no you were fine i had a different expectation on the youtube video at first but the intro commercial i experienced is not a ever present deal.
thanks for putting it up
Tim’s particular choice of earworm started me thinking about the phrase “a song that was a hit before your mother was born” and that led me to reflect on the extent to which music from the ’60s is still an essential part of our popular culture. I know the iPod I use in my car is heavily salted with music from that period, but it’s not simply a case where I’m an old guy listening to the music from my youth.
When I work at General Mills, I am generally working with groups of employees that are about the age of my daughters. Because they are engaged in collaborative, creative activities, they often have music playing softly in the background. And frequently, that music is from the ’60s and ’70s. Imagine if, in the ’60s, an essential portion of the popular, familiar music we listened to had been from the 1910s. We might have been listening to WWI songs like “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France” or “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight For Her Daddy Over There”.
History moves unevenly, or has done so in the past. Things stay pretty much the same for a generation or two and then change comes suddenly, often disconcertingly and on many fronts at once. The music that sticks around for decades seems to come in clumps as well. I was looking for songs I especially liked that might have come out before my mother was born in 1926 and was surprised at how many of them came out in 1928 or 1929– just after she was born.
The other day I heard Carouselambra (by Led Zepplin) on the radio.
It’s only played sporadically and since I’m not a real big LZ fan I had to look it up. And it’s been in my head the last week.
Funny thing: that ‘In Through the Out Door’ was the only Led Zepplin album I bought when I was a teenager. So I think there was a mental connection that had been lost in time. But something connected and bought it back.
At the nursing home (or, should I say care center) where I visit my aunt, a guy in the room across the hall plays Bob Dylan quite loudly sometimes. I would imagine the guy is 70-ish. I always feel, though, that someone who plays Bob Dylan shouldn’t be old enough to be in a nursing home.
Have you read Malcolm Gladwell’s, The Outliers? He explains how this all happens in “clumps.” He was especially focused on how it happened with computer/digital technology, but he makes the point that it happened when the USA was formed, music, etc.
Malcolm Gladwell also has a really interesting podcast, Revisionist History, as well.
I’ll look into the history podcast and if I like it, I’ll add it to my other history-based ones. I hadn’t picked up “Outliers” because it purports to explain success, which doesn’t, per se, interest me all that much. I may have to take another look.
Interesting. I do know that there is a progression in trends from edgy to popular to out-of-date to nostalgia (with lots of other stops along the path).
I remember the 50s being a big deal when I was in high school, with Happy Days right next to Saturday Night Fever, and I hauled out some clothes my mom had kept from college (“why do you want that old junk?”).
I have taken a very different approach, so my child knew exactly what his lit teacher was talking about when she told the class you can recite the poems of Emily Dickinson to the theme of Gilligan’s Island.
These are the kinds of “cultural references” that are completely lost on me. My background in American “popular culture” from the 50s and early 60s is sorely lacking. Foreign territory, literally. I lack the common references that the baboons in my age range can relate to. This is when I’m keenly aware that I’m an immigrant.
If it’s any comfort to you, PJ, I am also pretty clueless when it comes to many (most?) cultural references. That’s partly because my parents severely limited our TV watching and partly just because I am a clueless type of person.
the roaring twenties were chippy then we got gershwin porter and the great broadway tunes. i still love musicals and the ones they write today are ok bt a little lazy in the songwriting style. the golden age is the golden age for a reason
i used to love tony randals love of the old tunes from the turn of the century. those long intros before the song begins.
i think the 60’s was an exceptional time in music early seventy’s yes. that was it for a long time
i
Usually the vamps got left behind. Here’s an example of a song with its vamp still intact. The singer is Cliff Edwards, “Ukelele Ike”. The voice of Jiminy Cricket.
Recently I re-watched a favorite movie, Tender Mercies, starring Robert Duvall, who received an Oscar for his role. He plays a down and out country singer, Mack Sledge, whose ex-wife, also a country singer, belts out a song, Over You, in the movie. That character is played by Betty Buckley, who has a voice worthy of Jim Ed’s old “Merman Alert.” That song has been stuck in my head.
I found it on YouTube, which makes it even harder to get rid of the ear worm.
i had such a crush on betty buckley
i loved this song. ethel merman never crossed my mind. i was surprised she had such a strong voice. but when you pt violins and a sound stage behind a voice you can do amazing things. then i remembered she the the cats song too
I had something from the 60s surface last week, but now can’t recall what it was. And I sing Broadway or “piano bar” songs with my mom at her piano sometimes, and once in a while something like Sentimental Journey will get stuck in there.
