Earworms

About Steel Guitarists and their Music

Moderator: Shoshanah Marohn

User avatar
Jerry Overstreet
Posts: 12622
Joined: 11 Jul 2000 12:01 am
Location: Louisville Ky

Earworms

Post by Jerry Overstreet »

...not the kind that eat your brain, but songs that come in your head with no explanation. It could be any song, any style, any era. Sometimes just a phrase or melody that you can't identify right away...might even have to look it up.

Sort of like dreams that you never know why they hit you.

Just a few weeks ago it was This Cold War With You...not a recent cut, not Ray Price or some of the other covers, but the original Floyd Tilman's though I don't recall ever hearing him do it. Surely must have at some point though.

Woke up the other day is was Midnight Confessions by the Grass Roots...before that, Firefall's You Are the Woman.

Do you get 'em too?
User avatar
Lee Baucum
Posts: 10326
Joined: 11 Apr 1999 12:01 am
Location: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Post by Lee Baucum »

Do you get 'em too?
Oh yeah. Now I have multiple Firefall songs bouncing around in my head.

Thanks a lot!

:)

~ Lee
User avatar
Doug Taylor
Posts: 544
Joined: 28 May 2019 8:17 am
Location: Shelbyville, Kentucky, USA

Post by Doug Taylor »

Play That Funky Music! Now that I have thought about it will be in my head the rest of the night. Reminds me of the Garage in Jeff and the late 70s. Jerry!
User avatar
Jerry Overstreet
Posts: 12622
Joined: 11 Jul 2000 12:01 am
Location: Louisville Ky

Post by Jerry Overstreet »

Sorry Lee! 🤪


Ah yes, the Garage. Used to see several of my buddies playing over there. My old friend Rex Wiseman played a lot of steel guitar there back in the day.
User avatar
Jack Hanson
Posts: 5024
Joined: 19 Jun 2012 3:42 pm
Location: San Luis Valley, USA

Re: Earworms

Post by Jack Hanson »

Jerry Overstreet wrote: Do you get 'em too?
Every day. 24/7.
User avatar
J R Rose
Posts: 2718
Joined: 13 Mar 2009 12:39 pm
Location: Keota, Oklahoma, USA

Post by J R Rose »

Oh Yes Jerry, And sometimes they stay for days. Earworms huh!
J.R. Rose
Black Performance SD-10, 2002. Peavey LTD 400 with 15" Eminence EPS 15-C, Sho-Bud Seat, Goodrich L-120 Pedal, Sho-Bud Bar, Picks, Cords. Nothing else.
User avatar
Rick Campbell
Posts: 4283
Joined: 8 May 2006 12:01 am
Location: Sneedville, TN, USA

Post by Rick Campbell »

Here you go worm lovers. :)

https://youtu.be/0psWy_XLP0g



RC
User avatar
Joachim Kettner
Posts: 7523
Joined: 14 Apr 2009 1:57 pm
Location: Germany

Post by Joachim Kettner »

After I got up this morning, I had WOT by Captain Sensible running round my head.
Fender Kingman, Sierra Crown D-10, Evans Amplifier, Soup Cube.
User avatar
Roy Carroll
Posts: 585
Joined: 3 Jan 2011 8:08 pm
Location: North of a Round Rock

Post by Roy Carroll »

Rick, that's Horrible! New Country? Perhaps?
Just north of the Weird place, south of Georgetown
User avatar
Jeff Garden
Posts: 3645
Joined: 21 Aug 2003 12:01 am
Location: Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA

Post by Jeff Garden »

It used to happen a lot to me when I wasn't a big fan of the last song or commercial jingle I heard on the radio driving to work and I was stuck with it in my head for the rest of the morning.
User avatar
Bob Hoffnar
Posts: 9244
Joined: 4 Aug 1998 11:00 pm
Location: Austin, Tx
Contact:

Post by Bob Hoffnar »

I get them after recording sessions pretty regularly and also after church gigs. It can be a problem. I used to go to hard bop or free jazz gigs after sessions to clean my brain out.
Bob
User avatar
Paul Wade
Posts: 5532
Joined: 27 Aug 2003 12:01 am
Location: mundelein,ill

Post by Paul Wade »

Cur the cake AWB all day!!!!
User avatar
Don R Brown
Posts: 2789
Joined: 27 Dec 2011 9:20 am
Location: Rochester, New York, USA

Post by Don R Brown »

I've always called them brain worms, but yes, they can be hard to get rid of. I can't bring one to mind at the moment (probably a good thing) but as soon as I hear the name, let alone the actual music, that tune starts playing in my head. My mother used to say it just goes around and around in my head because there's nothing else in there to stop it. :lol:
Many play better than I do. Nobody has more fun.
User avatar
Jerry Overstreet
Posts: 12622
Joined: 11 Jul 2000 12:01 am
Location: Louisville Ky

Post by Jerry Overstreet »

Paul Wade wrote:Cur the cake AWB all day!!!!
Oh yeah! occasionally Pick up the Pieces too.
User avatar
Ken Pippus
Posts: 2618
Joined: 8 Feb 2007 7:55 am
Location: Langford, BC, Canada

Post by Ken Pippus »

Moondance. Blue Skies.

