The Words

I often put an "Earworm" song at the end of my posts---it's the song that's gotten stuck in my head, keeps going round and round, it's what whistle ad nauseum while driving. One of the worst was the bridge from an Oliver Nelson song called "Stolen Moments". I whistled the solo trumpet part while I was hearing the chords in my head. Even my friend Buddy, who knows the piece as well as I do, wanted to murder me.

But sometimes it's the words that get stuck in the rinse cycle. I've had a line from "Diamonds In The Soles Of Her Shoes", from Paul Simon's Graceland album going on and on---"EMPTY AS A POCKET WITH NOTHING TO LOSE." It's during the time when he really started to experiment with words as well as with music, and the result was breathtaking. The other line that runs round and round this week is from "Lady Madonna", the Beatles song. FRIDAY NIGHT ARRIVES WITHOUT A SUITCASE. What does that mean, and does it make any difference? The line is so expressive that it stands on its own, much as what Dylan (Bob, not Thomas), wrote in the 60s when he first went electric and recorded Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde.

And there are tons of other lines. Anybody got any, lines that just reverberate and stay with you, echoing in you mind over and over again?