More often, though, it will be some theme song to, say, Doc Martin Season 7 which we just returned to the library. 😐
I do get ear worms from time to time, and sometimes I like them. What triggers them can be so subtle that I’m not consciously aware of what it was. A lot of my ear worms are Danish children’s songs, and more often than not, they occur when I’m pondering some lyric I misunderstood or otherwise mangled (Mondegreen) as a child.
I get enjoyable ear worms all the time. It may be why I have a fairly high tolerance for repetition. I can watch and re-watch movies/television shows…I can listen and re-listen to the same songs over and over and over. Interestingly, and tangentially related, my mom is completely the opposite. I will offer to loan her DVD’s of movies/shows she’s enjoyed and she says, “No thanks, I saw that 30 years ago…I know how it ends.”
PSA – Macalester Costume Sale
Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
130 Macalaster St, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105
July 28 – July 29
Jul 28 at 9 AM to Jul 29 at 5 PM
Details: We’re clearing out our costume stock and tons of stuff is up for sale! 40 years of costumes from over 150 productions from all periods and styles. The sale is the last week-end in July – Friday and Sat. After 2:00 on Sat every thing is $10.00 a bag. We’ll be posting more pictures as we go! 9:00 to 5:00 both days. (We won’t be there all night!)
Thought there might be a baboon or two who might be interested.
i bet bill could be any number of things that will be offered. imagine the options
i did a costume shop sale about 5 years ago.
in cleaning out stuff for the move and aborting many many items of value i came agross a bag or two of costumes and they were too enjoyable to throw. a dance like an egyptian costume, a blank is coming ove rme but i know we spent 27 dollars and laughed for hours and hours.
That’s what I like about this group. I have absolutely no interest in getting any of these costumes or even looking at them. And definitely not interested in buying them, even at $10 a bag. But there are others here who love this stuff. I like that we can be different and still get along.
I’m not, Ben, but a friend of mine, a Macalester alumnus, posted the information to Facebook (complete with a photo of some the stuff that will be for sale), and it piqued my interest. I know that several baboons are. or have been, involved with theater, so figured I’d pass the info along in case someone wanted to check it out.
I think I’m way out of my element on this one. First of all, I have no idea what an “ear worm” is; secondly, I don’t understand how this relates to my mother! I read all of the posts here and still I’m clueless. This has never happened to me on TB before 😦
That’s probably what I should do in regards to Emily Dickinson vis-a-vis Yellow Rose of Texas, and Robert Frost vis-a-vis Hernando’s Hideaway, but I think I’ll just
It’s not that mysterious. If you know the tune of Yellow Rose of Texas, you can use Dickinson’s poems, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, for example, as the lyric. It gives Dickinson a jaunty, galloping rhythm she doesn’t usually have.
Likewise, if you know the tune for Hernando’s Hideaway, apply it to a Frost poem like “Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening”.
I hadn’t heard the term Earworm either when I first got on the trail… We must not have had them growing up in Iowa.
I think the song “Your Mother Should Know” got stuck in tim’s head.
I’ve been listening to Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey album lately, after not hearing it for quite awhile. There are a number of earworm-worthy songs there.
I do think the mid- to late-60’s were unusually good years for music. The early 70’s too. My younger niece is very into the Lovin’ Spoonful, Janis Joplin, Cat Stevens, the Beatles, a lot of classic stuff. Those songs have aged well.
I especially get irritated by the song, “What Do You Do With a Problem Like Maria?” when the answer is marry her off to an old guy with 7 children. GRRR.
Trail Baboon 
well… that went differently than i expected
i thought the you tube would pop up as always but it appears to be a different deal today
now i know
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https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=youtube+this+is+the+song+that+never+ends&fr=iphone&.tsrc=apple&pcarrier=AT&T&pmcc=310&pmnc=410
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Sorry. My bad I guess.
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Looks to me like it is fine.
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no you were fine i had a different expectation on the youtube video at first but the intro commercial i experienced is not a ever present deal.
thanks for putting it up
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Yes.
Tim’s particular choice of earworm started me thinking about the phrase “a song that was a hit before your mother was born” and that led me to reflect on the extent to which music from the ’60s is still an essential part of our popular culture. I know the iPod I use in my car is heavily salted with music from that period, but it’s not simply a case where I’m an old guy listening to the music from my youth.
When I work at General Mills, I am generally working with groups of employees that are about the age of my daughters. Because they are engaged in collaborative, creative activities, they often have music playing softly in the background. And frequently, that music is from the ’60s and ’70s. Imagine if, in the ’60s, an essential portion of the popular, familiar music we listened to had been from the 1910s. We might have been listening to WWI songs like “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France” or “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight For Her Daddy Over There”.
