The Steel Guitar Forum

...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?

Do you get 'em too?

Oh yeah. Now I have multiple Firefall songs bouncing around in my head.

Thanks a lot!



~ Lee

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!

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.

Jerry Overstreet wrote: Do you get 'em too?

Every day. 24/7.

Oh Yes Jerry, And sometimes they stay for days. Earworms huh!
J.R. Rose

Here you go worm lovers.

https://youtu.be/0psWy_XLP0g



RC

After I got up this morning, I had WOT by Captain Sensible running round my head.

Rick, that's Horrible! New Country? Perhaps?

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.

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.

Cur the cake AWB all day!!!!

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.

Paul Wade wrote:Cur the cake AWB all day!!!!

Oh yeah! occasionally Pick up the Pieces too.

Moondance. Blue Skies.

Now I’ll be whistling both for a month.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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! Scotch and Soda..Gonna sit right down and write myself a letter, 2 of the worst!

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"....

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 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.