Rock With You

Sigh. A good one from the late King of Pop.

Artist: Michael Jackson
Year: 1979
Rating: Luke Hot

Play with Fire

Fitting in with some of the roiling emotions of this week.

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Year: 1965
Rating: Firey!

Talk To Ya Later, Redux

Last in my head on August 3, 2009. This isn't the first time a song has been in my head very close to exactly a year after I've already blogged about it. I wonder if cyclical memory has something to do with it. I'll need more verification...

Artist: The Tubes
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm

The Earwormery Questionnaire!

Seems some researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London, are conducting an online survey about earworms! I just filled out the survey. It takes a few minutes or several, depending on how dedicated you are to the subject. Needless to say, my answers were thorough. Check out their site (http://www.earwormery.com) and take the survey if you'd like! They are attempting to describe and to quantify some of the characteristics of earworms, measuring frequency and duration of songs that get stuck in our heads, determining the types of music, whether earwormy people are correlated with musicianship, etc.

Interestingly, they must be finding some correlation between people who experience frequent earworms and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, 'cause the portion of the survey dedicated to questions about "personality" tend toward the themes of how frequently you wash your hands, how often you count things, and whether you excessively check the lights and the doors. I wonder what that says about me...

Syufy Century Theaters Movie Theme

I'm so excited that someone captured this and posted it! Anyone else remember the promo music from the Syufy theaters in the 80s/90s? The audience took to clapping along. What a catchy score! It got stuck in my head about a week ago when I was en route to see Inception at the Metreon. I woke with it this morning.

Artist: Unknown
Year: c. 1980s
Rating: Warm

Dear Mr. Fantasy

Dear Mister Fantasy play us a tune
Something to make us all happy
Do anything, take us out of this gloom
Sing a song, play guitar, make it snappy

This refrain kept playing over and over in my mind during a 4:00am heart-to-heart in bed with the woman I love.

Artist: Traffic
Year: 1967
Rating: Luke Hot

Note: I impressed myself by figuring out that this was a Traffic song, even though I couldn't name it. I guess Steve Winwood's vocal timbre is imprinted in my brain but good.

Old Man Kensey

That's my folly/That's my mistake

Artist: R.E.M.
Year: 1985
Rating: Warm

Beans and Rice/Conjunction Junction

Let's hear it for '70s/early '80s multicultural educational videos! Artist: unknown Year: '70s/'80s? Rating: Luke Hot ...and a couple days later, this classic ditty came to mind. Brought to you by: School House Rock Artist: Terry Morel and Jack Sheldon Composer: Bob Dorough Year: 1973 Rating: Luke Hot Noteworthy: To date, my April, 2009, entry about the song Hanker for a Hunk of Cheese gets the most search hits to my blog. I guess Saturday morning PSAs are in a lot of our heads.

Limelight

This song represents ever more tainting of the songs in my head from my rock station-listenin' lately (though I do dig me some Rush). I'm fearing that my blog is turning out to be an unwitting advertisement for The Band, The Bone, and KFOG (though I don't mind supporting the latter, 'cause it's truly an awesome, home-grown Bay Area radio station, even though it's now owned by broadcasting monolith Cumulus).

I've actually considered just not listening to any music at all in order to devote my mental pathways to replaying only music I generate from internal memory, associations, and emotions, and the occasional replay of music input I receive from passive listening at the grocery store, ambient music in public, and the like. That would be kind of pathetic, though, to deprive myself of new musical input just to enforce some sort of artificially-imposed "purity" onto my blogging project. What do y'all think? Maybe it's time for another reader poll...

Artist: Rush
Year: 1981
Rating: Warm

Living On A Prayer

I blame my friend Dina, who alerted me to this "movement" recently:






I wonder if there really are people who want to rename their state for Jon Bon Jovi. I think naming Jersey in honor of Springsteen makes a lot more sense, just sayin'.

Artist: Bon Jovi
Year: 1986
Rating: Warm +
Shout out: Dina!

September

Emblematic song of my youth. Ubiquitous on the radio, in the roller rink, in my head. Another perfect pop song.

Artist: Earth, Wind, & Fire
Year: 1978
Rating: Luke Hot

Jesse's Girl

A karaoke staple for me for years.

Artist: Rick Springfield
Year: 1981
Rating: Hot!

Don't Bring Me Down

Loud and clear this morning. Am I bringing people down with all this death, shooting, nostalgia, I wonder? Well, nuts to you. How can you be down with such a rockin' song in your head?

Artist: ELO
Year: 1979
Rating: Luke Hot