History moves unevenly, or has done so in the past. Things stay pretty much the same for a generation or two and then change comes suddenly, often disconcertingly and on many fronts at once. The music that sticks around for decades seems to come in clumps as well. I was looking for songs I especially liked that might have come out before my mother was born in 1926 and was surprised at how many of them came out in 1928 or 1929– just after she was born.
Why do you think that is?
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I imagine I’ll be in the retirement home waiting for lunch while Led Zepplin is playing as background music. Rocking (literally) to Kashmir!
LikeLiked by 2 people
The other day I heard Carouselambra (by Led Zepplin) on the radio.
It’s only played sporadically and since I’m not a real big LZ fan I had to look it up. And it’s been in my head the last week.
Funny thing: that ‘In Through the Out Door’ was the only Led Zepplin album I bought when I was a teenager. So I think there was a mental connection that had been lost in time. But something connected and bought it back.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I wonder what the mental connections are too, Ben, for something that surfaces after decades.
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Too noisy for me. If that’s what they’re gonna be playing in the nursing home, I’ll be listening to this on my ipod instead:
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At the nursing home (or, should I say care center) where I visit my aunt, a guy in the room across the hall plays Bob Dylan quite loudly sometimes. I would imagine the guy is 70-ish. I always feel, though, that someone who plays Bob Dylan shouldn’t be old enough to be in a nursing home.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Have you read Malcolm Gladwell’s, The Outliers? He explains how this all happens in “clumps.” He was especially focused on how it happened with computer/digital technology, but he makes the point that it happened when the USA was formed, music, etc.
Malcolm Gladwell also has a really interesting podcast, Revisionist History, as well.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ll look into the history podcast and if I like it, I’ll add it to my other history-based ones. I hadn’t picked up “Outliers” because it purports to explain success, which doesn’t, per se, interest me all that much. I may have to take another look.
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Interesting. I do know that there is a progression in trends from edgy to popular to out-of-date to nostalgia (with lots of other stops along the path).
I remember the 50s being a big deal when I was in high school, with Happy Days right next to Saturday Night Fever, and I hauled out some clothes my mom had kept from college (“why do you want that old junk?”).
I have taken a very different approach, so my child knew exactly what his lit teacher was talking about when she told the class you can recite the poems of Emily Dickinson to the theme of Gilligan’s Island.
LikeLike
I thought it was Emily Dickinson = The Yellow Rose of Texas and Robert Frost = Hernando’s Hideaway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These are the kinds of “cultural references” that are completely lost on me. My background in American “popular culture” from the 50s and early 60s is sorely lacking. Foreign territory, literally. I lack the common references that the baboons in my age range can relate to. This is when I’m keenly aware that I’m an immigrant.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If it’s any comfort to you, PJ, I am also pretty clueless when it comes to many (most?) cultural references. That’s partly because my parents severely limited our TV watching and partly just because I am a clueless type of person.
LikeLiked by 2 people
the roaring twenties were chippy then we got gershwin porter and the great broadway tunes. i still love musicals and the ones they write today are ok bt a little lazy in the songwriting style. the golden age is the golden age for a reason
LikeLike
i used to love tony randals love of the old tunes from the turn of the century. those long intros before the song begins.
i think the 60’s was an exceptional time in music early seventy’s yes. that was it for a long time
i
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I think they call those long intros “the vamp”.
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Usually the vamps got left behind. Here’s an example of a song with its vamp still intact. The singer is Cliff Edwards, “Ukelele Ike”. The voice of Jiminy Cricket.
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Nice.
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Rise and Shine Baboons!
Recently I re-watched a favorite movie, Tender Mercies, starring Robert Duvall, who received an Oscar for his role. He plays a down and out country singer, Mack Sledge, whose ex-wife, also a country singer, belts out a song, Over You, in the movie. That character is played by Betty Buckley, who has a voice worthy of Jim Ed’s old “Merman Alert.” That song has been stuck in my head.
I found it on YouTube, which makes it even harder to get rid of the ear worm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did it!
LikeLiked by 3 people
i had such a crush on betty buckley
i loved this song. ethel merman never crossed my mind. i was surprised she had such a strong voice. but when you pt violins and a sound stage behind a voice you can do amazing things. then i remembered she the the cats song too
LikeLike
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Was she the original cats singer?
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i think so
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I had something from the 60s surface last week, but now can’t recall what it was. And I sing Broadway or “piano bar” songs with my mom at her piano sometimes, and once in a while something like Sentimental Journey will get stuck in there.
