Earworm of the day

[ksmith]

My earworms usually turn out to be songs I hate. One hypothesis I read concerning why a song I hate would insist upon looping through my brain like a skipping LP is that while I may not like that particular piece of music, my brain does. Maybe this ties in with why these things are usually bits of songs that were pretty popular. They flipped a vast number of switches and wormed into people's brains, and most of those people didn't mind.

Yet another earworm began looping yesterday, but for a nice of pace, it's a song I actually like. Tapestry, the title cut of Carole King's album. It was, iirc, one of the first albums I ever bought, and the first popular album as well. I played it over and over, to the point that I could sing the whole thing by heart. I still remember some of the songs in their entirety. Sang Tapestry all the way through while standing at the kitchen sink yesterday, just to see if I could, and I could, save for the odd word. And as I did, I really listened to the words for the first time, and my, but that's an unpleasant song. Eerie.

In times of deepest darkness...I've seen him dressed in black---now my tapestry's unraveling...he's come to take me back...he's come to take me back.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I wouldn't go with that man. The singer, however, apparently does.

Comments

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I currently have "My Little Buttercup" stuck in my head...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Is that a kid's song, or a pop song?

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Um. Neither. It was apparently written for "The Three Amigos", and is this inane little annoyingly catchy tune. And I've got 'Buttercup' brand name cough syrup here, so... :)

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

My current inside-the-head soundtrack is "John Barleycorn." Which is *much* better than The Usual, but still I have to ask ...why?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's funny which songs decide to turn up. Maybe I thought of "Tapestry" because I was in a dark fantasy frame of mind?

But now "My Cherie Amour" is starting to edge it out, and we're back to "I don't like you--get out of my head!"

[(Anonymous)]

Most people don't get to choose whether to go with Death... which explains "Tapestry" pretty directly.

In the "it could be worse" department, my current earworm is, apropos of last week's weather, "The Battle on the Ice" from Aleksandr Nevski (or maybe that's looking forward to Wednesday's game at Wrigley?). Fortunately, in the "it has been worse" department, it seems to have replaced a certain Police song that got misused in a deodorant commercial back when it was current... and it's the commercial that's the earworm.

— Jaws (about 225 km SE of you)

[goingferal.livejournal.com]

As I watched in sorrow, there suddenly appeared
A figure gray and ghostly beneath a flowing beard
In times of deepest darkness, I've seen him dressed in black
Now my tapestry's unravelling; he's come to take me back
He's come to take me back

Death, no?

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Probably, but the thing is, he came to take her back. This implies, at least to me, that at one point she left. And that's where the story is. How could she evade him/leave him, and why, and had she done it before? Is it a song about someone with an illness, who kept evading and kept evading until they couldn't anymore? Is it less a physical fleeing, and more spiritual?

It's possible I'm reading too much into one word, but it goes with the territory. I just can't help but think that if it were simple "Life as tapestry--the Fates cut the thread," there would be no need for the word "back."

And if she just plugged the word in there to give the line the right beat, well, that would figure, wouldn't it?

[goingferal.livejournal.com]

I thought of that in the way of when we die we are all going "back" to whence we came. Not in the Orpheus sense.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

I have a particular fondness for that album and, specifically, for that song. It has never been an earworm for me. I love the alliteration and allusion and rhyming and meter…it's a nice piece.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

yeah, I thought of that too. Then I tried to make a story out of it.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I listened to it until I wore out the vinyl, but I don't believe I've listened to it since the mid 70s. I am pretty sure I still have the LP, but who knows what shape it's in...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

which explains "Tapestry" pretty directly.

Yeah, but I almost always prefer the indirect explanation.

My ear worm

[(Anonymous)]

Mine too are usually songs that I don't like and end up stuck in my head for far too long (even when I try to listen to something catchy to replace it)
Today - Queen. I see a little silhoutte of a man - balarush, can you do the fandango - mama mia....(And you'll notice I don't even know the words - the version in my head includes my replacement words)