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Do you ever get obsessed with a song? And no, I don’t mean those earworms, where you hear a catchy tune and can’t get it out of your head for a while. I’m talking about a song that you like so much that you listen to it all the time. That you hear it in your sleep and try to read up on it and get as many different versions of it as you can find.
I have one of those right now, but it’s a really strange one, which is what’s perplexing me. The song comes from a 17th century Irish poem that was translated in the 60′s and subsequently performed by lots of people: “I Am Stretched on Your Grave.” It’s about a guy who can’t stop mourning his love, so he spends his nights sleeping on her grave. Yeah, I’m stumped about why I like it, too. Is it the haunting lyrics? The minor key tune? The idea of a guy loving a woman so much that he can’t let her go even in death? Or for that matter, is it some morbid fascination I have with death?
Photo by TJ Blackwell
I don’t know. But apparently I’m not the only one captivated by it, since there are twenty-plus renditions of it by groups as disparate as Dead Can Dance and Sinead O’Connor. I fell in love with the a cappella version performed by The Voice Squad, but I also now have the one by Kate Rusby and the one by Vintage Wildflowers. And I listen to all three. I told you, it’s an obsession!
What song is your obsession? Do you have any other inexplicable obsessions with songs or books or movies (or subjects)? Are you captivated by the idea of a guy loving a woman so much that he can’t leave her grave alone, or does that just creep you out?
68 Comments on “Song Obsession”
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I have a couple of song obsessions. One of them is Stay by Shakespear’s Sister. I got hooked on this song back in the 90′s and it hasn’t really left me. Then there’s Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with Kylie Minogue and the song Where the Wild Roses Grow. This particular song is about a guy who kills this woman. I think that he may have been a serial killer or something either way it is a really creepy song.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 6:51 am.
What is it about the creepy songs that really stick with you? I’ll have to check these out.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:54 am.
Oh it’s not just the creepy ones that stick with me. There’s a whole bunch of songs that I am still obsessed with. I was bad enough once that I just had to get the sheet music to Little Ray of Sunshine by Axiom because it was something that I wanted for a quilt. Didn’t end up making the quilt but I still have the sheet music. It is all about the feelings that are evoked with the songs for me
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:04 am.
Thanks for the wonderful topic, Sabrina! I do love music and listen to it all the time. There’s practically always a tune playing in my head. Hence it often happens I become obsessed with a song and keep listening to it for days and sometimes even weeks. Es pecially once I “discover” or “rediscover” a song for myself. But I really can’t pinpoint one particular song – there’s too many of them.
Also, I have what I call my “travel songs”. When I go someplace either for work or pleasure for a week or so and there’s a tune playing in my mind, it sticks, and the place forever after is associated in my mind with that particular song (and vice versa). Thus, for instance, Barcleona will always be a U2 (LOVE them) city for me (Original of the Species is my song particular for it). Another trip was all about “Always” by Bon Jovi. Now whenever I hear the song again I remember things… Music’s so evocative.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:41 am.
It’s weird you should mention Barcelona, since I just got the Barcelona album for Christmas (done by Freddy Mercury and an opera singer right before he died). I can’t wait to listen to it!
For me, it’s not trips so much as books. I usually get obsessed with a song and it sticks with me through a book or even a series. Evanescence’s Wake Me Up Inside will forever be married to the Hellions series in my mind.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:57 am.
And one more thing I remembered. I also have songs for memorable occasions in my life. So Nessun Dorma was my graduation exam song from university (kept playing in my head all that day). Particularly the powerful “Vincereooooooo” (read: I’ll overcome the adversity of exam questions, my nerves, etc.)
Oh, memories. Am smiling just typing it now
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 7:44 am.
Amazing how powerful music can be for us.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:57 am.
This season it’s The Rebound by Tristan Prettyman . First listen, you chuckle at its use of many cliche raunchy pick up lines. Then it’s the catchy melody that keeps me coming back for more
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:23 am.
Sounds like a fun song! I’ll have to check it out.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:58 am.
Love her
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:22 pm.
I was like that for Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas. Listened to it over and over, then went out and got some Matchbox 20 CDs.
Haven’t heard “I am stretched on your Grave” but the title creeps me out.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 8:47 am.
I know, it’s creepy, right? I can’t figure out why I like it so much.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:59 am.
I don’t have one right now, but during the summer my song obsession was Adele’s Someone Like You. It is such a beautiful song, and her voice is amazing on it. I still listen to it from time to time, but it isn’t on auto repeat anymore.
About 3 years ago I became obsessed with Tudor England. I read and watched anything I could on the subject. Like the song above, my obsession has cooled, but I still love the time period.
