Songs that haunt you

Subject: Songs that haunt you
From: mcpiper
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 06:15 AM

I don't know if there has been a thread about this before, but does anyone have songs or tunes that just seem to haunt them.

By haunting,I mean they won't go away until you have learnt them, and played them until you are comfortable with them. Only then do they seem to have been exorcised.

My list would have to include Ode to Billie Joe, it's had me ever since it came out, last week it was Still Crazy after All These Years, before that Hard Times, On Raglan Road and I suspect the next one will be, of all things, Vengaboys with Uncle John from Jamaica. There has been a few reels, marches, jigs etc., but the recent thread on Billie Joe really got me thinking.

Does this happen to anyone else?

mcpiper

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,Adolfo
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 06:46 AM

Every time I notice I'm humming it's Danny Boy, Highland Cathedral or The Water Is Wide. Dowland's Flow my tears or Purcell's arias are next in the list

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: mkebenn
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 07:05 AM

last night I washsed the Queen's feet, and put the gold in her hair, and the only reward I find for this the gallows to be my share.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Grab
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 08:57 AM

Anji. Still does. And it drives my wife round the bend. :-)

Grab.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: jaze
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 10:59 AM

For the past 2 months I've been haunted by On Raglan Road by Joan Osborne. Can't get it out of my mind,but I'm not at all tired of it. I went thru a Mary Hamilton phase too after reading James Michener's "The Drifters" Must say I really enjoy being "haunted" by great songs.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: SINSULL
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 11:03 AM

mkebenn - Just got a shiver. Guess I am haunted.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: mousethief
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 12:49 PM

Pacing the Cage by Bruce Cockburn

O..O
=o=

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 12:54 PM

Evangeline from The Band's "The Last Waltz." I think this was the first time I ever heard Emmylou Harris and it sent chills down my spine, still does.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Jim Krause
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 12:57 PM

Oh, yes! I just had to learn Spanish Is the Loving Tongue after hearing a Michael Martin Murphey recording of it. Hearing that song made me wonder if perhaps we really do get but one chance at true love per lifetime.

And then there were the songs that came from somewhere in outer space that just had to be written. I hope someday to record a few more of them. Soddy

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: MMario
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 01:28 PM

I tend to be haunted by songs until I learn them, then they leave me in peace. A few of the more recent: Three Score and Ten, The Mother's Kiss, An Emigrant's Daughter.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 01:40 PM

John Cherokee

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Morticia
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 01:53 PM

Like MMario, this happens to me all the time, all my life. I am fanatical about a song until I've learned it and then, mostly, I can put it back in the "With luck, I'll remember you when I want you" box (which is becoming a tad unreliable over the last year or two). One song that continues to haunt however is "Now, Westlin Winds" because it has such a beautiful tune.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 02:47 PM

now's the time, the sidewinder, begin the beguine, annie by ronnie lane, you can't sit down, etc., and not forgetting 'Living with the Blues' by Brownie McGhee which i would be haunted by if only some mf would tell me the lyrics.

peace etc fB

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: fat B****rd
Date: 17 Nov 00 - 02:50 PM

ps that's the sidewinder by lee morgan RIP and not (with respect) rem

fB

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,chuck 7721
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 02:52 PM

"Deep River Blues" and "Single Girl"

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From:
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 03:10 PM

Ah, but I might as well try and "Catch the Wind"

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: MK
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 03:51 PM

When She Loved Me - Sarah MacLachlan
In A New York Minute - Don Henley
Time and Tide - Basia
Corazon Espinado - Santana
Tears in Heaven and Layla - Eric Clapton
Julia - John Lennon
The Hungry Years- Neil Sedaka
Take 5 - Paul Desmond
Rhapsody In Blue - George Gershwin
Spain - Chick Corea (Al Jarreau version)
Alonzo - Al Jarreau
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Elton John (Oletta Adams version)
Don't Hold Back Your Love - Daryl Hall
Cloudburst - Hendricks, Lambert and Ross Europa - Gato Barbieri

...and the soundtrack from the Wizard of Oz (especially anything to do with Munchkins!)

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,Mickey191
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 06:01 PM

Jaze, I played "On Raglan Road" by Joan Osborn at least 50 times yesterday. Today I've had on a CD by Michael McCann. It has songs sung by soldiers in different wars. Today I was stuck on "Lorena". Liner notes say Confederate commanders forbade the playing of it because it made men so homesick that they deserted. These are two haunting songs. Great thread. Slainte

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 07:41 PM

I think the last earworm I had was for Kiri's Piano, by James Keelaghan... But I'd been enjoying that one for years before I decided to sit down and learn it... When I did it took me all of maybe 3 minutes...

