Great Mysteries Of The World, Part 1: Songs Stuck In My Head

To contact us Click HERE

 My friend and ace financial blogger JohnHempton not only dreams about physics while he sleeps, but he comes up withworld-changing concepts in those dreams, which he writes about when he wakesup, as you can read here. I wake up with songs stuck in my head. And not just any songs.  Really mediocresongs.  The kind you don’t want stuck inyour head. This morning it was The Doors’ “The End,” abunch of musical noodling on top of Jim Morrison’s ersatz poetry (“This is theend/my only friend/the end”), which at the age of 16 seemed incredibly profound, but these days, having crossed the half-century mark, seems like something that would mainly impress a 16 year old. I’d have preferred “Love Me Two Times” (thelyrics of which Morrison didn’t write—Robby Krieger did), or “Soul Kitchen,” or the unheralded “Texas Radio and the BigBeat,” one of the best but least enduring of the Doors catalogue (and a JimMorrison song if there ever was one), which nevertheless somehow manages to getplayed on Sirius XM often enough to make me want to take back everything I saidabout that satellite radio monopoly in our last holiday music review, which you can read here. A couple of days ago the song stuck in my headwas also unfortunate: it was Paul McCartney’s (actually Wings, but, same difference) “Jet,”which is one of those McCartney songs I never enjoyed—even though it sort ofsounded pleasant enough on the radio—because it had what remains one of themost outstandingly bad lyrics the Beatles’ least-cynical lyricist ever created(“And Jet/I thought the only lonely place/was on the moon”), which, as youmight have guessed, was the lyric stuck in my head that morning. How did the genius who wrote “Golden Slumbers”and “Her Majesty” ever come up withthat?  And if it had to be a song fromthe “Wings” era, why couldn’t it have been “Let Me Roll It”?  (Of course, at least it wasn’t “Silly LoveSongs.”) Now, outside of “Revolution# 9” you might think there wasn’t a bad enoughJohn Lennon song to qualify for this stuck-in-my-head-when-I-wake-up thing, and“I’m Only Sleeping” isn’t exactly bad, but it’s not a song you want stuck inyour head, believe me.  It might be morelistenable than “Jet” or “The End,” but it’s not exactly an enduring Lennon number,like, oh, “Dear Prudence” or “Starting Over.” And it’s not a song I’ve ever actually playedon purpose, except when it comes up on “Revolver” after you skip “EleanorRigby,” which is, technically, a great song, but not one you ever want tolisten to all the way through. So why “I’m Only Sleeping” crops up in thismediocre-songs-stuck-in-my-head thing is a great mystery: I haven’t heard it anytime recently—and I mean in the last 5 years, that I can remember.  But come to think of it I haven’t heard “Jet”or “The End” lately, for that matter. What would be great, of course, is if somehow you couldwake up with exactly the song you wanted to wake up with stuck in yourhead.
 Longtime readers know that thehouse band of this virtual column is the Arctic Monkeys, whose lead singer andsongwriter, Alex Turner, I would put up there with John Lennon on both counts. And if there’s any way John Hempton can figureout how, in his abnormally fecund dreams, to program “Red Light Indicates DoorsAre Secure” into a person’s random-access-memory upon wake-up, I would greatlyappreciate it.
Jeff MatthewsAuthor “Secrets in PlainSight: Business and Investing Secrets of Warren Buffett”(eBooks on Investing,2012)    Available now at Amazon.com
© 2012 NotMakingThisUp,LLC                                    The content contained inthis blog represents only the opinions of Mr. Matthews.   Mr. Matthews also acts as an advisor andclients advised by Mr. Matthews may hold either long or short positions insecurities of various companies discussed in the blog based upon Mr. Matthews’recommendations.  This commentary in noway constitutes investment advice, and should never be relied on in making aninvestment decision, ever.  Also, thisblog is not a solicitation of business by Mr. Matthews: all inquiries will beignored.  And if you think Mr. Matthewsis kidding about that, he is not.  Thecontent herein is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and theauthor.