A Curious Tongue: On The Earworm Mixtape

Every morning I wake up. This is a good thing. My routine is fairly simple- check my phone, check my email, slowly get up out of bed and make my way to the bathroom to start the day.

At some point during this time my earworm will also awaken. It's a gradual thing, and it happens completely unbidden and before I am even aware of it. Some days, it's pretty cool. Some good old rock and roll for the morning soul. Other days, well, let's just say that my earworm can be kind of a dick sometimes. No matter the selection though, it is rarely more than three lines of a particular song. More often, it is a single line. On repeat. For awhile. Every. Morning.

I decided in October to start a log of my earworm's daily selection, and it lasted all of two days before I forgot about it. That's how much a part of my life my earworm is- I just forget that he's even there a lot. Then November 10th came. As I began the long and twisted path towards madness less than half an hour after awakening, I felt compelled to start the log again.

Children and adults with medical conditions are advised caution before proceeding; earworms can be terribly contagious.

October 29th- Seether, Words As Weapons. "All I really want is something beautiful to say". Guess I was being more cognizant of the bullshit that emanates from my mouth 90% of the time than normal.

October 30th- Volbeat, Heaven Nor Hell. "Holding onto the words, but baby, I saw an angel become the devil, still they look pretty good, hand in hand" The video has flaming cars hanging from cranes and the singer shooting devil horns at the camera. Awesome!

November 10th- Bryan Adams, Straight From The Heart. "Straiiiggght Frooom The Hearrrttt" Over and over and over and over again. Shoot me now. Please.

November 11th- The Beatles, Here Comes The Sun. "Here comes the sun, and I say it's alright". Beautiful snowy/sunny day

November 12th- Bobby Lewis, Tossing and Turning. "A doo doo doodoo doo". I didn't sleep well at all, actually.

November 13th- Volbeat, Still Counting. "Counting all the assholes in the room, well I'm definitely not alone". Evidently I have a bit of an obsession with Danish metal/rockabilly bands. Who doesn't?

November 14th- Train, Drops of Jupiter. "Man heaven is over rated". While I suspect this to be true, I don't even know where it came from.

November 15th- Ennio Morricone, The Ecstasy of Gold. (Instrumental). TODAY IS GOING TO BE EPIC! EPIC! WOOO!

I bet he listened to The Ecstasy of Gold too

November 16th- Coldplay, Speed of Sound. "All that noise, all that sound, all those places I have found". A pleasant intro to a Monday, actually.

November 17th- Fred Parris and the Satins, In The Still of The Night. "Shoo doop, shoo be doo". Evidently backing doo wop vocals is a thing for my earworm right now.

November 18th- Metallica, No Leaf Clover. "Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel is just a freight train coming your way". Wonder how many times this song has even been played?

November 19th- I was running late for a meeting and didn't write it down. By the time I remembered the journal, I'd forgotten the song. That's OK though. The earworm abides with...

November 20th- ...A rare remix day! Bob Marley, Iron, Lion Zion and Is This Love. "Iron, like a lion, in Zion. Is this love is this love is this love that I'm feeling?" Trust me, somehow it works...

November 21st- Erasure, Chains of Love. "Come to me come to me, hold me, together we'll break these chains of love". Don't give up!

November 22nd- Loverboy, Hot Girls In Love. "She's turning on the heat, and it's a hundred above. Hot girls in love". I always sort of thought that ZZ Top should have recorded this song.

November 23rd- Cypress Hill, Rock Superstar. "Ya wanna be a rock superstar, live large, a big house, five cars, you're in charge". The "playground" jingle that you hear on its own at the beginning and then plays underneath throughout is da bomb, yo!

November 24th- Iron Maiden, Moonchild. "I am he, the formless one, the fallen angel watching you". The build at the beginning is awesome, even better live. Also, if there is such a thing as a "proper British" heavy metal guitarist, Dave Murray is he. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean.

So there you have it, 17 days with 17 different earworms. A smarter person than I might be able to formulate a hypothesis regarding how my subconsciousness comes up with them every day (and really I'd be more interested in how it started), but until then I guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow and see what the earworm brings.

Which one of my earworms bored its way into your brain today?

BONUS ROUND TIME:

The small number of people that actually read this blog are near and dear to me. They validate me in some way and knowing that what I write is read and hopefully enjoyed by others brings me joy. I'm thankful for the readers that I have and for the drive within me to try write good. So my friends that grew up in the late 80's, what did you give to your friends to share your love of music/get them to like you/explore new sounds/pirate the Metallica Black Album?

Why a Mixtape of course! The link below will take you to Spotify, where you can listen to the Earworm Mixtape, containing all 17 songs. I've organized the songs for maximum impact, and, given the variety of genres, beats, and themes, I think it came out pretty good. Spotify will of course want you to create an account, that I can't help I'm afraid, but I think it's worth an email address. My gift to you this Thanksgiving week.