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[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 01:04:51AM -0500, Thomas Beckett wrote:
>       We all have an intermittent soundtrack within our heads, and I 
>       usually enjoy mine.  But for the last week the depths of my 
> subconscious 
> have subjected me to unremitting torture in the form of "Rosanna" by Toto. 
> For some reason that execrable song keeps coming up over and over and 
> over, instrumentals and all.  Fortunately I never paid attention to the 
> lyrics, so they're indistinct in this particular mix  This past weekend 
> I had a bad cold and ended up swilling a lot of cough medicine.  I 
> suspect that this is yet another unwelcome side effect of the 
> pseudoephedrine.
> 
>       Sometimes it helps to hum another tune, and even "When the Red Red 
> Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along", which I like to sing to my kid, is a 
> welcome respite.  Sometimes in the morning, I get Sonny & Cher's "All I 
> Ever Need Is You" which is not as bad but even more bizarre.  I haven't 
> heard that song in decades, where did that come from?

Adjust the tin foil in yer hat, Thomas. "They" are getting through again.

I find that the best way to break the annoying loop is to think of all
the other annoying songs I've had stuck in my head, but all at once. So,
if I get "Rosanna" stuck, I think about "We Didn't Start The Fire", and
anything by Men Without Hats, and that song by the children on the O,
Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, etc. and I find before long they
cancel each other out and I can think clearly again.

Either that or think of something with really good lyrics that I can sing
to myself even if there's "music" interrupting, like old Van Morrison or
something obscure but deeply ingrained, like "The Spirit of '76" by the
Alarm (that machine gun riff just cuts through anything).

But if you want to drive yourself truly mad, listen to a snippet of the
Ventures doing "Walk, Don't Run". It will be /days/ before it's gone from
your head.

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