More often, though, it will be some theme song to, say, Doc Martin Season 7 which we just returned to the library. 😐
LikeLike
I do get ear worms from time to time, and sometimes I like them. What triggers them can be so subtle that I’m not consciously aware of what it was. A lot of my ear worms are Danish children’s songs, and more often than not, they occur when I’m pondering some lyric I misunderstood or otherwise mangled (Mondegreen) as a child.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get enjoyable ear worms all the time. It may be why I have a fairly high tolerance for repetition. I can watch and re-watch movies/television shows…I can listen and re-listen to the same songs over and over and over. Interestingly, and tangentially related, my mom is completely the opposite. I will offer to loan her DVD’s of movies/shows she’s enjoyed and she says, “No thanks, I saw that 30 years ago…I know how it ends.”
LikeLike
Lol..that’s the same reason that I have never watched Titanic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
PSA – Macalester Costume Sale
Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center
130 Macalaster St, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105
July 28 – July 29
Jul 28 at 9 AM to Jul 29 at 5 PM
Details: We’re clearing out our costume stock and tons of stuff is up for sale! 40 years of costumes from over 150 productions from all periods and styles. The sale is the last week-end in July – Friday and Sat. After 2:00 on Sat every thing is $10.00 a bag. We’ll be posting more pictures as we go! 9:00 to 5:00 both days. (We won’t be there all night!)
Thought there might be a baboon or two who might be interested.
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Oh Lordy, it’s probably a good thing I’m not in town.
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But you’ve had enough notice that you can arrange to be.
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OH, PJ, you are brutal!
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As Linda would say, you’re welcome.
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Was it Bill who needs a gorilla suit so he will never be unemployed?
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i bet bill could be any number of things that will be offered. imagine the options
i did a costume shop sale about 5 years ago.
in cleaning out stuff for the move and aborting many many items of value i came agross a bag or two of costumes and they were too enjoyable to throw. a dance like an egyptian costume, a blank is coming ove rme but i know we spent 27 dollars and laughed for hours and hours.
LikeLiked by 3 people
What’s the likelihood that Macalester ever needed a gorilla suit for a performance?
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king kong was a hit in 03
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Slim to none, but I bet there are some other goodies that might tempt you.
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That’s what I like about this group. I have absolutely no interest in getting any of these costumes or even looking at them. And definitely not interested in buying them, even at $10 a bag. But there are others here who love this stuff. I like that we can be different and still get along.
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But then I gotta store it…. and storage is already an issue for my costumer.
Maybe I can hold a costume rummage sale first??
PJ how are you involved in this?
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I’m not, Ben, but a friend of mine, a Macalester alumnus, posted the information to Facebook (complete with a photo of some the stuff that will be for sale), and it piqued my interest. I know that several baboons are. or have been, involved with theater, so figured I’d pass the info along in case someone wanted to check it out.
LikeLike
I think I’m way out of my element on this one. First of all, I have no idea what an “ear worm” is; secondly, I don’t understand how this relates to my mother! I read all of the posts here and still I’m clueless. This has never happened to me on TB before 😦
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Start, as I often do, by googling “earworm”.
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Well, I don’t always google earworm, but If there’s something I don’t get, I research it.
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That’s probably what I should do in regards to Emily Dickinson vis-a-vis Yellow Rose of Texas, and Robert Frost vis-a-vis Hernando’s Hideaway, but I think I’ll just
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It’s not that mysterious. If you know the tune of Yellow Rose of Texas, you can use Dickinson’s poems, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, for example, as the lyric. It gives Dickinson a jaunty, galloping rhythm she doesn’t usually have.
Likewise, if you know the tune for Hernando’s Hideaway, apply it to a Frost poem like “Stopping By The Woods On A Snowy Evening”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
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You guys are such a hoot – not to mention a source of bizarre, mostly useless information. My tribe!
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I hadn’t heard the term Earworm either when I first got on the trail… We must not have had them growing up in Iowa.
I think the song “Your Mother Should Know” got stuck in tim’s head.
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still is
i have tried replacing it with here comes the sun but no luck
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Try singing it in the voice of Bob Dylan.
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…or Ethel Merman.
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I like Here Comes the Sun in the voice of Richie Havens.
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I’ve been listening to Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey album lately, after not hearing it for quite awhile. There are a number of earworm-worthy songs there.
I do think the mid- to late-60’s were unusually good years for music. The early 70’s too. My younger niece is very into the Lovin’ Spoonful, Janis Joplin, Cat Stevens, the Beatles, a lot of classic stuff. Those songs have aged well.
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I LOVE Cat Stevens.
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Father and Son is a favorite. Yet sometimes I get an ear worm of Into White, for reasons that aren’t clear to me.
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“Climb Every Mountain” was playing in my head as I picked raspberries tonight after work. The Sound of Music is so annoying.
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I especially get irritated by the song, “What Do You Do With a Problem Like Maria?” when the answer is marry her off to an old guy with 7 children. GRRR.
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