Hubby’s late grandfather was like that when his wife died. He would take a lawn chair and a book and sit by her grave for hours reading to her. I think the family would have drawn the line at sleeping on her grave, though.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 9:38 am.
Wow, that sounds very much like the guy in this song, though. That love that transcends death. It’s a powerful idea.
And that’s one of the lyrics in this song, how he’s doing it behind his family’s back and how the “priests and the friar approach me in dread/Because I still love you, my love, and you’re dead.”
Very interesting.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:02 am.
Love, love, love Adele. Was listening to her non-stop last spring. You’ve got great taste in music, Amy
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:54 am.
I have Carrie Underwood’s Two Black Cadillac in my head for months. There is just something about the words and music that stays with you. I went to her concert in Septemember in Fargo, ND and it was the song which stuck. I also love her Blown Away it has such a powerful, message. Both of these of thse songs are a little for her so I think thats what stays with you. Love your books and I connect books/music all the time.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:22 am.
I love her song, “Before He Cheats,” but haven’t really listened to her others. I’ll check that one out!
Oh, and glad you enjoy the books!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:25 pm.
Last spring, I was driving down the freeway when “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down came on the radio. I had heard it before, liked it when it came out, but now it is an obsession. I love the line “If I go crazy will you still call me Superman?” I don’t know why it has stayed around so long so long for me.
I think music is important to the creative process. I did NaNoWriMo this past November. After Thanksgiving, I had to write in the car on a road trip to make my word count. Anyway, DH figured out that if I liked the music, even though it may not have been my favorite, then I would be engrossed and writing. When he would flip stations looking for something, I would stop writing. I think it is interesting that we need other artists to help us make our art.
I just listed to the Kate Rusby. That is very haunting. I like the Celtic drums in the background, and her Irish accent makes it haunting. Thanks for sharing this song. I wouldn’t have found it otherwise.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:25 am.
The tune from Kryptonite is awesome. And the very line you mentioned – that’s the one I love best too!!!!! Music and lyrics combine so powerfully in it!
And I also use music as background for working with words/writing (I do translation). It does seem to help.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:57 am.
LOVE Kryptonite! That has been one of my favorites for years.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:25 am.
I actually discovered Kate Rusby because of that song and asked for all her albums for Christmas! I like the Celtic drums in the background, too.
I used to write to music, but I can’t anymore. Not sure why.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:26 pm.
Big D does this all the time. He has songs he adores and he’ll sit at the computer for hours, listening to every rendition. I wish I could think of some of his favorites, but I’m blanking—I never remember song titles unless they’re show tunes.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:35 am.
Memory from Cats (done by Elaine Paige) is very haunting I think. Then there’s Send in the Clowns by Dame Judith Dench (well worth checking out on YouTube by the way), it isn’t so much haunting as it is melancholy.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 10:50 am.
LOL! I think Big D and I have a lot in common, oddly enough. Well, except for the tax stuff, which puts me to sleep. *G* And I have no love of cars, as you know.
I don’t usually remember titles well, either, but I memorize the lyrics. I just never know which part of the lyric is the title!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 3:28 pm.
I do indeed get the song obsession thing! I’m with Claudia–most of mine are show tunes (Rent, Memphis, Ragtime, Music Man—-anyone?!?). It usually stems after I’ve seen the show live then MUST get the original cast CD’s, etc., etc.
There was a Josh Turner song a few years ago on one of his CD’s “The Longer the Waiting the Sweeter the Kiss”. I LOVE that song! It never made it to a single for him, but it is a bit more “haunting” but almost like an entire love story in a song.
Now the grave thing…I think he’s on the line of a bit creepy and over the edge. When Dad died–we actually had a bench incorporated in to his stone so we can go have a chat when needed….that’s different than sleeping on the grave. Poor dude.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:22 am.
Oh! New favorite musical songs…”On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”. Love!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:23 am.
I like the idea of having a bench put into the store–how lovely that is!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:07 pm.
I love Only Time by Enya…so hauntinginly beautiful. I can hear it once and it is stuck in my head for days.
My current earworm is Locked Out of Heaven by Bruno Mars. It is so funky; I love it!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:49 am.
I love Enya’s Orinoco Flow. It is hard to find, and one of her more obscure songs, but I love the beat and melody.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:48 pm.
I have every one of Enya’s albums, so I understand! Have you ever listened to her siblings, Clannad? I have all their albums, too.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:07 pm.
For me, I love Black is the Colour. So far, my favorite is the one by The Corrs. I like their harmonies and their music. I know that there are other Celtic artists that have done it as well.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:51 am.
I love it in the rendition of Cara Dillon. My other favorites of hers are “P Stands for Paddy” and “Bold Jamie”
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:21 pm.
I LOVE Cara Dillon! I have all her albums, too.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:09 pm.