Been getting a lot of new stuff off Napster lately so my earworm is more like a juke-box these days... think about it for a sec and the tune changes...

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Ely
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 07:47 PM

"Ode to Billie Joe" --Bobbie Gentry

"Sammy's Bar" --Cyril Tawney (on the Golden Ring record)

"North Country Blues", "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" --Bob Dylan

"Flying Shoes", "You Are Not Needed Now" --Townes Van Zandt

"All the Pretty Little Horses" --trad.

"Billy Gray", "When the Fields Are White with Daisies" --Norman Blake

"Powderfinger" --Neil Young (I've got the Cowboy Junkies' version)

"Gaftaí Baile Buí" --trad. Irish (?).

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 07:54 PM

Ely... or whoever...

Is that the Sammy's Bar covered by Garnet Rogers on his CD Summer Lightning?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Matt_R
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 08:02 PM

How To Disappear Completely --Radiohead

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 08:22 PM

Some I learn, some I don't. Some come to me after hearing them for years and never giving them a second thought..."Lay Down Your Weary Tune" comes to mind as one of those.

The other night I went to sleep with a tape playing in the VCR of a movie. I had taped other things following the movie but I had no idea what. Turns out that there was a televised episode of Prairie Home Companion (maybe 10 years old?) at the end of the tape and I woke up to Emmylou singing an Allen Reynolds song, very gospelly/bluegrass, called "Someday My Ship Will Sail." Its very short, but I can tell you its already hit the category you're talking about. It just grabbed me and won't let go. BTW, her mando player was a young and unknown Vince Gill.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 10:15 PM

Along the lines you suggest...any number of Dylan songs, "Starwalker" by Buffy Sainte-Marie, "Moonshot" also by Buffy, "Ain't No Cure For Love" by Leonard Cohen. I really like "Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum too, but haven't played it as yet, and probably never will.

Then there is the other kind of song that haunts me...like a bad odor that won't go away..."Achy Breaky Heart" and "Farmer's Song" (Murray McLaughlin), for example. "Billy Don't Be A Hero" and Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy", not to mention "Tonight's The Night". Eeeee-YECH!!! Olivia Newton-Joke doing "I Honestly Love You". "I've Never Been To Me"...

Argh! Gasp! Retch!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Matt_R
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 10:21 PM

Thanks LH, I knew it couldn't go on much longer before the WHAT DO YOU HATE started seeping in.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: mcpiper
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 11:01 PM

Thanks for replying and keeping this thread going.

I was wrong, the next tune to haunt me was not a Vengaboys number, but the good ol Tennessee Waltz. It just hit me the other night. I'll have find a nice fingerpicking guitar version before this one is put to rest.

mcpiper

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,harpgirl
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 11:06 PM

...Delia...The Maid on The Shore...Delta Queen Waltz...

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,harpgirl
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 11:11 PM

Whoa Back Buck...Green Corn...Linin' Track...So Early Early in the Spring...Looky Looky Yonder...Black Betty...Steam Powered Aereo Plane...

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 11:13 PM

Sorry, Matt, just couldn't resist. I know you like almost everything, which probably proves just what a likeable chap (to use a British expression) you actually are. Try to look upon it with humour...I do. It's actually kind of amusing how some songs drive certain people up the wall, don't you think? "Achy Breaky", for example, is a superb line dancing song...but I think it got overplayed for a while there...and I'm not into line dancing anyway. If I was, I'd probably like it much better.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: richlmo
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 11:22 PM

Birds by Neil Young. For 25 years when I hear of Neil Young that song comes into my head. Such a beautiful melody.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: WyoWoman
Date: 18 Nov 00 - 11:46 PM

(In the Arms of the) Angel, Sarah McLachlan
I Am Stretched on Your Grave, Kate Rusby
Bold Riley, Kate Rusby
Two-Way Waltz, Kate Wolf
Gracias a La Vida, various ...

Probably because I'm learning these right now.

Sometimes a song will crop up in my mind and stick with me insistently until I pay attention to what it's trying to tell me. My subconscious sings to me and it's important that I listen because it gives me all kinds of 'coded' messages that way that clue me in to what's going on in my heart and soul. (An easy example is not being able to get "Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair" out of my mind for a couple of weeks before the Man Formerly Known As My Fiance walked out of my life unannounced. If I'd just LISTENED ... )

ww

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Thyme2dream
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 01:51 AM

Sarah MacLachlan's 'Angel' has haunted me since the first time I heard it...a seriously lonesome song that, and it so echos the way I feel a lot of the time..."glorious sadness, that brings me to my knees".

