The Songs In My Head
by Brian
Compare music to drinks. Some is like a strong brandy. Some is like a fine wine. The music you’re playing sounds like Diet Coke.
~ Pavarotti
Maybe it’s the new hours I’m keeping for work. Up too late, then up WAY too early.
Maybe it’s that.
Or maybe it’s my diet. I drink coffee and smoke cigarettes for breakfast, snack on ice cream at work, and then eat whatever I can find – rapidly – when I get home.
Yeah, maybe it’s that.
Or maybe it’s just the strange way my mind works. Jumping from this thought to that thought with nary a comprehensible segue to be found. Incongruous droplets upon a haphazard and turbulent sea.
It must be that.
For over the course of the past week, on three very different mornings, I’ve woken up with these three songs in my head:
“The Curly Shuffle” by Jump ‘N The Saddle Band
“To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” by Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson
“Bullet Train” by The Swirling Eddies
The first two? I can’t explain those at all. No crazy dreams prefaced their arrival. Nothing of lost loves or slapstick comedy. I did write a post recently about humor and romance for another blog, so maybe there’s that. But beyond that tenuous connection, I can’t ascertain any stronger or more relevant catalyst.
But that last song? It’s a bit of a classic for me, a song I’ve loved – and yet haven’t heard – for years.
I remedied that quickly.
Terry Scott Taylor and his many side projects, like Lost Dogs and The Swirling Eddies, created some of the most memorable and unclassifiable music of my youth. And short is the list of guitarists who turn my crank more efficiently or with greater swagger than Michael Roe. His band, the 77′s, were the soundtrack of my Christian life for years, mostly because no one who took church seriously listened to them. And there are few sacred experiences that top hearing him do his thing . . .
Now that’s a song worth waking up to!
What is the strangest/most inspirational song you’ve ever woken up singing . . .
[Flickr photo is by shankar, shiv and is protected]
“Or maybe it’s my diet. I drink coffee and smoke cigarettes for breakfast, snack on ice cream at work, and then eat whatever I can find – rapidly – when I get home.”
That’ll kill you, you know that, right?
STOP SMOKING AND EATING REFINED SUGAR! You’ll live longer and be a lot happier.
Steak, eggs, butter and cream are all fine.
I’d rather live longer to enjoy steak myself.
Seriously Brian, quit smoking. I did, and I have the willpower of a dead squirrel. Plus (and it’s very important) all those cigarettes make your peepee smaller. This is a very good reason not to smoke…
Word. Smoking is a bit of a chore at work. It means shedding the allergen-free getup I wear, which is almost too time-consuming. Unfortunately, I’m getting used to it . . .
Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi.
Every day for the last 14 years. I’ve tried changing but nothing else works.
Found this interesting reworking of that song by David Benoit. Very cool . . .
I’ve actually got that album. Wynton & Ellis Marsalis also did a pretty cool version but I always go back to Vince.
To all commenters: Feel free to add a link to your song. That would be most excellent!!!!
i get the weirdest songs stuck in my head. i blame work and parenthood and a total lack of time and to much sugar. all three of which i don’t see myself giving up anytime in the future.
i miss actually having the time to pick the music i’m going to listen to.
Those drugs you are ingesting will surely case odd dreams. What my excuse for odd dreams is i have no idea.
gilligan’s island song, hawaii 5-0 theme, and stuff like that is easily wedged in my brain, although i can’t remember waking up to the ‘brady bunch’ theme. i think i’d declare the day over and hunker down under the covers if that ever happens…
Whatever you are on….I want it. As you can tell by my Blip tweets and recent post….its all just sick shit in my head!
He he – there’s a phrase for songs like that “earworms” – they sneak inside your head and stay there all day. Usually “I Should Be So Lucky” by Kylie Minogue is a typically annoying one.
Worse still is the song you hum but can’t think where the hell you know it from!
Don’t know that i’ve ever woken up singing, but had plenty of Earworms
I simply came over to give you a fist bump for winning a year’s supply of meat products from the Uncool. Now I’ve stumbled into a world filled with musical madness. HA!
I don’t wake up to music, I wake up to the cacophony of chatter in my head. Lately “Little Boxes” has been invading my thoughts and to my deep chagrin, “You Light Up My Life” from reading about the contest over at DadCentric. I’m not posting a link to YLUML – Eek! But LB deserves to be heard.
The Curly Shuffle- a great tribute to one of my heroes, Curly. Woob, woob, woob…
Lately I’ve had Elvis singing “Tiger Man” just rampaging through my head. Constantly. In the shower, the car, on the bus. And I growl it, too, all, “I’m the kiiiing of the jungle, they caaaaaaaaaaahhhhhll me-the-tiger-man.”
And “Bullet train” is awesome.
[...] then, in response to a recent post, a friend-from-across-the-pond named Ben replied . . [...]