I probably have ten versions of that one. It’s very popular! I don’t think I have the one by the Corrs, though. I’ll have to check it out.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:08 pm.
I love that you like celtic music. The tales told are sometimes fun, sometimes warm, and sometimes heart wrenching. Many times I can picture people sitting in a little pub telling stories like the one in the song. It is a little creepy, but when done right it doesn’t seem creepy at all.
I don’t have any currnet songs I’m obsessed with, but I do have a constant obsession with everything Ireland.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:53 am.
I think that’s why I like Celtic music–a lot of it is telling stories. The ballads are historical, and they’re so evocative! And sometimes they’re just down right funny.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:09 pm.
I know that song, it’s beautiful. I saw Sinead perform that live many, many years ago and it was even more haunting in person.
I am trying to think if I have a song obsession and can only think of sings I go through phases of listening to a lot then move on. One recent one is “Bring on the Men” from Jekyll and Hyde (well, the early version of J&H)I love the lyrics.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:11 pm.
Wow, can’t believe you know the song! I should listen to her version. She doesn’t always do it for me, but I do have some of her songs that I like.
I’ll have to check out “Bring on the Men”! Just the title sounds interesting.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:11 pm.
Soul Cake by Sting on If On a Winter’s Night album. Catchy tune, but I find myself wondering how it might have come to be named soul cake. Still don’t know what it is.
Yes, lying across someone’s grave creeps me out.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:23 pm.
Adore Sting. Am a long-time fan. The best of the huskiest of voices! Had never heard of Soul Cake until now, though, but just found it on YouTube. It’s great, great, great! Thanks, Julia!
Btw, that entire Christmas show by Sting was absolutely fantastic.
And to think that I actually saw him perform live this past summer during his 25-year anniversary tour! Will never forget the experience.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:43 pm.
I have that album by Sting! And that song was done by Peter, Paul, and Mary, too. It’s really old, and has to do with All Soul’s Day, although both Sting and Peter, Paul, and Mary connect it to Christmas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_cake
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:20 pm.
I was listening to an NPR story about Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (famously covered by Jeff Buckley). I don’t think I ever get tired of that one. And I’ll admit I really like Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know.” It went so well with a book I was writing, but it’s part earworm, that’s for sure.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:32 pm.
Jeff Buckley’s rendition is my favorite
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:35 pm.
Kd Lang sang a beautiful version of Hallelujah at the Vancouver Olympic closing ceremonies.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:18 pm.
I like both of those, too! And that Gotye song really IS an ear worm!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:21 pm.
Come to think of it, personification of “haunting” music for me is everything by Loreena McKennitt. How she combines Celtic and Oriental motifs is unique. Some of the tracks I’ve been particularly obsessed with are God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and, especially, The Highwayman. The latter is pure magic. First of all, the story in the lyrics. A romance novel in a nutshell. And then the music. And Loreena’s otherworldly voice. I’ve no words to describe it.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:34 pm.
I had an obsession with Loreena’s The Highwayman for a long time, too. It helped that I had to memorize the poem for some class in grade school, so it already resonated with me.
I have all HER albums, too! She’s just wonderful and so unique.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:22 pm.
We’ll Meet Again sung by Vera Lynn at the end of Dr. Strangelove…without the organ accompaniment, the one with soldiers singing along. I’ll Be Seeing You by almost anyone, especially Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney and of course Somewhere over the Rainbow, both the Judy Garland version and Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:36 pm.
I don’t know the Vera Lynn song. I’ll have to check it out!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:23 pm.
I love music. There’s always something playing here, which I’m fairly certain bothers my dh. My mom loves music, so I grew up listening to music (and I was SO glad when she moved on past the Hooked on Classics era ended).
Currently, I don’t have any song obsessions, but there’s a song that I was obsessed with about 2 years ago that reminds me of your song. It’s The Graveyard Near the House by The Airborne Toxic Event. It’s a song about a couple who are walking by a graveyard, and she asks him if he’ll ever die. The last part of the song talks about how he’ll love her even as she gets old, he’ll carry her up the hill when she dies, carve her name into the sky, and fall asleep with memories of her. ‘Because it’s better to love whether you win or lose or die. It’s better to love and I will love you until I die,’ the last 2 lines of the song.
I’m not sure that it creeps me out that he can’t even leave her grave. Now, if he was digging her up, that would be creepy.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 12:45 pm.
That song sounds cool. I will definitely check it out.
Okay, so maybe I DO have a morbid fascination with death. *G* Must be the Irish in me.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:24 pm.
I forgot Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade…
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:02 pm.
Sometimes I’ll get obsessed with a song, but it’s rare. The latest one I got was “If I Die Young”, by The Band Perry. Ehhhh.
