‘Beyond Belief’: A most persistent earworm

This earworm may set some sort of record for me.

Last night, on my way to bed, I turned out the light in the kitchen. In the split-second before the room went dark, my eyes fell on a notebook, the cover of which was decorated with a picture of Alice. Lewis Carroll’s Alice, that is.

And this started running through my head:

So in this almost empty gin palace
Through a two-way looking glass
You see your Alice
You know she has no sense
For all your jealousy
In a sense she still smiles very sweetly
Charged with insults and flattery
Her body moves with malice
Do you have to be so cruel to be callous

And it persisted. I woke up with it. It nagged at me in the shower. It followed me to breakfast. I indulged it by listening to “Imperial Bedroom” on Spotify, and it stayed in my head all day.

Such persistence is, well, beyond belief…

2 thoughts on “‘Beyond Belief’: A most persistent earworm”

  1. susanincola

    Saw your comment on another thread that you were surprised that no one responded to this post. Just want you to know that my husband was very excited about it, and enjoyed it. I liked it, too, but he’s an especially avid fan. (Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson and Kate Bush form a sort of trinity for him).

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      THANK you, Susan! Elvis didn’t need that affirmation, but I did.

      Today, New Lace Sleeves has been stuck in my head:

      The salty lips of the socialite sisters
      With their continental fingers that have
      Never seen working blisters
      Oh I know they’ve got their problems
      I wish I was one of them

      I love the play on words in that last line.

Comments are closed.