golden by My Morning Jacket is so elegiac, timeless. Once heard, I can’t/wont shake it. Richard Thompson’s Cooksferry Queen is one I get from time to time, a real barnstormer. I fucking love that song! Lately my brain has been featuring What Was I Made For by Billie Eilish—surely I can’t be the only one? All my faves like Old 97’s and Rhett’s solo stuff are in regular rotation. Way too many and extremely varied including jazz, punk, and RATM.
Now to be brutally honest, I have had songs stuck in my head, sometimes for months, that I do not love. After my mom died it was Here I Go Again by Whitesnake (wtf? — Freud would have a field day). Lately, I get the theme song from I Dream of Jeannie.
Working at a video store in the late 90's and playing the same VHS music collections every night has gifted me decades of random visits of Borderline by Madonna, and The Lovecats by The Cure.
If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot and Walt Whitman's Niece by Billy Bragg and Wilco... In my mind, every bar should play that song at least once a night and the bartenders jump up on the bar and dance to the song.
The opening drums from Gloria by U2 and/or This Year's Girl by EC. It's AWFUL to the point where I can no longer listen to either song. I think I need psychotropic meds for this. Dr. Miller what would you prescribe??
There are many that weave in and out. One that comes to mind is the Clash’s bass heavy “Ghetto Defendant”. Also some times when I fold clothes I sing a version of “The El”’s chorus in my head, but the word unaware has been strategically replaced with underwear; and thus is the only way I sing it on any occasion now.
I swear I’m not making this up. I went through a stretch of my life where my daily schedule was not much governed by the weekly calendar and so I would commonly lose track of what day of the week it was. And yet there would regularly come a day when I had the Cowboy Junkies song “Sun Comes Up, it’s Tuesday Morning” in my head, and without fail, it would always turn out that it was in fact a Tuesday.
Since New Year’s, two songs off (The) Bluebells’ “Sisters” lp have been my companions: “Cath” (the “longer version”; that late guitar solo is such a gorgeous chiming ice pick) & “Will She Always Be Waiting” (co-produced by Elvis Costello; its density wraps around my brain like gossamer… but then the drums break through it - sooo good!). But I have to consciously eject them when it’s bedtime and lately, Tim Moore’s “Second Avenue” enters with all its sad and soothing heartbreak.
But those are songs that I was listening to regularly when they built their nests. Why “You Oughta Know” barged in the other day and won’t leave is a mystery to me. I AM enjoying the snarling… but what I’m NOT enjoying are the unwanted Dave Coulier visuals. It needs to go.
I always have a very hard time with these kids of questions. I like to say I’m, “polyjamorous, how much time ya got? My new music right now is Orville Peck, I love his voice! The song that always gets me in my feels, is Most of All, by Brandi Carlisle, I’m pretty sure she wrote for me because literally every lyric works.
Longest-term resident is Blues in the Night (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer), because when I was growing up my dad used to sing it when he shaved, and I could hear him down the hall. I thought it was so funny, given the lyrics are from a woman's perspective. But he and my mom loved Ella...so it was his own earworm that he passed down to me. :)
“Orangefield” by Van Morrison. With the time change, I’m running during the sunrise and something about the gentle rhythm and the feel of it just clicks with me.
Right now it’s Big Brown Eyes because it’s playing on Amazon. Sorry. I’ve been hearing the Faces Stay with me and queensryches jet city woman in my head a lot lately
Mine is Six Months In A Leaky Boat by Split Enz. My wife has had If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot) on her mind for a record three plus years!
Six Months in a Leaky Boat!! Love it. I was at the Avalon in Boston to see Neil Finn when a one Rhett Miller opened for him. Solo guitar. Instigator era. We were blown away.
What a riot. We were really glad we went early to hear the opener! Was the beginning of what has been a pretty significant musical and concert going interest in our household!
