Misery Loves Company –or- the Joy of Making Others Suffer

What’s up with the song in my head? Once in a great while, it’s a good song. Recently, I was blessed with a beautiful, haunting melody: Neko Case’s “Porchlight.” Now & again a Tom Waits song will mess me up in a very good way. Those are wonderful days. But this morning, not so great. It’s been Reba McIntire singing “the Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” Not good. And more often than not, the song that clogs up my brain is something along those lines, something I’d rather not hear. And to further torture me, it’s generally not the whole song, it’s one snippet of the song on infinite repeat. So today it’s the title line and its follow-up line, “that’s the night that the lights went out in Georgia / That’s the night that they hung an innocent man.” Ceaselessly. Is it in your head now? Oops, so sorry. (Heh-heh)

I often share the song in my head with my co-workers, but never when it’s a good song. I selfishly keep quiet regarding the good ones, but the more annoying the song, the more satisfying it is to sing it for whoever is present – several times, to reinforce the presence in their minds. The best is waiting 30 minutes or so and then busting into the song again, just when they’ve finally purged the memory.

I get some doozies that originate right there at work. I don’t know who picked the satellite station they use in the dining room, where my co-workers & I fetch our coffee, but the station broadcasts an endless parade of bad music that makes me chuckle (at best) or turns my stomach. As I write this, I’m beginning to wonder if the penalty for being a music snob, as I admit I am, is to be bombarded with music I cannot stand and then have it played back for me by my own brain.

Here, let me share some lines that have bounced around my cranium in the recent past. I make no claims to the accuracy of these lyrics, this is just how I experience them. If you know the lyric, the voice, the melody, the bad synthesizers and lame guitar parts will undoubtedly tag along:

“the phone rings in the middle of the night / my father says when you gonna live your life right?”
“all I wanna do when I wake up in the morning is see your eyes…Rosanna, Rosanna”
“I’ve been waiting for a girl like you, to come into my life.”
“and tonight, tonight, tonight Oh-oh / We’re gonna make it right, tonight-tonight…”
“and it’s you, babe, whenever I get weary and I’ve had enough, feel like giving up”
“knock 3 times on the ceiling if you want me / Twice on the pipe if the answer is no”
“stuck on you, got this feeling down deep in my soul that I just can’t lose / Yes, I’m on my way”
“Rickie don’t lose that number / You don’t wanna call nobody else”

Oh yes, it’s been painful. But it is such a pleasure to share my grief with my office pals…and you! After all, nothing makes this kind of suffering more bearable than knowing that others are suffering with me. Misery DOES love company.