Song Stuck in Your Head? You're Not Alone

Reuters ^ | Monday, Feb 24, 2003 | Alison McCook

[Interesting Times]

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they'd kill

[speedy]

Welcome back, Kotter. "Well I know what a scene you were learning in -- was there something that made you come back again?"

[reg45]

... and parked in her rickety old garage
is a brand new shiny red super stock Dodge ...

[CARDINALRULES]

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere,
I'm all alone, more or less,
Let me fly, far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun...
I want to lie shipwrecked and comatose,
Drinking fresh mango juice,
Goldfish shoals, nibbling at my toes,
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun...
Fun, fun, fun, in the sun, sun, sun...

The Red Dwarf Theme Song

[Interesting Times]

(reaching grimly for the heavy artillary)

Kiss me in the rain, and make me feel like a child again
With the feeling that I get,
I don't even mind if we get wet

[speedy]

Accckkk -- I didn't think there were any more depths to be plumbed, but you just did it. "Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend." Original Caste and Coven both charted with that piece of doo -- this could open up a whole new Billy Jack train of thought. "Oh, you've blown it all sky high." And Stars on 45, anyone?

[speedy]

"Well, the last thing I remember Doc, I started to swerve. And then I saw the Jag slide into the curve. I know I'll never forget that horrible sight. Guess I found out for myself that everyone was right. WON'T COME BACK FROM DEAD MAN'S CURVE"

[speedy]

Gracias -- send lawyers, guns and money!!

[Interesting Times]

Iiiiiiiii remember.
We were flying low, and hit something in the air...

[reg45]

The fact that we remember this stuff, gives away our ages!

[speedy]

Yeah -- Jan and Dean aren't on everyone's minds these days unless you are well above legal driving age. Of course, we could have learned these from our parents!! As poppa used to sing, "Well, I'm going to Surf City gonna have some fun, you know I'm going to Surf City 'cause it's two to one." Do you remember Patty Duke doing "Please Don't Just Stand There"?

[speedy]

"Call out the revolution -- because there's something in the air -- and you know it's right."

[MsGail61]

Actually, I think of Bush singing:

We can't afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemt
It's a do-or-die situation

[MsGail61]

enemt = enemy

[js1138]

"The Ultimate Melody" by Arthur C. Clarke, in "Tales From The White Hart"

This short story is about a scientist, Gilbert Lister, who develops the ultimate melody--one that so compels the brain that its listener becomes completely and forever enraptured by it. As the storyteller, Harry Purvis, explains, Lister theorized that a great melody "made its impression on the mind because it fitted in with the fundamental electrical rhythms going on in the brain". Lister attempts to abstract from the hit tunes of the day to a melody which fits in so well with the electrical rhythms that it dominates them completely. He succeeds...and is found in a catatonia from which he never awakes.

Clearly, the Ultimate Melody behaves like a lethal text. Like the lethal texts in Macroscope and _Snow Crash_ (by Neal Stepheson), it affects the physical structure of the brain in such a way as to render the individual incapable of normal action.

Purvis explains that the Ultimate Melody "would form an endless ring in the memory circuits of the mind. It would go round and round forever, obliterating all other thoughts".

Interestingly, Purvis speculates whether Lister's fate is a negative one. He muses, "Yet I'm not sure if his fate is a horrible one, or whether he should be envied. Perhaps, in a sense, he's found the ultimate reality that philosophers like Plato are always talking about". Purvis also compares the Ultimate Melody to the song of the Sirens, in that it was a "lethal" text that no one could hear in safety, nor communicate to others.

Link

[speedy]

I've seen Jan and Dean perform several times in recent years. Jan's a little slow with the head injuries, but he always eventually gets it done. Burn off that quarter mile!!!