A few days ago, I was working on a story with my colleague Sarah, who is from Germany, and she mentioned having "earworm." She explained that in German, there is a word ohrvurm, that literally means earworm but, essentially, it means that you have a song stuck in your head. This is my new favorite German word. I even like it more than schadenfreude. Just think about how much more meaning is packed into that tiny word than another tirade about "that song I have had stuck in my head for three days." The word sounds like a sneak attack and those inescapable songs feel like tiny mind wars. A perfect match.
Yesterday, I was looking flipping through a sea of reposts on My Space when I came across a post from my e-friend DJ Volitans in New York City asking for the Top 5 Best 1980s Ballads. I couldn't limit myself to five, so I posted seven. Later on that evening, I told Carlos what I had listed. Spandau Ballet's "True" was my obvious pick for the number one slot as it is the best ballad ever. Don't even try to tell me that something is better. It's not. The rest of the list came up spur of the moment: Wham! "Careless Whisper;" Cutting Crew "I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight;" Duran Duran "The Chauffer;" OMD "If You Leave;" Crowded House "Don't Dream It's Over;" and Def Leppard "Headed for a Heartbreak."
"I totally forgot to list 'Somebody.'"
"Huh?"
"Depeche Mode."
Carlos was listening to hip-hop in the mid-1980s. Songs like "Somebody" or "A Question of Lust" are foreign to him.
"You forgot to mention Simply Red 'Holding Back the Years.'"
I think the last time I heard the song was while sitting in the waiting room at the dentist's office sometime during high school but now, thanks to Carlos, I had a serious case of earworm. "Holding Back the Years" played like an invasion of warrior-notes trying to break through my skull as if it were the walls of Troy. It played in my dreams, looping around the vision of some guy with really curly red hair twirling in my mind. This, dear reader, is no exaggeration.
At close to 11:00 a.m. this morning, the song finally retreated, thanks in part to KROQ's Totally 90s Weekend, or whatever it's called, which played Lush's "Ladykiller." Now I just keep thinking that I'm "hanging out in Camden, drinking with my girlfriends on a Saturday night."