So. Central Rain is one of my all time favorite songs. Still gives me chills. And there’s this song called Timebomb by this band called the Old 97s that’s on constant repeat
Unseen Power of the Picket Fence. I received that "No Alternative" tape as a birthday present from a sibling in '93, 8thish grade. I was obsessed with Bob Dylan from like 4th-8th grade. And heard this and thought I had found a new Dylan. They namecheck -- haha -- South Central Rain, along with lots of other REM output. I still think it's one of the finest songs of the 1990s.
"Not where it's at" Del Amitri, one of the finest pop songs ever written, IMHO. The bridge!
Aside from the myriad of catchy Disney songs my kids have on repeat, right now it's probably a tie between "Anita" by Pacifica (one of my favorite new bands) or "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty.
The Judy's "Guyana Punch" is a regular play on my internal jukebox. "'39" by Queen. "Wish the Worst" by some guys you know.
"Success on someone else's terms don't mean a fucking thing. I'm going over the cliff"
Both Langford's version and yours. Saw you perform it together at sea last year. Highlight of my trip.
I am checking back in here because I can't get Go All The Way by The Raspberries out of my head b/c -you know why. Give it a spin if you haven't lately.
I have so many lately! Just wake up with ear worms. Ugh ”Paul” by Big Thief and “hello in there” by John Prine This week it’s been an old one, “rock n roll” velvet underground. Probably because I’ve been driving so much lately and it had a perm place in my cassette deck in the 80’s.
Good one.
Replacements, "Here Comes a Regular"; Wilco, "How to Fight Loneliness"; Fugazi, "Waiting Room"; and yep, "So. Central Rain is an all-timer.
Bowie: Boys Keep Swinging. I saw his performance on SNL as a teen and dammmmnn I was hooked.
"Boys keep swinging, boys always work it OUUUTTT! "
Right now it's '4 Stars' from Girls5Eva (which is choice, btw), and the news theme from Australia's ABC when I was growing up, is always in there ... just waiting to play.
Pixies “Dig For Fire” — it’s kind of my get pumped up song when I’m doing something like riding mile 35 of a 40-mile bike ride.
Furr by Blitzen Trapper has been a revolving earworm I check in with for the past few years.
Kinks - Apeman
Lemon Twigs - My Golden Years
Heat of the Moment by Asia. Stuck in my head off and on since 1982.
First memories, Simon and Garfunkel, hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again because in visions softly creeping, left it seems when I was sleeping, and the vision that is planted in my brain, still remains. . . Then SOUTHERN CROSS, got out of town on a boat sailing forthe southern islands, sailing a reach before a following sea …. How many times I have fallen, spirits are using me, larger voices calling, what heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten “ next Peaceful Easy Feeling, “ I like the way your sparkling earrings lat against your skin so brown, and I want to sleep with you in the desert tonight with the stars all around, Then Eagles, Already Gone, and Don Henley, the entire album Age of Innocence, more memories to follow
I've had ALL of those songs stuck in my head at some point. The Simon & Garfunkel problem is real. Sad hours in the back of a family car on tense road trips. Yeesh.
Big Brown Eyes - Old 97s
Young Americans - Bowie
Mambo Sun - T Rex
I'm Good Now - Bob Schneider
T Rex's The Slider is my most-played album of all time, so, yeah...
Golden by My Morning Jacket is so elegiac, timeless. Once heard, I can’t/wont shake it. Richard Thompson’s Cooksferry Queen is one I get from time to time, a real barnstormer. I fucking love that song! Lately my brain has been featuring What Was I Made For by Billie Eilish—surely I can’t be the only one? All my faves like Old 97’s and Rhett’s solo stuff are in regular rotation. Way too many and extremely varied including jazz, punk, and RATM.
Now to be brutally honest, I have had songs stuck in my head, sometimes for months, that I do not love. After my mom died it was Here I Go Again by Whitesnake (wtf? — Freud would have a field day). Lately, I get the theme song from I Dream of Jeannie.
