So last year on Memorial Day morning I started thinking about what songs you would sing for the holiday. The fourth of July has tons of songs, but Memorial Day had none.
(At the time, I didn’t think about the meaning of Memorial Day and that any singing on Memorial Day should be respectful and eulogistic. )
But none the less, within a minute I had written a little ditty in my head for Memorial Day.
It wasn’t as if I was planning to write it into Souza-esque orchestrated band piece. It’s not even really a song. It’s a line! It was supposed to be an experiment in my head of what a Memorial Day Song would sound like. It did not take into account the spirit of Memorial Day with its melody nor did it describe hardship of war or the honor of a soldier in its lyrics. It was just “Happy Memorial Day”. The moment I thought of it, I forgot it.
Or so I thought. For as you can see, we’re talking about it one year later.
As Memorial Day 2007 continued, it kept popping into my head. So much so that by the time I was brushing my teeth with my roommate, I laughed aloud when the upbeat line started up again in my internal jukebox. My roommate inquired to why I was laughing and I had to embarrassedly explain that I was laughing because I had written a stupid little song that I couldn’t get out of my head.
Then I did something awful. I sang it aloud. My roommate looked at me like I was stupid and then went back to brushing his teeth. But as we progressed from teeth brushing to face washing, I noticed his eyes go misty and his head start to bob. Soon, in a low hum, it sounded.
And throughout the day it continued. The song developed to have a beginning middle and end. It was soon associated with the game so that every time the Earworm poked it’s ugly head I also lost the game (as you did just now). It was a constant disappointment of having a pointless song stuck in your head AND losing the game that could only be lightened by making others remember the song thus losing the game for them as well.
Finally, Tuesday rolled around, and while the song may have come up once or twice, it was certainly on its way out of my consciousness. A year passed. I’ve moved from Decatur to Little Five Points. My roommate is now much smaller, cuter, furrier and has a tendency to pee on things. But somehow, this morning, milliseconds after thinking, “Hey it’s Memorial Day.”
It began again.
And now I have asked you to listen to it multiple times and spread The Curse of Memorial Day.
HAVE A HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
UPDATE:
drop.io pulled a fast one on me
I’lll fix these last two posts later…but not now because I’m laaaaaazy
UPDATED UPDATE:
I fixed the stuff and it should work now. Thanks archive.org, I’m sorry I doubted you.
The first recording of my newly joined band playing together.
So below is the original song as sung by Jacques Brel. It’s pretty awesome. The one below that is Ambulette singing th english version, “If You Go Away”. I don’t like the rest of they’re music, but I’ve considered buying the album just for the song. It is sadly for sale in album only on iTunes.
