Of Ears and Worms

I don’t know about you, but I am very prone to earworms. I probably am singing a song in my head pretty much any minute of the day, just that by now I don’t pay them so much notice anymore. However, a few songs are particularly loud in my head. And persistent. And cannot be ignored that easily. This is not necessarily a good thing, if you were thinking that humming a tune just testifies to a happy nature. Especially when it’s a song that I don’t even like, but just won’t leave my head, happy does not factor in much.

So where do these songs come from? Songs I hear in passing are an obvious source of course. Which can be tricky, coming back to the crap songs that sometimes stick and me then having to find another earworm just to purge the crap song from my head. Actually a good and effective remedy. Fight fire with fire, or rather earworm with earworm. Once you have another earworm, one that you like, you will continue singing it for a while, but after some time they slowly fade, without you spending long and agonising moments fighting a crap song that, just because you hate it so much, will get renewed energy every moment you notice it.

Also, in my case, a sentence or even just a word might do it. Almost any sentence can trigger a song. Pretty much everything anybody says has probably been used in a song. And oh so often I find myself listening to someone speak and suddenly breaking out in song in my head with the same words. Or word. Such as Rotterdam. That alone will, and does very often, trigger The Beautiful South. And since I know the song so well it usually takes me a while to be done with it, as I will work my way through the entire lyrics. When do you ever hear Rotterdam mentioned you ask? Well, my problem is that my manfriend is from Rotterdam, so mentions are plenty and frequent, and I don’t stand a chance trying to avoid it. Funnily enough, I have never been to Rotterdam, so other than a vague knowledge of where I might find it on the map I have nothing other than the song to associate with it, which probably makes this earworm even more persistent.

Another favourite of mine, or rather my head, is Wasn’t Built to Get up at this Time. Remember that one? This I sing almost every morning. When I was at uni, the radio station my alarm clock was tuned to played it EVERY morning when my alarm went off for weeks. Very appropriate I suppose. Thing is, even now, decades after, I still sing this thing most mornings, just for the simple fact of it. Me and mornings, yeah, well, that’s a whole different story, and not a happy one let me tell you. So just to iterate the point, no I Wasn’t Built to Get up at this Time.

Just a few examples, but I guess you get the picture. Picture yourself in a boat on the river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies, somebody calls you… So much for that!!