Tuesday, November 13, 2007

With a Song in My... Head?

Terrie Farley Moran made a comment yesterday that every time she reads the Bag Lady’s blog, songs from old western movies start running through her head.
This comment got the Bag Lady thinking about how often that happens to her. Some days it seems as though anything and everything anyone says to her reminds her of a song. A chance phrase, sometimes even just a couple of words start another sound loop in her head. In fact, it is almost as though she has a radio running up there all the time. Someone will say something, and the radio changes channels. Fortunately, there’s no deejay up there, babbling some inane nonsense in between the songs. Then she really would worry! Someone will say tomato, and, presto, “You Say Tomayto and I Say Tomahto” starts up. Or they say corn and suddenly “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” is goin’ on.
Does this happen to anyone else? Some days it drives the poor Bag Lady crazy. There are days she hears a song on the radio and it gets stuck in her head and runs there all day. And it’s usually a song she Doesn’t Even Like! She has learned NOT to turn the radio off when they play a song she doesn’t like because that will guarantee that it will be stuck there for the rest of the day!
Her cell phone plays “Camptown Racetrack”, so it’s a good thing it rings so seldom. She chose that song because no one else in their right mind would use it, so she always knows it is HER phone ringing! The only drawback, of course, is that on the rare occasion that her phone rings, she’s stuck with “doodah, doodah” for the rest of the day!
The Bag Lady used to think that she was the only person this happened to, and blamed it on her musical background. She has had other people tell her that they get songs stuck in their heads, too, but what she wonders is; do other people have a musical soundtrack going all the time? It seems as though there is almost never a moment when the Bag Lady doesn’t have a song in her head. It’s like living in a 1940’s musical where everything was set to music. Strangely enough, a lot of the songs that pop into her head with certain words or phrases are from Broadway musicals. Some of the tunes are pretty obscure, too. Years ago when the Bag Lady was doing theatre, she was in a production of “A Little Night Music”; so every time someone says they are planning a Weekend in the Country, THAT song starts running in her head.
So, is the Bag Lady alone in this situation? Do any of you have your own personal radio? And is there a 12-step program for this?

14 comments:

Leah J. Utas said...

I commonly wake up with a song, or parts thereof, in my head and it's there for the day.
Speaking of "doodah," some guy who lived next door to Mike's rental house was all for helping him do some renovations. The fellow's surname was "Duda" so "Camptown Races" was racing around for quite some time after that.

the Bag Lady said...

Yup, that would doodah it for the Bag Lady, too!
Glad to hear this happens to others, too.

Anonymous said...

Yes, my life has a soundtrack too...you are not alone!
My cellphone ringtone is "brown eyed girl" so that is now running around in my head.

Reb said...

I had a song stuck in my head for three days! I couldn't for the life of me get rid of it - I even watched Chitty-Chitty, Bang, Bang to change the tune (and that is truly a song to get stuck) to no avail. I don't even remember hearing the song or reference to the song before it started, it was just there.

Once when I worked for the police, there was a fatal hwy accident with a fellow named Duda. To this day I can hear the guys singing, Guess who died on the hwy today? doodah. Yeah, sick I know.

Terrie Farley Moran said...

dfBag Lady,

I am so proud to be up top on your blog. Thank you for the link.

As to music. At this moment Jimmy Buffett is singing "Son of s Sailor on my stereo. He has been singing all morning, and I guarantee whatever he is singing when I turn the stereo off is what I will be singing until I turn the car radio on. Then the last song on the car radio will be what I sing until the musak in some store or another creeps into my head. It's really scary.

When my kids were teen-agers they used to walk back and forth behind me once or twice humming a song like Jingle Bells or Row Row Row Your Boat. Five minutes later I'd wind up singing the silly song and they'd be laughing their heads off. And I never knew why. When they confessed years later I had to admit that I had no idea what they were doing to me all those years!

OH! OH! Missicat, Jimmy Buffett is now singing "Brown Eyed Girl." Hurry answer the phone. ;)

Terrie

Terrie Farley Moran said...

Of course, that would be "Son of A Sailor."

Crabby McSlacker said...

I almost ALWAYS have some damn song running through my head. And why is it so seldom the tunes I actually like?

I'm afraid thanks to you, Camptown Races will be doodahing in my brain all day long.

So I'll see your Camptown and raise you "Feelings," one of the worst songs ever written. "La..la..la Feeeeeeelings..." Got it in your head yet?

(Well, actually the worst song ever written was "Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting," but that one may have mercifully bypassed Canada for all I know).

Hey, "For all we know..." that one's not a bad song at all!

Hilary said...

All the time Bag Lady. In fact, I was almost certain you had a soundtrack for your last blog post because I could hear (and see) the Tumbling Tumbleweed.

Sadly Crabby, that Kung-Fu Fighting did not bypas Canada, and "fast as lightning," it's now inside of my head. Thanks a lot!

Now I need another song so that one will just gooooooooOklahoma.....

the Bag Lady said...

Damn, Crabby - Kung Fu Fighting Is one of the worst songs to have stuck in your head!!
The Bag Lady is really, really grateful she was too busy today to sit down at the computer, 'cause she was really afraid this would happen. Brown Eyed Girl isn't too bad, but Feelings, Row Row Row Your Boat to Oklahoma...sheesh!! I've got them all doing a loop now!
Glad to know I'm not alone in this music business!
Some of the stores here now have satellite radio playing, which beats Musak all to hell...one day, every store I went to was playing really great old '50's and '60's rock and roll -- it was all I could do not to dance through the aisles.

Clare2e said...

My husband and I infect and re-infect each other and we're both likely to start humming the same thing at the same time and have to reconstruct where we picked up that musical virus.

A scrap of a thing from my thoughts or outside- barely enough for Name that Tune- and I can travel the same album grooves for days, like the slot car from Hell.

You're definitely not walking alone on this one. Wait, isn't something like that in a Broadway song?
Did I getcha? :)

Clare2e said...

I don't know if I got you, but it boomeranged back on me. Now, I'VE got that song from La Mancha in my head.

Walk on...Walk on...

the Bag Lady said...

Hey, Clare2e, I know exactly what you mean about the slot car from Hell! Well put.
And thanks for the gotcha!! How about the Snow song from, was it "White Christmas" or "Holiday Inn"? That one's been making the rounds on my personal little radio today! Snow, snow, snow, snow, SNO-OW...

Clare2e said...

It took me awhile to return, but Bag Lady, the timing was destined to be.

This morning, we got our first SNO-OW, and you got me good!

the Bag Lady said...

Clare2e - tee hee...