Earworms

Music

You know those snatches of songs that get stuck in your brain and you can’t stop singing them under your breath, or hearing them for hours on end?  That’s  what they’re called, and needless to say, some killjoy doctor has a remedy for them.

I actually enjoy mine, because the ones that could irritate me (e.g. anything by Lady Gaga or Taylor Swift) won’t be recalled for the simple reason that I haven’t heard them — I don’t listen to any modern music.

This morning’s earworm, for instance, was Burning Rope  by Genesis — specifically, the lead solo just after the 4-minute mark.

I’ll post more of them — mostly, they put in an appearance in the mornings during my wake-up time — and while a lot of them will be quality, there will be times when it’s all Yes We Have No Bananas.

You have been warned.

12 comments

  1. I’ve heard the worm “loops” at the point where you no longer know the lyrics. You know, where say, you know the first 2 lines, and when those 2 lines end the worm makes it loop back to the beginning…over and over and over….

    So the cure is to memorize ALL of the lyrics and instantly that song will never worm again.

  2. “Yes We Have No Bananas”

    Damn you, Kim! My ears were worm-free until now! As a counterpunch, I give you “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas”.

    My wife uses “Foolish Games” by Jewel to kill earworms. It’s slow and sad, and it does seem to do the trick, the times I’ve tried it.

  3. After watching grandkids all week, I have the Baby Shark song stuck in a loop. I adjust by making up dirty lyrics to go with the tune, just gotta be careful not to sing it out loud while the kids can hear.

      1. You’re right, I’m completely scared of my wife. She’s already warned me several times about language in front of the grandkids.

  5. First, this

    Next, my earworms actually keep me up at night and prevent sleeping. I have catholic taste in music and my earworms range from 40’s music to Bach to Chopin and from 50’s up to late 70’s. I was stuck on “Maresy Dotes” for a week once.

    I will run out and buy chewing gum right away.

  7. I wasn’t familiar with that particular Genesis piece. They didn’t get a lot of airplay on the Pop-40 MOR AM stations I could get at that time (mid-late 70’s). Thanks!

    My first impression of the opening of the solo was that it reminded me of some of the stuff Kansas was doing (on the cuts from their albums that also didn’t get AM airplay, but we bought their albums and were hearing those pieces).

  9. I had “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” stuck in my head for at least a decade. It wasn’t a good thing.

    Edit after reading the article. I chewed gum several times during that decade and it didn’t change anything. I also learned ALL the lyrics, and learned other songs to that music (eg “Blood on the Risers), and that didn’t help. I tried listening to it a lot and never listening to it. Nothing helped. Eventually, it faded.

Comments are closed.