What song is stuck in your head?

[Artemis]

I recorded a movie on TV called "Unstoppable", which basically looks to be a remake of "Speed", but on a train.  I still haven't watched it yet, but every time I see it on my list, I get "Unstoppable" by Sia stuck in my head. 

...I need to watch it soon so I can erase it.
 

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

9 hours ago, Artemis said:

I recorded a movie on TV called "Unstoppable", which basically looks to be a remake of "Speed", but on a train.  I still haven't watched it yet, but every time I see it on my list, I get "Unstoppable" by Sia stuck in my head. 

...I need to watch it soon so I can erase it.

From your DVR or from your head?  

 

[Artemis]

The answer is clear.   

 

[Artemis]

“Lonely” by Justin Bieber.

So I was putzing around YouTube yesterday, and I happened upon a reaction video to this song.  I thought it might be funny, and in a way it was, but not the way I expected.

This song is making everyone cry, lol.  One thing led to another and I ended up watching a whole bunch more reaction videos, but guys: This music video is actually really well done.

It’s a short little song that says so much about the cost of childhood fame, the loneliness that accompanies it, and our tendency to dehumanize celebrities, as experienced by Justin Bieber.  The lyrics in the second verse especially were so impactful.  (Could do without the swearing, but, what’re you gonna do.)  The little yodel in the chorus reminds me of a wolf howling at the moon, lol.

The song itself aside, the cinematic choices here were sort of brilliant.  It’s all one shot, no cuts, which feels so much more immersive.  And the symbolism!  It’s dim, it’s empty, and the use of liminal space just feels lonely.  It swallows him, he’s so small in it all.  And the ending hits.  “That’s deeeeep,” to quote the people in the reaction videos, lol.

There are three things I really love about the ending.  Well, two and a half things, lol.  One is the symbolism behind an audience full of empty seats, and Justin himself being the only one there who can really see him.  The other, which I didn’t notice at first (because my screen is small), is that they chose not to have the child actor mouth any of the lyrics until he got on stage.  The only time he “spoke” was when he started to sing for his audience, but what we saw come out instead of the performance was his silent, unheard “I’m so lonely.”  It’s like a reminder of what goes unseen beneath the surface; what “no one’s listening” to.  People demand so much from entertainers and it’s easy to forget that they’re real people with real feelings and human mistakes.  I just thought it was a neat way to make a statement, lol.

For how short it is there’s actually so much to analyze in here.  It’s personal and vulnerable and meaningful, and you should watch it.  That’s my review, lol.

 

 

[Artemis]

This one, ever since I used up all my butter.

 

 

[Artemis]

"Change on the Rise" by Avi Kaplan.  This one's been stuck in my head ever since I heard it on "Resident Alien", which was weeks ago, lol.  The style of it reminds me of something or someone... I almost want to say Johnny Cash (I'm thinking "God's Gonna Cut You Down"), but I'm not sure that's quite right.
 

 

 

[Arcadia]

Oooh, I like that one. A lot. Awesome.

What it reminds me of is Rag'n'Bone man, and maybe  Hozier. Which in turn remind me of Negro spirituals, only more high tech.  

[J.P.]

Okay, two days ago while going to bed the last thing I've heard was Wellerman. It stuck so hard, that I heard it in my head after switching off the radio. I checked all the playing devices, because it seemed some of them still play the tune just on the theshold of audibility. Finally, I put on the radio again to exorcise it from my mind. That was a bit scary.

Don't listen Wellerman while going to bed.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm not familiar with that song -- which may be just as well!

 

[J.P.]

It became a hit at TicToc. The story is actually better than the song itself.
A postman from Scottland was recording shanties. Obviously there is a function on TicToc allowing others to join and re-record stuff. Some amazing voices joined in, the song went viral and became a hit. It's in the British Charts AFAIK, and I've heard it on both German and Polish radio (hence the stucking in my head).

https://www.polygon.com/2021/1/12/22226992/tiktok-sea-shanty-wellerman-longest-johns-of-thieves

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, J.P. said:

A postman from Scottland was recording shanties. Obviously there is a function on TicToc allowing others to join and re-record stuff. Some amazing voices joined in, the song went viral and became a hit.

So it's quite literally a folk song!

 

[Arcadia]

I gave it a listen. I like it! But you're right, JP ... I wouldn't want it stuck in my head.

