This’ll either irritate the crap out of you or you’ll want it on tape-loop. Barbeau (another prolific US indie operator, who may be UK-domiciled now) sings about the simple joys of life… but it’s the sugar/acid-drop backing vocals that make it memorable. Nice record for a spring day.
I’ve been playing lots of Trojan Roots Reggae in the car and that kind of drives earworms away, but every now and then I find myself singing this along in my head. My earworms always seem to be songs I know really well and which are tuneful. I can’t say that I ever get many Can or Van Der Graaf Generator earworms.
The Scarecrow’s dance moves are absolute genius, but even just in audio it’s uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time. ”I would not be just a nuthin’/ My head all full of stuffin’/ My heart all full of pain” – it’s both Yip Harburg’s lyrics and Bolger’s delivery that make it so surprisingly moving. Judy Garland’s warming intervention is fantastic, and the orchestration during the instrumental break for the dance is like Sun Ra stepped in.
Mr. Fox – The Hanged Man - Zalamanda
A ghost story from the short-lived early ’70s Yorkshire Dales folk-rock band, it is sung from the perspective of the eponymous unfortunate “walking a valley that never saw the sun”. You never find out quite how or why he was hanged, although it may have been accidental. I like the mystery, the rolling tune (of the chorus in particular) and its atmosphere, which isn’t as gloomy as it sounds. There’s a certain amount of bucolic nostagia; this ghost seems quite content, actually.
Close your eyes if you will, and imagine yourself at a virtual benefit concert of some sort. It is the finale, and the early Kinks and Who have joined mid-stride Clash and Tom Robinson. Short, sharp pop punk; this is the sound of Maidstone’s Len Price 3. Not 100% the real thing, but there’s four or five cuts off this Pictures album that’ll make nice earworms for the summer.
Carla Bley – The Christmas Song - DaddyPig
This is Carla Bley’s instrumental arrangement of the Christmas classic for piano, bass and brass quintet, which has popped up on my MP3 player a few times since New Year, each time soothing away the cares of the day, and sticking around being hummed for a day or two afterwards. The musical colours come from mediaeval church music, Duke Ellington and some well-crafted discords.
Superb submissions people! This thing is really coming alive now. If you haven’t had a turn yet, what are you waiting for Spillers? rr@tincanland.com
Play all earworms:
sorry for the delay folks. first post wigglies
Hi tinncanman, sounds good, liking the first one and the Mr Fox one thus far. Congratulations on deciphering the Word Press thing!
I’ve just realised that the Carla Bley doesn’t have any piano or bass on it (though the rest of the album does); and that I meant to list the Salvation Army among the palette of colours.
Mushroom Box is really really catchy; hadn’t heard the Talking Heads for ages and it’s great; and the Wizard of Oz selection is brilliant. I get quite grumpy about modern versions of ‘Over The Rainbow’ (gross neglect of phrasing mostly), and so revisit Judy singing it; but it’s a while since I listened to any of the other songs.
Back for the rest soon.
Tinman, the Len Price 3 is just my kind of worm. Reminds of the Romantics who I spent the better part of a year putting on repeat. Out looking for more.
GReat work as usual, Tin. DaddyPig, that Carla Bley is wonderful.
Once again, all brilliant. Love Zalamanda’s Mr Fox contribution. And the Talking Heads. And the Scarecrow. And and and…
Tin, I couldn’t get the all-together version to play beyond the first track.
Another Mr Fox fan here!
So far it’s “If I Only Had A Brain” that’s popping back into my consciousness in quieter moments.
The album “Carla’s Christmas Carols” is well worth getting hold of around November time, as the perfect accompaniment to writing seasonal cards.
Thanks Zalamanda for “Mr Fox”. I’ve been reading Stuart Maconie’s “Adventures On The High Teas – in search of Middle England”, which has a surprising but spot-on chapter on the place of ghost stories and grisly murder tales at the heart of the national psyche.
And tin, I see what you mean about Len Price 3. Took me back…
Thanks everyone and especially MC Tin.
My favourite without a doubt was Carla Bley, lovely for all seasons.
I like the backing to Mushroom Box but the chorus did prove excessively irritating, I’m afraid.
Not my fave TH track but I understand how any TH song can become an earworm. (It also stops after a minute, for some reason.)
I’m not a friend of Dorothy or her mates. Or musicals, come to that. So, no thanks.
Listening to Mr Fox and…. shit, my finger’s got stuck in my ear! The arrangement’s good, though.
The Len Price 3 seem to be channelling The Specials’ Too Much, Too Young. Not necessarily a bad thing….. Doesn’t outstay its welcome.
That is a lovely arrangement by Carla Bley. Pity it’s of a song that conjures up images of Bing, Pat, Val & co smarming on early sixties TV. Despite that, this is my musical favourite this week.
Thanks, people.
I’ve fixed the multi track player. Soz bout that.
Blimey, it turns out after 30 years that I’m a Carla Bley fan after all – remember ordering “Escalator Over The Hill” from my local record library and never venturing beyond the end of Side 2 (out of 6).
Zalamanda, “The Hanged Man” was based on a newspaper story about a hiker in the Dales who fell over a hillside, and was garrotted by his backpack straps when they caught in a tree. Plenty of other grotesque deaths in Mr Fox songs, but interested parties should check ‘em out for themselves…
I already knew 4 out of these 6 (Len Price is the other newbie to me; will hunt out more…)
Loved the Carla Bley particularly and Ray Bolger truly is an earworm, indeed the very definition of an earworm perhaps.
Now then now then. I dropped my own worm d’ear into the dropbox where I see the other tracks living, but I must say I am defeated by the simple technology of
a) how when you post a new comment you get it under the ‘Earworm” heading ? I can see that this comment will go there, but if I post from the tab at the top it will create a new subject won’t it ? anyway..
b) How do you get the code for a song ? On a mac, so I am used to lazy drag n drop, but that would be too easy. Yup that doesn’t work.
Anyway : I dropped Todd Rundgren’s “Just Another Onionhead/Da Da Dali” which once lodged in the unsuspecting ear will remain there for the forseeable. Off the Abbey Road-inspired “A Wizard A True Star” LP the song appears inspired by Gilbert and Sullivan musically and Alice In Wonderland lyrically, but then the “chorus” is a law unto itself : ‘You want the obvious, you’ll get the obvious”. Without ever wanting to completely understand it, I love the namecheck to Groucho, the Dali section, and the simple complexity of it all – I understand that it could be irritating until you’ve seen it live -then it all makes sense, in a surreal kind of way.