I meant to make that point in my post: often these are songs we would not want stuck in our head!
Burnin' Love - Elvis (runnin' late, need something to get me out of the house)
Memory Motel - Stones (pull over, stare into the ocean listening )
Incident on 57th Street - Bruce (highly recommended for virgin ears)
World Inside the World - Rhett (self explanatory)
Dancin in the Moonlight - King Harvest (anytime, anywhere, all purpose listening)
Magnet & Steel - Walter Egan (practicing back up vocals)
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits (sigh.....)
Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrkle (pop music perfection)
Red Rubber Ball is very sticky. Agreed.
Any Dire Straights, but Down To The Water Line, is the stickiest in my wee brain.
Hex by Neko Case
Neko's great!
Working at a video store in the late 90's and playing the same VHS music collections every night has gifted me decades of random visits of Borderline by Madonna, and The Lovecats by The Cure.
Yeah. And sometimes the songs that drive you crazy at the time become old friends. Stockholm Syndrome?
Precious Angel - Dylan
Casino Queen - Wilco
Rollerskate Skinny - Some Band From Texas
That whole first Wilco record is so fun!
You can so easily hear the influences that made Uncle Tupelo the Fourth Best Country Band in St Louis.
It is. I was digging into AM and Satellite Rides at the same time. Great pair
If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot and Walt Whitman's Niece by Billy Bragg and Wilco... In my mind, every bar should play that song at least once a night and the bartenders jump up on the bar and dance to the song.
The opening drums from Gloria by U2 and/or This Year's Girl by EC. It's AWFUL to the point where I can no longer listen to either song. I think I need psychotropic meds for this. Dr. Miller what would you prescribe??
Yeah. The Elvis catalog is a real problem for me too. High class problem, I suppose.
Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Every Saturday Night” by the Vandoliers. And Dance Class by this Texas band. 😍
That guitar riff on TUIB is so perfect.
Brown-Eyed Women by the Dead. Love every lyric.
Inner musical dialogue frequent replays include Andrew Bird’s “ Sisyphus.”
That whistling riff, is it considered a riff, I wonder?
Wilco’s “ You Are My Face ,“ as well as “Cosmic Dancer” by T-Rex.
Presently, also both new releases by Old 97s “ Where the Road Goes” & “Magic “ Well done ✨
Oh, nice BOWIE nod with the seemingly 2 different eye colors on Time & Temperature Intro post. Clever.
There are many that weave in and out. One that comes to mind is the Clash’s bass heavy “Ghetto Defendant”. Also some times when I fold clothes I sing a version of “The El”’s chorus in my head, but the word unaware has been strategically replaced with underwear; and thus is the only way I sing it on any occasion now.
I swear this is not me sucking up to you, but I get "Oppenheimer Road" stuck in my head ALL THE TIME. Catchy tune, that one.
My job is done, then.
NYC Serenade by Bruce, Left Of The Dial ‘Mats, and Brooklyn Jesse.
I swear I’m not making this up. I went through a stretch of my life where my daily schedule was not much governed by the weekly calendar and so I would commonly lose track of what day of the week it was. And yet there would regularly come a day when I had the Cowboy Junkies song “Sun Comes Up, it’s Tuesday Morning” in my head, and without fail, it would always turn out that it was in fact a Tuesday.
It is a great song, though.
I got to open for Cowboy Junkies at The Arcadia Theater when I was in high school. What a show. So beautiful.
How cool. Seeing them live made me realize what an underrated guitar player Michael Timmins is.
Lately it's been the version of Shout Bama Lama by Detroit Cobras. What a burner!
Yesterday I woke up with Midnight Blues going through my head. I love when the stuck song is a great song!
Since New Year’s, two songs off (The) Bluebells’ “Sisters” lp have been my companions: “Cath” (the “longer version”; that late guitar solo is such a gorgeous chiming ice pick) & “Will She Always Be Waiting” (co-produced by Elvis Costello; its density wraps around my brain like gossamer… but then the drums break through it - sooo good!). But I have to consciously eject them when it’s bedtime and lately, Tim Moore’s “Second Avenue” enters with all its sad and soothing heartbreak.