But, mostly, I get obsessed with tv shows. At any given time, you can bet, I’m obsessed with at least ONE tv show. Right now is Monk. We’ve been watching the whole show for like two weeks (only 12 episodes to go
) and I’m sooo addicted. I want Natalie to be my best friend and Mr. Monk is so adorable. Also, I want to kill Randy and the Captain is hot. EVERYWHERE I look Monk is there. My mom and I are out, and we’re like, “Oh, imagine Mr. Monk here.” Yup, obsessed.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:03 pm.
I glom TV shows, too. Right now, it’s Rizzoli and Isles, but I can’t seem to find the first season anywhere. Bummer!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:25 pm.
Oh songs can stay in my head for days and I find my self snging the words while doing the dishes or some other mundane chore.. For instance, I watch Funny Girl the other night and now I can’t get the song, My Man, out of my head.I love show tunes and when ever I watch a fav the music just swirls around in my head. Before ‘My Man”, it was ‘That Old Devil Moon’ from Finnians Rainbow that I watched.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 1:15 pm.
I LOVE “Funny Girl.” I have the soundtrack to that. I’m a big Streisand fan, but really only of the soundtracks to her movies. Isn’t that weird?
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:26 pm.
Can we name a whole album? One in which every song is fantastic. Actually, though, there is one specific song that drives my constant listening to Scottish DJ Calvin Harris’s _18 Months_ CD, one that he sings himself: “Feel So Close.” It is utterly, utterly romantic. And of course, Muse’s current chart topper: “Madness.” Same reason, I suppose–the male vocalists are expressing their overwhelming, deep need/love for the girl. Harris’s hit is lighter, Muse’s hit more angst-filled, but both make a girl feel loved. Isn’t that what we read romance for? That moment when the hero realizes he can’t and won’t live without the heroine.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 2:24 pm.
I think I heard and liked that Muse song–I’ll have to check to be sure. I’ve been liking a lot of the acts that perform and Saturday Night Live, and they were on there, I think.
I will check out the other CD, too. Love the Scottish singers!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:28 pm.
I Wanna Kiss You All Over – a really dorky song, but it cracks me and my husband up. That is his ring tone on my phone and my kids are mortified.
Eeek, don’t like the grave thing, but understand the pain of losing someone and not wanting to let go.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:08 pm.
I like that song, too!
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 4:28 pm.
The Only Way I Know by Jason Aldean, Eric Church & Luke Bryan. Don’t Rush by Kelly Clarkson w/ Vince Gill. Heartbreak by Hunter Hayes. These are a few that loop through my mind.
The one you have looping through yours is morbid to me.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:27 pm.
Yes, it is. Which is why I find it odd that I like it! Most of the songs that stick in my head are fun.
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 11:48 pm.
It does seem morbid and weird but I love that song, too. I used to be consumed with the whole cd of Sinead Oconnor that had that song.
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 1:22 am.
I always get songs in my head and it’s usually because someone else starts singing/humming/whistling it and boom, can’t shake it.
The one that I keep playing on my mp3 player right now is Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man”. Such a sad, pretty song.
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:14 am.
I’ll have to check out your – yes it is creepy – song.
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 4:19 am.
Very timely post, Sabrina. I got up at four in the morning for the sole purpose of listening to Taylor Swift and Gary Lightbody’s “The Last Time.” It’s such delicious heartbreak that I couldn’t sleep for wanting to hear it again. Definitely planting story seeds somewhere.
Snow Patrol’s “This Isn’t Everything You Are” instantly became the theme song for a current manuscript, and the album it’s from, Fallen Empires, became the soundtrack for many, many interstate road trips between old and new homes. Now it doesn’t seem right to make that particular drive without that album when we visit friends.
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 5:50 am.
I also have a morbid song that sticks in my mind. “Mary of the Wild Moor” (check out the Blue Sky Boys rendition on YouTube).
It’s the story of a woman who comes home with her baby, but her father doesn’t hear her at the door. She dies, then the father dies, then the baby dies… My great grandmother used to sing this song. I never heard her sing it in person, but my grandma once made a tape of my great grandmother talking and asked her to sing it. So I have a tape of this old tune, sung by my great grandma (recorded on one of those old, black tape recorders with the orange “record” button inside the play button).
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:38 am.
I get stuck on songs: Pink – I don’t believe you, Christina Perry – A Thousand Years are recent ones. Ava Maria by anyone is an alltime stuck in my head one. Also movies, right now, Nichols Sparks “The Lucky One” – can’t stop watching it. Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly was the same. It is usually a romance type movie that gets me like that. Ok…well Jason Bourne does it also!
Posted on January 9, 2013 at 10:50 am.