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18 October 2005

Super Metariffic MetaAskMe So, my questions on AskMe lately have been "What is this tune", for tunes stuck in my head. So my question now is about those questions. Why are there so few questions like that? Do y'all not get songs stuck in your head? Or is it that you do, but it doesn't bother you that you don't know what they are? Or is it that you do, but you quickly realize what they are and who they're by? Or is it that you have some other resource for identifying them?

post by: bugbread at: 13:15 | 19 comments

I don't like to use my one AskMe a week on something like that. Because the instant I do ask something like that, I always come up with the question I'd been waiting to ask.

Anyway, for tunes that get stuck in my head and I can't remember, I channel jonmc and the answer always seems to come right to me. But it that doesn't work, Google whatever lyrics you can remember and you'll usually find something to clue you in.

posted by fenriq 18 October | 13:20

I always have a song stuck in my head. Always. And I almost always know what the song is.

posted by kmellis 18 October | 13:20

Whenever I get a song stuck in my head, I usually hum it until a couple of key lyrics come to me. Then I google them, and presto, there the song is.

posted by Edible Energy 18 October | 13:23

I always have a song stuck in my head, too. And it's usually the same one for about a week. And it always sucks.

Recent ones: Salisbury Hill (from that Shining trailer parody)
Afternoon delight (from rewatching anchorman)
Copacabana (because my husband hates me and sings shit like that for the sole purpose of sticking it in my head)

posted by gaspode 18 October | 13:26

I don't know what I would do if I couldn't google lyrics. I google lyrics at least 2 or 3 times every single day.

posted by iconomy 18 October | 13:28

I hum it out loud until I get someone else humming it, then listen closely for lyrics. If they seem to know the lyrics, then I ask, "What's the name of that song you're singing?"

posted by Hugh Janus 18 October | 13:33

I always know what the song is. But I am a total iPod junkie (it's on nearly all the time), so generally I have a real song playing and if one is in my head (like at swim practice), it's from what I've been listening to.

posted by dame 18 October | 13:35

Ah, sorry, I used the wrong word. Not songs, tunes (the two questions I've asked were Baker Street, which I wasn't aware even had lyrics, as all I've ever heard was the sax solo, and Fanfare for the Common Man, which is lyricless). Songs, I can find. Tunes drive me crazy.

posted by bugbread 18 October | 13:40

True dat iconomy.

And I'm like dame, cept for my pitiful Shuffle is broken and won't play with Windows. But I'm full of red curry at the moment, so don't care.

posted by tr33hggr 18 October | 13:41

Like the folks above, when I tune gets stuck in my head or I hear part of a song I can't identify I can go the computer and find it almost every time. I've even been able to track down insturmentals in commercials and movies thanks to Google. God bless the internet.

Although Hugh Janus' suggestion is intriguing.

posted by Slack-a-gogo 18 October | 13:49

I will occasionally get a name or word in my head and, in those cases, I usually have no idea why and, occasionally in the case of names, who the hell it is. That's annoying.

posted by kmellis 18 October | 13:49

"Oh my God/ What's that song?/ I'm in love/ With that song."

I spend most of my life with a song stuck in my head, but almost always know the song. On occassion, I can't think of it, then I try to sing it off key to people. Classical is the worst for this.
At least I found out that the "da-duh-duh da-duh-duh" stuck in my head was "Feel like makin' love." That song rules.

posted by klangklangston 18 October | 14:11

If I get really stuck, I post them to my lj community. You guys are "last line of defense."

posted by Eideteker 18 October | 14:28

If you're not asking in person, how do you ask via internet? I know that someone correctly identified a "duh-du-dum-dum-duh" type question in AskMe, but that seems like the exception, not the rule, or do I underestimate the power of "duh-duh-da"?

posted by bugbread 18 October | 14:33

Post a .wav file, usually, even if it's just of me singing it.

posted by Eideteker 18 October | 16:49

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

posted by bugbread 18 October | 17:01

I rarely listen to music other than stuff I own, so I can normally identify tunes. Oh, and thanks for getting War Pigs out of my head bugbread, although now it's been replaced with Baker Street. Dammit.

posted by nomis 18 October | 20:29

My buddy Jim always said that when he had an earworm he would sing "Tra-La-La," by the Banana Splits to clear it out. The ultimate musical sorbet.

posted by jonmc 18 October | 20:33

I heard that you should hum three Roy Orbison songs in a row. They remove all earworms and then vanish themselves.

posted by nomis 18 October | 22:56

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