[Carol the Dabbler]

During my absent-minded moments over the past few days, I've found myself humming, whistling, or dum-de-dum-ing "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean."  Here's a video for those who didn't grow up with this song:

My mental replay actually started when the phrase "... so brickbat Mahoney to me" popped into my head, and I recognized it as one line of a parody version of "My Bonnie" that I had learned at (I think) Girl Scout camp.  It occurred to me that the parody lyrics sounded like the sort of thing that Walt Kelly often came up with for his Pogo comic strip (such as "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie"), so I nosed around on the internet and found that the parody was indeed another of Kelly's creations (but that I, having learned the lyrics from hearing them, had misunderstood a few words --- easy enough to do when the whole thing is basically gibberish anyhow.  Which may explain why the lyrics I found on the internet were also a bit diverse.  This may be Kelly's original (though I can't swear to that):

Ma bunny lice soda devotion!
May booney life saver D.C.!
McBoniface rover commotion
Oh, brickbat Mahoney Toomey!

 

[Arcadia]

For some reason I've had the theme from Combat running through my head a lot lately. I think I saw an ad for it or something.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

You have my sympathy if you want it.  Even though I don't recall ever watching that program, I think I must have heard the theme music now and then -- but I don't recall how it went, which may be just as well, so I'm inclined not to play your video.

 

[Hikari]

A recent discovery for me, from a virtual friend, a troubadour named Paul in Richmond, UK.  It feels like a song I've always known, but I'm sure I'd never heard it until about 3 weeks ago.  I like my friend's version better but this is the one that hit the airwaves in 1969.

[Artemis]

Sometimes I download background music from movie trailers I particularly like.  The song currently on repeat in my head is the one from the "Eternals" trailer.

 

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

The other day we watched an episode of Murder, She Wrote in which Angela Lansbury played not only her usual role of Jessica "J. B." Fletcher, , but also Jessica's English cousin Emma, part-owner and star singer of a traditional London music hall, who sang a song called "Little Yellow Bird."  I looked it up, to see if it really was an old music-hall song, or if it had been written for the show, and found that a] it was written in 1903, and b] in the 1945 movie Portrait of Dorian Gray, it was performed in a nightclub / music hall setting --  by Angela Lansbury (age 18).  So of course I went looking for that scene online:

... and of course it's now stuck in my head (where it has at least displaced "My Bonny").

 

[Artemis]

I love that movie.  One of my favorite black-and-whites.

 

[Artemis]

I caught the end of a "Celtic Thunder" performance on PBS, and this cute song about animals was on, which is now stuck in my head.  I'm pretty sure my dog does not appreciate me clapping his paws together whenever I get to that part, but he's taking it like a champ.

 

 

 

[Artemis]

Vivaldi's "Spring 1", recomposed by Max Richter.

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

We happened to be watching an episode of The Monkees on a rerun channel.  Because the show is about a musical group (basically a parody of the Beatles), there's a lot of music, and one of the songs had a familiar tune, which is likely to get stuck in my head because I'm trying to remember what other song I remember the tune from.  All I've recalled so far is that it rhymes "pink and pleasant" with "phosphorescent."  Probably not one of my favorite songs!

Oh, hang on a minute -- it's "Plastic Jesus."  Whew!

Everybody seemed to have slightly different lyrics for that song.

 

[Arcadia]

On 7/10/2022 at 3:52 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

We happened to be watching an episode of The Monkees on a rerun channel.  Because the show is about a musical group (basically a parody of the Beatles), there's a lot of music, and one of the songs had a familiar tune, which is likely to get stuck in my head because I'm trying to remember what other song I remember the tune from.  All I've recalled so far is that it rhymes "pink and pleasant" with "phosphorescent."  Probably not one of my favorite songs!

Oh, hang on a minute -- it's "Plastic Jesus."  Whew!

I was a MASSIVE Monkees fan for a long time, but I don't remember any song of theirs that sounded like that..... any hints to the lyrics?

[Carol the Dabbler]

5 hours ago, Arcadia said:

any hints to the lyrics?

Sorry, not a clue.  And by the time I realized what song I was thinking of, it had been quite a while since I saw the show, so I'm not even sure how close the tune was.  One tune will often remind me of another simply because they have something in common -- say, an unusual rhythm or a peculiar sequence of notes -- without actually being the same tune.  It drives Alex nuts.

It was a background song, not one that the group was performing on camera, and I have no idea whether they used it in any other episodes, or whether it was on any of their albums.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Alex re-re-re-watched Dirty Dancing a few days ago, and I happened to walk into the room near the end, when the Kellerman's staff is (repeatedly) performing their resort's "anthem."

... which happens to be sung to the same tune as my university's "alma mater" song.  That double whammy got the tune pretty firmly entrenched, and I haven't been able to shake it.

I used to think that my university had borrowed the tune from Cornell University's "alma mater" song:

... and perhaps they did -- but I just now learned that Cornell had already borrowed it from an 1857 ballad called "Annie Lisle" (about a young woman who becomes ill and dies):

So now that melody is *really* stuck in my head!  But at least I have one less thing to feel guilty about!