But those are songs that I was listening to regularly when they built their nests. Why “You Oughta Know” barged in the other day and won’t leave is a mystery to me. I AM enjoying the snarling… but what I’m NOT enjoying are the unwanted Dave Coulier visuals. It needs to go.
Cracker's Turn on, Tune in, Drop out with me is currently burning up my brain!
Waterloo Sunset or “Slide Away” by Oasis
Born Under a Bad Sign, Pat Travers Band
Ripple
Friend of the devil, both Grateful Dead.
Highwayman, Jimmy Webb
Seven Spanish Angels
Pancho and Lefty, both Willie Nelson
Dim Lights, Flying Burrito Brothers
Corrinna, Taj Mahal
Lots of others, these are the ones currently in my mental play list.
Right now it's "In Our Bedroom After the War" by Stars.
I always have a very hard time with these kids of questions. I like to say I’m, “polyjamorous, how much time ya got? My new music right now is Orville Peck, I love his voice! The song that always gets me in my feels, is Most of All, by Brandi Carlisle, I’m pretty sure she wrote for me because literally every lyric works.
Obviously, I can’t type for shit, lol
Time Bomb by Old 97s… she’s gonna kill me…
Oh and No Matter What by Badfinger has permanent residency
Since I’m sitting at Orlando airport after leaving Disney an hour ago, I’m going to say It’s a Small World After All. Been stuck in my head all week.
Honestly, I'll throw down with anyone who tells me this is a bad song.
Well then, my lips are sealed.
Longest-term resident is Blues in the Night (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer), because when I was growing up my dad used to sing it when he shaved, and I could hear him down the hall. I thought it was so funny, given the lyrics are from a woman's perspective. But he and my mom loved Ella...so it was his own earworm that he passed down to me. :)
“Orangefield” by Van Morrison. With the time change, I’m running during the sunrise and something about the gentle rhythm and the feel of it just clicks with me.
Right now it’s Big Brown Eyes because it’s playing on Amazon. Sorry. I’ve been hearing the Faces Stay with me and queensryches jet city woman in my head a lot lately
Working Too Hard by Lyle Lovett
Cowboy's Dream #19 by Dan Hicks
Boogie Woogie Waltz by Weather Report
...too many others!!!
I just saw Rhett Miller perform at Daryl's House in Pawling NY a few weeks ago, and ever since I have been stuck on Barrier Reef
I understand he's excellent!
😆😆
That’s a common ear worm for me, surely
Mine is Six Months In A Leaky Boat by Split Enz. My wife has had If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot) on her mind for a record three plus years!
Six Months in a Leaky Boat!! Love it. I was at the Avalon in Boston to see Neil Finn when a one Rhett Miller opened for him. Solo guitar. Instigator era. We were blown away.
Same for me, but in Philadelphia. Neil got caught in traffic from New York, so Rhett got to do an extra long set!
What a riot. We were really glad we went early to hear the opener! Was the beginning of what has been a pretty significant musical and concert going interest in our household!
So. Central Rain is one of my all time favorite songs. Still gives me chills. And there’s this song called Timebomb by this band called the Old 97s that’s on constant repeat
Shaking Through by REM is the one that has rattled around for close to 40 years.
Yes!
Same...and the songs change depending on what I listened to recently.
But for some reason...a riff from a 1983 song on Queensryche's debut EP has taken up permanent residence.
So random.
Unseen Power of the Picket Fence. I received that "No Alternative" tape as a birthday present from a sibling in '93, 8thish grade. I was obsessed with Bob Dylan from like 4th-8th grade. And heard this and thought I had found a new Dylan. They namecheck -- haha -- South Central Rain, along with lots of other REM output. I still think it's one of the finest songs of the 1990s.