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Ely
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 01:52 AM

I'm not familiar with Garnet Rogers. It's the one that goes, "I went down to Sammy's Bar [hey, the last boat's a leavin'] at the shores of Pieta [call away the daighsoe] . . ." About the girl who likes the other guy because he has a "Yankee" car, and then she's killed when he turns too sharply.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Ely
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 01:54 AM

Mom says to add "Darcy Farrow" (and seconds "Sammy's Bar"). I should probably put the "The Jute Mill Song" on here.

I can never get the tunes to "Amelia's Waltz" [Bob McQuillan] or "Midnight on the Water" [Luke Thomasson] out of my head, either. Or "Hot Buttered Rum" [Red Clay Ramblers].

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 04:40 AM

Ya had to go and mention that bloody Paper Lace thing didn't you.... now it'll be bloody Billy don't be a sodding hero all flaming day!!! I will make sure you burn in your own personal ZZ Topp hell for that!

I'm beng haunted by a hymn called 'Cradle O Lord in your arms everlasting' - as heard on Songs of Praise last week. It's haunted me ever since we learned it for the programme in October, and I wish I could remember more than the first line... it was written by a teacher, one of whose pupils was killed in a car crash (thread creep, today is Road Crash Sunday, when we are supposed to think of those killed and injured in road accidents.... jolly huh?) and it is a poignant song about the death not only of what the child was, but what they could have become.... and how God will cradle them and care for them now that they are no longer with their families.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Ronaldo
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 05:11 AM

Yes, it happens all the time but it can happen with obscure but melodious words (what did he say?) as well as with tunes.. mostly the latter.

Subject: Sammy's Bar...
From: Clinton Hammond2
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 10:45 AM

Thanks Ely...

That is the same song that Garnet Rogers covered... And you should look it up... His version is pretty sweet... That voice... wow...

It's on his 'live' album (is there another way to record?) "Summer Lightning"

{-:

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,mactheturk,
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 11:51 AM

Steamboat Whistle Blues

Spoon River

Paradise

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,Adolfo
Date: 19 Nov 00 - 01:46 PM

"Ombra mai fú", I had forgotten to mention this.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: CarolC
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 03:59 AM

It's not so much that I'm haunted by it, as it is that I feel compelled to play it constantly...Kate Martyn's Waltz.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,micca at work
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 05:00 AM

The Trees They Do Grow High by the Dransfields
Mother nature is sound (first line of the chorus; don't know the title) as above
Mollymauk sung by Jeri, (this has driven me nuts for weeks Until I tried singing it,in public, it is still driving me nuts, but I'm working on it)

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Trevor
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 05:35 AM

I've got my CD player on repeat on the Altan version of 'Jug of Punch' and I know it won't go away until I've got the 'diddley diddley' bits at the end right!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: mkebenn
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 07:02 AM

They buried Willy in The old church yard, and Barbara Allen beside him,
And from Willy's heart there grew a rose, from Barbara Allen's, a briar.
The grew and grew up the old church wall, 'till they could grow no higher.
And then they tied in a true lover's knot, the rose grew 'round the briar.

MB

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,Fibula Mattock
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 09:52 AM

Spiritualised's "Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in space", one of the most beautiful sounding and shiver-causing songs I have ever heard. But not one that could ever be played by anyone else. Folkwise, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley".

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: GUEST,Matt
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 11:10 AM

Ely, I'm wondering in what way does "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" haunt you? I never found rip-roaring songs to be that haunting.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 11:44 AM

She Moved through the Fair is one of the most haunting melodies I've heard.

Dylan's A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall for the lyrics.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 01:44 PM

"Handbags and Gladrags" by Rod Stewart (although he didn't write it) and "Dimming of the Day" (written by Richard Thompson and recorded superbly by Bonnie Raitt) are two songs that I have never been able to play to my satisfaction. This is probably because the original versions were so strong.

There are also two jazz standards that I would love to sing some day: "I Can't Get Started" and "Lush Life". There is a version of Lush Life by John Coltrane, with Johnny Hartman singing, that is so world-weary. . .

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Melani
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 02:11 PM

Stan Rogers' "The Mary Ellen Carter" Talk about advice from beyond the grave. I was also hung up on "Calliope House" for about 15 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: Ely
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 05:18 PM

Guest Matt, I've never thought "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" was rip-roaring.

I think the emotions described in it are a cut--several cuts--above the usual failed-relationship songs. Maybe it's just me, personally.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs that haunt you
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 20 Nov 00 - 05:56 PM

Right now it's "All the Tunes in the World", words by Ewan McVicar. After the Derry, NH Saturday blast it has a double haunting- the achingly lovely words I must know, and the deep, deep joy of singing it with friends all over the world via Paltalk and right there in 3d!