Earworm, a loan translation of the German Ohrwurm, is a term for a song stuck in one's head, particularly an annoying one. Use of the English translation was popularised by James Kellaris, a professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati. His studies appeared to demonstrate that different people have varying susceptibilities to earworms, but that almost everybody has been afflicted with one at some time or another.

Some sufferers from earworm prefer the term "repetunitis", "stuck tune syndrome", "sound virus" or, if sufficiently acute, "melodymania."
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Examples

The appropriately titled song Can't Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue is well known for being a common earworm.

In the film Shrek, there is a parody of the song "it's a small world" by the Sherman Brothers, a powerful earworm.

"Tenser" said the Tensor; Tension, Apprehension, and Dissension have begun - This earworm was used to foil telepathic surveillance in Alfred Bester's award-winning science fiction novel The Demolished Man. It has become a well known meme in the sci-fi community.

Well, apparently, I breed earworms. I always have at least one. I am amphibious; I can have one song playing in my left ear and a different song in my right.

Sometimes I will keep the same song for days. Other times, I will have many songs form a rotation through my ears and head.

It's a curse.

Today, the songs were, in no particular order:

Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison
Spinning Wheel by Blood Sweat and Tears
Leaving Las Vegas by Sheryl Crow
All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow
Killing me Softly with his Song by Roberta Flack
Baby I'm Yours by Barbara Lewis
Taxman by the Beatles
I am the Walrus by the Beatles
Losing my Religion by REM

And, of course the ubiquitous "Small World".

That's not a bad set Todd.

Well, if you leave off Small World, it is not a bad set. However, what I didn't say is that Small World took up about 90# of the time that the earworms were in my ears.

Hey Jen, you are the one who likes poetry right? And Rob is a poet...

That explains the pink shorts.

Anyway, who is your favorite poet?

What kind of poetry does Rob write?

Well I can see that would suck Todd.

LOL Todd, as I explained, Rob has the soul of a poet, I don't think he's written a word of poetry in his life. He is a very talented artist though, as is my son. Rob trained as a teacher and had read so many poets and authors I hadn't yet heard of and I was a very well read person.

I used to write poetry as a teenager. Some of it wasn't bad, some of it was typical teenage drivel. I'd been writing various things since I was 5, but haven't written for years.

My favourite poet when I was a teenager was Leonard Cohen. All that angst got to me. I was quite a serious teenager (almost a nerd - can you believe that?) but also part of the "cool" group.

I love the English poets. La Belle Dame sans Merci and the Ancient Mariner and Shakespeare who is the greatest poet of them all. Robert Graves, DH Lawrence. The Mersey poets during the 60s in Liverpool (the Beatles are really just an extension of them). I love Sylvia Plath. There is a Western Australian writer called Tim Winton and his novels are almost poetry.

BTW I like all your earworm songs.


Except for It's a Small World. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

My favorite poet is W. B. Yeats.

I emailed this Yeats poem to my WW recently:

When you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Yes, it is dramatic. And syrupy. I admit it. But I love it and his description of unrequited love fits my emotions perfectly. Okay, a little goofy tonight. Glad Pio is not around.

But, in addition to loving the voice of his poem, I adore the economy. I guess we admire what we don't have or cannot do. I am wordy beyond all belief. It also explains why I respect singers so much.

But I agree, I love all the British masters: Tennyson, Keats, Browning, Shelly, Milton, Rosetti, etc. Gosh cannot remember any more. That is bad.

I guess I was a nerd in school. I was the math wizard, at least one of them. And the science whiz as well. So I grazed with others like me but still the popular cliques as well. I was the president of two clubs and treasurer of another.

But I cannot write a lick of poetry.

Who was it that said that writing prose, as compared to writing poetry, was like playing tennis with no net?

Prolly Mark Twain. Sounds like him.

Do the folks down there know who Mark Twain is?

Another Saturday Night and I ain't got nobody,
I have some money ‘cause I just got paid.
How I wish I had someone to talk to,
I'm in an awful way.

On a Cat Stevens binge Todd?

No BigK.

You will never find me on a Cat Stephens binge.

I can't remember his new name.Every year in the Middle East during the month of Ramadan, they flood the TV with programs about people who converted from Christianity to Islam. Cat Stevens shows up every year. Some countries even pay a considerable amount of money to people who convert to Islam. For people who go the other way, they just kill them. Not on TV though.

Yusef Islam? I think that's it. I got the Magikat DVD recently - awesome.

Cat Stevens awesome? I boycott him.

Well, you must admit, however, that Cat's lyrics are kinda deep:

Oh peace train sounding louder
Glide on the peace train
Come on now peace train
Yes, peace train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the peace train
Come on now peace train.

I am especially impressed by the line, "Come on now peace train". That is sharp and profound. And the alliteration, man.

And BigK, I now understand your reference to Cat with regard to the "Another Saturday Night" song. No, didn't have him in mind. The song was originally recorded by Sam Cooke.

Now I have Peace Train stuck in my head...

Thanks BigK.

How are you doing today, Todd? Hope you are feeling FINE!!!

Hey b,

Doing okay. Doing better mentally that I would have guessed, although not one hundred percent. Physically, I am a wreck. The nausea had gotten better but today saw its return. Other than that, very weak and no stamina.

The worse part is I got a Cat earworm.

How are you? Any recent earthquakes on the left coast?

Of course we've heard of Mark Twain. I loved Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn was a set text in HS. Do you want hear about Huck and Jim's travels down the Mississippi River as a metaphor. Interestingly, Easy Rider had just come out and we compared the two road trips. I wanted to BE Miss Grey, my English teacher. She used to sit on the desk with her legs crossed.