Songs That Stick In Your Head

Inspired as usual by the Smoking Christian, I have compiled a short list of songs that stick in your head. A strange but frequent phenomenon, songs that stick in your head affect everyone.

Why does this occur? I suppose it has something to do with the song itself. Repetitive and stupidly simple seems to be two common characteristics. Also they are played/sung ad nauseam by DJs and church choirs. You hear them a lot.

Everyone has developed a technique for avoiding them. I have mine. First I eliminate the source (this is difficult when in church), then I start humming an equally obnoxious tune from the list below and finally I sing the Ave Maria at the top of my lungs until purged.

Here is my list. (You’ll note that I have avoided advertising jingles like “You deserve a break today, so get up and get away to McDonalds…” and “Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener, that is what I’d truly like to be…” and “See the USA in your Chevrolet…” so as not to give offense to the beloved ad execs among my readers—mind control artists of the underworld though they may be.)

Put the Lime in the Coconut by Harry Nilsson
Yellow Submarine by The Beatles
It’s a Small World by Robert and Richard Sherman
The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens
That's the Way I Like It by KC and the Sunshine Band
The Little Drummer Boy by Davis, Onorati and Simeone
Jesse’s Girl by Rick Springfield
Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus
Tie a Yellow Ribbon by Tony Orlando and Dawn
I Shot the Sheriff by Eric Clapton
Do Re Mi by Rodgers and Hammerstein
I Exalt Thee by Pete Sanchez Jr.
Anything by the Steve Miller Band

Magic Bus

Every day I see you pass (too much, magic bus)
You glide right by my window glass (too much, magic bus)
I just grin from ear to ear (too much, magic bus)
Wherever you are, you’re right here (too much, magic bus)

Thank you mother for buying that ad (too much, magic bus)
I’m sure it was expensive, just a tad (too much, magic bus)
I don’t need no drink or drug (too much, magic bus)
I get my kicks just seein’ your mug (too much, magic bus)

Nooooooooo!

I don’t need no drink or drug (too much, magic bus)
I wanna see that bus and your mug each day (too much, magic bus)

I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it…(I can have it!)

Ten o’clock and six o’clock every day
Just a glance then you’re away
Ten o’clock and six o’clock every day
‘Cause you’re my fix in every way

Magic bus, magic bus, magic bus…


(With thanks to P. Townshend)

The White Page of Death

Thanks for stopping by. You guys [were] great!

Waiting for Og

A Tragicomedy

SHILOHMAN:
What do we do now?
YAKIMANIAC:
While waiting?
SHILOHMAN:
While waiting.
YAKIMANIAC:
We could do our exercises.
SHILOHMAN:
Our movements.
YAKIMANIAC:
Our elevations.
SHILOHMAN:
Our relaxations.
YAKIMANIAC:
Our elongations.
SHILOHMAN:
Our relaxations.
YAKIMANIAC:
To warm us up.
SHILOHMAN:
To calm us down.
YAKIMANIAC:
Off we go.
SHILOHMAN:
That's enough. I'm tired.
YAKIMANIAC:
We're not in shape. What about a little deep breathing?
SHILOHMAN:
I'm tired breathing.
YAKIMANIAC:
You're right. Let's just do the tree, for the balance.
SHILOHMAN:
The tree?
YAKIMANIAC:
Your turn.
SHILOHMAN:
Do you think God sees me?
YAKIMANIAC:
You must close your eyes.
SHILOHMAN:
God have pity on me!
YAKIMANIAC:
And me?
SHILOHMAN:
On me! On me! Pity! On me!
YAKIMANIAC:
Og!
SC:
What is it? Who is it?
SHILOHMAN:
Is it Og?
YAKIMANIAC:
At last! Reinforcements at last!
SC:
Help!
SHILOHMAN:
Is it Og?
YAKIMANIAC:
We were beginning to weaken. Now we're sure to see the evening out.
SC:
Help!
SHILOHMAN:
Do you hear him?
YAKIMANIAC:
We are no longer alone, waiting for the night, waiting for Og, waiting for . . . waiting. All evening we have struggled, unassisted. Now it's over. It's already tomorrow.
SC:
Help!
YAKIMANIAC:
Time flows again already. The sun will set, the moon rise, and we away . . . from here.
SC:
Pity!
YAKIMANIAC:
Poor SC!
SHILOHMAN:
I knew it was him.
YAKIMANIAC:
Who?
SHILOHMAN:
Og.
YAKIMANIAC:
But it's not Og.
SHILOHMAN:
It's not Og?
YAKIMANIAC:
It's not Og.
SHILOHMAN:
Then who is it?
YAKIMANIAC:
It's SC.
SC:
Here! Here! Help me up!
YAKIMANIAC:
He can't get up.
SHILOHMAN:
Let's go.
YAKIMANIAC:
We can't.
SHILOHMAN:
Why not?
YAKIMANIAC:
We're waiting for Og.
SHILOHMAN:
Ah!


(Adapted from a play by S. Beckett)

How We Operate

Two months ago I rediscovered Gomez, the British rock group. I had been hearing their music on Wazee Internet Radio the last couple of years but they didn’t interest me enough to buy their CDs.


In the venerable Nissan I listen to the local Junior College alternative station. I kept hearing a terrific song but there were no DJs to tell me about the artist. I memorized some of the lyric and went to see Dread at my local music haunt. Dread wasn’t working so Spike did a quick search and handed me How We Operate by Gomez. I was stunned by the coincidence but felt all tingly inside—a good sign. A rediscovery. I couldn’t get the wrapper off fast enough.

The first track, Notice, is low key acoustic. Definitely worth coming back to but not what I remembered.

Track two: See the World. Wow! A very beautiful song. The only way to describe it is an amped-up David Gray. The vocal is uncanny in its similarity. This is a song I will listen to over and over for a long time. It reminds me of a long flight to Virginia Beach reading Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit and listening to White Ladder on my headset. Transcendental.

Track three is the song I kept hearing and the one I was after. How We Operate starts with a mandolin or ukulele in an ocean of reverb. After a bit a banjo enters. Another bit and the rasp of frontman Ben Ottewell kicks in:

Calm down
And get straight
It's not our eyes
It's how we operate

You're true
You are
I'd apologize but it won't go very far

Please come here
Come right on over
And when we collide we'll see what gets left over

A little joy
A little sorrow
And a little pride so we won't have to borrow
Wherever you lead, I'll follow

Turn me inside out and upside down
And try to see things my way
Turn a new page, tear the old one out
And I'll try to see things your way

All the songs on the album are about relationships—like Girlshapedlovedrug a humorous yet sad up-tempo song about love for a difficult girl with mood swings—but this one is about an argument and a compromise. How people disagree and work things out.

As for the sound, it’s unmistakable once you hear it. A big rock sound (guitars and drums) with the somewhat robotic use of banjo and ukulele. At least this song. No two sound alike. Tear Your Love Apart sounds like a big Pearl Jam ballad when Pearl Jam cared about what they were doing. Don’t Make Me Laugh highlights the one element that seems common to all songs on this CD: intricate voice harmonies. That and craftsmanship. They seem to care about their music and musicianship. Refreshing. And typical of a band that has met critical acclaim but mixed sales success.