When the music goes round and round
The Reverend Thomas C. Willadsen
"Tom, check out my new I-pod! I can store over 1,000 songs and set it to play randomly. It's like I have my own personal radio station that only plays the music I love!"
"How interesting; I'm really happy for you," I lie unctuously.
I do not need a gadget to have my own personal radio station. Songs appear in my mind on an eternal loop all the time. Music is always my companion-whether I like it or not.
Research recently conducted by Dr. James Kellaris at the University of Cincinnati, has given insight into "ear worms;" those songs that get stuck in our heads and rattle around like BB's in a tuna fish can. Dr. Kellaris concluded that we are helpless against songs with repetitive words and unchanging melodies.
Try this: think of the song you loved the most when you were in fourth-grade. Perhaps you bought a 45 rpm record of it and played it repeatedly. Right now, you're playing it again, in your head. Gotcha! For me it's "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede. I will have "ooga-chocka's" pounding in my head for the next day or so. And if you're 45, so will you. Sorry.
Sometimes ear worms take root in our minds for obvious reasons, like when we remember an old friend. Sometimes ear worms appear because of word association. When I met Dr. Barbara Sniffen, "Driver's Seat," a late '70s rock song came into my brain. This one was easy to figure out-"Driver's Seat" was the only Top 40 hit by Sniff 'n' the Tears. Sniffen = Sniff 'n', get it?
I find the less obvious ear worms particularly interesting.
The first year I lived in my current home, I found myself waking up with Linda Ronstadt every morning. Wait, for the sake of my marriage and career, I'll rephrase that. I found Linda Ronstadt's "Blue Bayou" echoing in my head each morning as I woke up. I had not heard this song in years, why was it going through my head now? After a week I noticed the lyrics, "that familiar sunrise, through sleepy eyes..." Of course! Our bedroom was on the east side of the house. Each morning I was awakened a little earlier, and my sleepy mind was making the connection to this song.
Several years ago a member of my congregation was troubled by an ear worm. She was waking up in the middle of the night with a chorus we had sung on Easter going through her head, "Alleluia, alleluia, Give thanks to the risen Lord." It was driving her crazy. She said, "I know God's trying to tell me something, but what?"
I told her she was lucky, blessed even. At that moment my ear worm was "Mustang Sally." If God was trying to reach me with this chestnut, I still have not figured out why. Guess I better put my big, fat feet on the ground!
Lately I have tried to turn my ear worms into a spiritual discipline. Like my parishioner, I ask myself what God is trying to tell me through this song in this moment.
For several weeks I have been mentally singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It is the most pleasant ear worm I have ever had. I associate this song with New Year's. We sang it in worship early in January. Someone observed to me, "That has got to be somebody's national anthem-it's so hard to sing!" She was right. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is the unofficial national anthem of African-Americans. It is a song of pain, struggle and most importantly, hope. It is the perfect song for the start of a new presidential administration, in a time of great anxiety.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on, till victory is won.
I hope now you are stuck on it too. At least I believe it is better company than "ooga chocka."
This column first appeared in the Oshkosh Northwestern March 20, 2009.