Earworms

[Kerosene]

Not to be confused with earwhigs, have you ever been plagued by an "earworm" for more than a few miles while hiking? An earworm is a song or snippet of music that runs through your head continuously and is typically difficult to consciously eliminate.

Personally, the rhythm of an uphill climb seems to trigger them. On the first day of my hike earlier this month, I kept having the sickly sweet strains of "The Christmas Song" from "The Grinch" running through my brain. However, after a few days I move from popular music earworms to surprisingly grandiose and inspiring self compositions that I only wish I could replicate when I get back home to my piano.

Here's a good article if you're interested in reading about some of the common earworms and a few half-baked techniques for how to eliminate them.

[thyroid]

The jingle for Cox Communications Highspeed Internet.. Here are the words: "People in your life make all the difference.. The best of times are the times with your friends. In my life-- all my friends-- are with me 'till the end-- life is good when you got your friends."

Hope I've successfully transfered that little torture....

[c.coyle]

God didn't make little green apples
And it don't rain in Indianapples
In the summertime

There's no such thing as Mother Goose....................

[Ankle Bone]

With deepest apologies to Bob Seeger:

Now here I am
On the trail again
There I am
Up on the ridge

Here I go
Playing hiker again
There I go
Where’s the blaze…..

[Bunchberry]

I tend to get spoken phrases stuck in my head rather than songs. My grandfather served in the British Army in East Africa in WW2. He taught me a Swahili/English chant that he learned there:

Left, right, left
Malima tutapanda
Tambeni poli-poli
Malima tutapanda

(apologies to any Swahili speakers for my mangling of your language).

It translates as "Left, right, left, we will climb the mountain. Let us go slowly, we will climb the mountain."

I get it in my head a lot on mountain trails, and it's really hard to get rid of.

The other childhood hangover that won't let go is that when I'm tired on downhills, I find myself repeating, "Bend your knees" to myself, over and over. My mother's perennial advice on hilly hikes with us as children.

Although it can be irritating to have phrases stuck in my head, they're both good advice, so I suppose it could be worse.

[Streamweaver]

Ive always got some tune stuck in my head!! Most of the time its Some stupid song I heard from a passing car or something,heard it for a split second and its stuck in my head for days!! One song that pops into my head towards the end of a long day of hiking is,I cant remember who did it but it goes"Ive got one more silver dollar,but I aint gonna let em catch me ,no aint gonna let em catch the midnight rider"Thats an awsome song!! Usually the songs pop into my head according to my hiking pace at the moment,fast hiking =fast song etc Streamweaver

[jlb2012]

Early 70's Allman brothers / Gregg Allman

[Sleepy the Arab]

That infernal Tootsie Roll song. ("The world looks mighty good to me/ 'Cause Tootsie Rolls are all I see..." ad nauseum). I rather eat at the buffet in Fontana for the next year than have that stuck in my head again.

I also discovered that I knew a good portion of the lyrics to Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance."

[steve hiker]

The night before I left for my Colorado trip in September, I was in Wal-Mart and this black woman was "singing" at the top of her voice over the store loudspeakers. Then for the first two days in Colorado, miles from the nearest town or Wal-Mart, that black woman was still yelling in my ear. Gross.

[Hikerhead]

Slow ride.......take it easy.....An oldie by Foghat I believe...

That seems to pop up in my head a lot.

[Streamweaver]

Yup !! Thats Foghat,another awsome song!! Streamweaver

[steve hiker]

One of the better earworms I've had on the trail is Follow Me by REM, about a nice cold can of Orange Crush:

Follow me, don't follow me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
Collar me, don't collar me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now its time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me

Follow me, don't follow me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
Collar me, don't collar me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now its time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me

(High on the roof, thin the blood,
another one climbs on the waves tonight,
comin' in, you're home)

"We'd circle and we'd circle and we'd circle to stop and consider and
centered on the pavement stacked up all the trucks jacked up and
our wheels in slush and orange crush in pocket and all this here county
hell any county it's just like heaven here and I was remembering and I
was just in a different county and all then this whirlybird that I
headed for I had my goggles pulled off I knew it all I knew every back
road and every truck stop"

Follow me, don't follow me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
Collar me, don't collar me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now its time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me

(High on the roof, thin the blood,
another one climbs on the waves tonight,
comin' in, you're home)

(High on the roof, thin the blood,
another one climbs on the waves tonight,
comin' in, you're home)

[Doctari]

99.9% of the time it is a song I REALLY REALLY HATE! Last time I had it bad was for 3 (insert bad word here) days, no "cure" worked.

Admitedly, the "Cure" is sometimes worse than the "earworms".

A cure I (sometimes) use, from Sheri Lewis' play along:
This is the song that dosen't end
Yes it goes on and on my friend
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was.
And they'll continue singing it forever just because
This is the song that dosen't end
Yes it goes on and on my friend
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was.
And they'll continue singing it forever just because
This is the song that dosen't end
etc.

[Jaybird]

Early 70's Allman brothers / Gregg Allman

It was from Gregg Allman first solo album from 1971...the song title:



[U] "Midnight Rider"



an excellent tune to have stuck in your head!



i'm never that fortunate....it's always some line from some stupid TV or radio jingle i just heard shuttling to the trailhead...darn!


Jaybird
www.trailjournals.com/Jaybird

[c.coyle]

Duplicate - sorry

[c.coyle]

Jaybird: "It was from Gregg Allman first solo album from 1971...the song title: 'Midnight Rider' an excellent tune to have stuck in your head!"


Actually, from the Allman Brothers' second studio album, Idlewild South. The Allmans were serious hikers and ultralight pioneers.

[Jaybird]

Jaybird: "It was from Gregg Allman first solo album from 1971...the song title: 'Midnight Rider' an excellent tune to have stuck in your head!"


Actually, from the Allman Brothers' second studio album, Idlewild South. The Allmans were serious hikers and ultralight pioneers.

okay! okay! OKAY!.........so, IDLEWILD SOUTH was out first...& Gregg & Duane were happy & all the ALLMAN Bros. Band were alive & well @ that time....


but, the version most people remember (the one that got radio airplay & still does today)..is the GREGG ALLMAN solo version....very tasty!

His new CD is not bad either!

I still have all my vinyl...& wasnt aware that Gregg was a serious hiker.

hehehehehe


jaybird
www.trailjournals.com/Jaybird

[Uncle Wayne]

While not a bad earworm, a poem by Graeme Edge of the Moody Blues comes to mind as I start laboring uphill. The title is Late Lament and it goes...

Late Lament
by
Graeme Edge

Breathe Deep, the gathering gloom.
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people sit back and lament,
Another day's useless energies spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for Love and has none.
A new mother picks up and suckles her son.
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold Hearted Orb which rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight,
Red is Grey and Yellow, White
And yet, we decide which is right
And which is an illusion.


I think I place the emphasis on breathe deep and I would've included "and stop often."
Hikerhead, I can appreciate your earworm also. Good choice for you and I.

[mdionne]

"It's a cool, cool moon out tonight
It's a cold, cold point on your knife
could i call myself a man if i
left by the morning light...

...I'd be forty miles from denver
and three days from my home
In that cool mountain air
On the Appalachian Trail
life is better there."

Yonder Mountain String Band

[Noggin]

fingernails are pretty
fingernails are bright
all she wanted was
a mean old magic marker