Internal radio

[triskellian]

A colleague wandered into the room singing 'Hotel California' to himself. No big deal, I quite like the song, and don't much object to the fact that it's now stuck in my head. What weirded me out about half an hour later was to realise that the version playing in my head wasn't the Eagles at all, but the Gipsy Kings' cover version from the soundtrack of The Big Lebowski.

A few months back, inspired by a BBC story (which I've just failed to track down for linkage) about a journalist trying to record every thought that crossed his mind over the course of a day (his conclusion: it's a bit of a waste of time really), and by several_bees' attempt to do something similar (her conclusion: it's a bit of a waste of time really), I decided to record all the songs my internal radio played at me, and try to work out where they came from.

I got distracted, and never actually did it, but I do have, sitting in various email folders, messages to and from myself listing songs, some followed by things like 'heard playing in shop' or 'subject line of a post on so-and-so's LJ', and some followed by things like 'wtf?' or 'strange, haven't heard this for years'. I continue to be frequently perplexed by the songs it presents me with.

Does anyone else have a song stuck in their head right now? What is it, and can you track down where it came from?

[Edit: having chosen the icon to use for this post, the new user interface shows me the icon, and from the tiny bit of lyric visible, I remember the song, and that's now replaced 'Hotel California' in my head. It's 'Happy Phantom' by Tori Amos]

Comments

Songs currently taking their turn in my head...

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Home on the Range (the, err, slightly filked Shards version)
Two Out of Three Ain't Bad (the same two lines have been there for a week and a half thanks to a certain bit of RP. Well there was only one girl that I will ever love, and that was so many years ago...)
The Final Countdown (da de da da, dade de de de, da de da da...)
Everybody Hurts (blame G&Ds for playing it after the last Cam game)

I'm sure there are others.

Re: Songs currently taking their turn in my head...

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Oh give me a home full of plants overgrown
Where the tribesmen are scary and weird
Where all that you own is a tent for your home
And there's many a thing to be feared

Home, home on Frontier
Where the tribesmen are scary and weird
Where all that you own is a tent for your home
And there's many a thing to be feared

With skies overcast and with predators fast
To ambush you at every turn
With their teeth sharp and white they will give you a fright;
And either you'll die or you'll learn!

Home, home on Frontier...

Because you all needed to know that, right?

Re: Songs currently taking their turn in my head...

[triskellian]

I'm deliberately not reading that. I'm rather happy with 'Happy Phantom' as my current song, and I don't want it displaced by 'Home on the Range' ;-)

Re: Songs currently taking their turn in my head...

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Probably a good thing. I'm only trying to get rid of the thing by passing it on to others :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_corpse_/]

The song is 'Hotel California', and that's clearly your fault since I just read wot you wrote. Strangely enough, mine isn't The Eagles either, nor the Gypsy Kings cover, but Alabama 3's.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_alanna/]

I now have Hotel California stuck in my head >:P

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I do. It's "Virgin State of Mind" by K's Choice. And I know exactly where it's from and why it's in my head: Buffy Soundtrack and because the long lost CD is now found. (Clearly the entire purpose of the CD is to contain this track !)

[triskellian]

Yeah, that's one of my favourites from that album, too. And I wandered if the sekrit message in your LJ was to do with you finding that CD ;-)

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Oh, that song is always getting stuck in my head. It's got a special quality of stickiness about it, I wish I could isolate what it is (and then sell it).

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

Fortunately for me, I don't recognise Hotel California sufficiently well for it to have lodged in my head. However, I am now the proud owner of a recurring Happy Phantom tune.

Mainly, the Gladiator theme (you know, the really cool battle-about-to-start theme) has been bimbling about my head lately. Because its cool!

[liriselei.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else have a song stuck in their head right now?

i spend something like 90% of my waking life with one song or another stuck in my head...


What is it, and can you track down where it came from?

'Happy Phantom' by Tori Amos - three guesses !

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

I'm terrible for having a juke box head; I think it's usually triggered by words. The last couple days, we've had the Metro lying around the office with the headline "The day the music died". No prizes for the relevant song here...

Anyway, this is also by way of saying "hi". I've seen you on friends' pages for months, but couldn't figure out who you were. We met years and years ago in Oxford - I was/am skorpion on mono. *waves*

[triskellian]

Hiya!

I worked out who you were a while back and have been meaning to say hi, and explain who I am, but I've never quite got round to it ;-) And then I thought of you when I posted on theladiesloos with my mono name...

[skorpionuk.livejournal.com]

Yes, your post in the 'Loos was what cleared up all the confusion! Cool. We ought to catch up sometime... maybe I ought to venture out to Oxford again sometime?

[kauket.livejournal.com]

American Idiot by Green Day. Will get played both in my head and on my stereo with increasing frequency until The American Idiot is kicked out of power. Lets hope that's next week otherwise the song is going to get very dull, very quickly :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

I had Killed By Death by Motorhead on repeat loop recently. I believe this was my subconscious response to a recent comment of mine in response to a Verlaine poll, where I realised that I didn't listen to music much these days, and maybe I should get back to my roots and listen to the stuff that I used to really like. One Motorhead best-of CD later, and the thesis is proved.

'The Littlest Hobo'

[(Anonymous)]

You're aware, of course, that this is the reason the theme-tune to 'The Littlest Hobo' was composed. Whenever there is an annoying song you just can't get out of your head, just start singing 'The Littlest Hobo'.
Of course, in this case the cure may be worse than the disease.


There's a voice that keeps on calling me
Down the road, that's where I'll always be
Every stop I make, I make a new friend
Can't stay for long
Just turn around
And I'm gone again
Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on.

Cheers, Tim H.