Now I’ll be whistling both for a month.
User avatar
Rich Upright
Posts: 1183
Joined: 30 Sep 2014 9:55 am
Location: Florida, USA

Post by Rich Upright »

Actually, there is a medical term for it. It's called "musicosis"

Last week one day I couldn't get the theme song from "Forest Gump" outta my head. And I ain't seen the movie in years.
A couple D-10s,some vintage guitars & amps, & lotsa junk in the gig bag.
Mark Peters
Posts: 14
Joined: 13 Feb 2013 3:56 pm
Location: California, USA

Post by Mark Peters »

I've been told that, if you attempt to sing the tune backwards, you can make it go away. It has worked for me, though I can't say that I was ever able actually to sing the tune backwards. But the exercise seemed to help.
User avatar
Fred Treece
Posts: 3920
Joined: 29 Dec 2015 3:15 pm
Location: California, USA

Post by Fred Treece »

Thankfully for me it’s usually a song I like, so I just pull it up on Napster and give it a listen. That seems to cure it, at least temporarily.

I like Bob Hofnar’s trick. Next time something offensive starts wiggling around in there I’m gonna try listening to some Harry Partch.
User avatar
Jerry Horch
Posts: 373
Joined: 15 Dec 2013 9:07 am
Location: Alva, Florida, USA

Wow

Post by Jerry Horch »

Glad others have this ..mines about constant .the songs that really linger seem to be ones that really hit home in heart and mind for me...watching that special on Burt Bacharach songs has about wore me out..but what a songwriter...
Franklin D10 /Walker Sterio Steel JBL's /DigiTech Quad4/ Korg Toneworks/ Dobro DM 1000 / Santa Cruz Guitar VA
User avatar
John De Maille
Posts: 2266
Joined: 16 Nov 1999 1:01 am
Location: On a Mountain in Upstate Halcottsville, N.Y.

Post by John De Maille »

Sometimes, not always, I ha e music going around in my head while I'm trying to go to sleep. Usually it's steel music or songs with a lot of steel in them. I can't make it go away, so, I get up and noodle on my steel or turn the tv on. Eventually it subsides and I can sleep, but, not always. Ocassionally I come up with some good ideas. Other times it's just nonsense playing to nowhere. I'd like it to stop, but, I'm afraid if it does I'll be dead and it won't matter anymore.
User avatar
Lee Baucum
Posts: 10326
Joined: 11 Apr 1999 12:01 am
Location: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

Post by Lee Baucum »

User avatar
Larry Allen
Posts: 1321
Joined: 5 Apr 2004 12:01 am
Location: Kapaa, Kauai,Hawaii

Worms

Post by Larry Allen »

Always cursed with this when we learn a new (oldie) set list song..especially when I spend a lot of time nailing the melody on my steel..finding it in the chords keeps me awake all nite! :whoa: Scotch and Soda..Gonna sit right down and write myself a letter, 2 of the worst!
Excel steels & Peavey amps,Old Chevys & Motorcycles & Women on the Trashy Side
User avatar
Bart Bull
Posts: 47
Joined: 8 Oct 2018 8:30 am
Location: New Orleans, USA/Paris FR/Berkeley USSR

Post by Bart Bull »

May I offer a solution?

It's worked unfailingly for me since I came up with it a while back, sparing me untold hours of "Dancing Queen" and "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," allowing my brain the leisure tine it requires for deeper philosophical pursuits. Like walking while chewing gum polyrhythmically.

Ok, so you listen to the dang thing as it chorus/verses along maniacally...and then, as soon as it comes around naturally, you slap a big fat show-stopping ending on it.

Shave-and-a-haircut will work just fine, or anything else you choose...but make sure it's a big one, horn section and strings optional but not required.

Your brain hears the dambable thing come to its overdue but merciful end...and it believes it, just as long as you tie a nice, suitably flashy big ol' ending on the tune.

You're free! Once again your mind has a mind of its own...until that girl in the convertible next to you reaches over to crank up "Who Let The Dogs Out"....
Last edited by Bart Bull on 3 Dec 2022 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Undoubtedly the finest pedal steel player in Paris' 18th Arrondissement
Disaster of Touch, Tone & Taste; Still mastering the manifold mysteries of the Sho-Bud Maverick
Supro, Oahu, pin-striped Rus-Ler SD-10, y tiger-stripe-painted Stella
Hohner Corona Dos en Fa, y Gabanelli en Sol
User avatar
Bill Cunningham
Posts: 2092
Joined: 6 Aug 1998 12:01 am
Location: Atlanta, Ga. USA

Post by Bill Cunningham »

I heard a N’ville session guitar player say his ear worm cure was to sing the words of Amazing Grace to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme.
Bill Cunningham
Atlanta, GA
User avatar
Don R Brown
Posts: 2789
Joined: 27 Dec 2011 9:20 am
Location: Rochester, New York, USA

Post by Don R Brown »

Bill Cunningham wrote:I heard a N’ville session guitar player say his ear worm cure was to sing the words of Amazing Grace to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme.
Interesting, but I'm afraid if I try it, it won't go away. :?
Many play better than I do. Nobody has more fun.
Post Reply