Earworms and the collective consciousness: B.E.E.

Lately when I hear words said or sung my mind questions – what do these words add to the collective consciousness? Would they build a world I want to live in?

  I am prone to earworms. A catchy tune will stick with me and when I start to really hear the lyrics I am frequently appalled.

 There is a song stuck in my head that is irresistible. It makes me want to sing along even though the words are truly awful.

  So – I decided to rewrite them. It took a while. And now, it is taking more time to cement them in my mind so when I hear that song I hear MY words.

  The rewriting was fun. The original song is about a gangster thief who sometimes kills people in the course of robbing them. Uh no. Not promoting that world in the collective consciousness.

 My version is about bees. Instead of the gangster wanting to take my money, the bee wants to make some honey.

 Here are the lyrics to my version:

 I fly like bees, get high in trees

 If you see me in a flower I got pollen on my knees

 If you come around here, I’m buzzing all day

 I’ll pollinate something in a second if you wait

 (repeat)

Sometimes I think sitting in tubes

 Every stop I’m depositing food

 Everyone’s a winner, I’m dropping off dinner

 Bona fide hustler making my name

 (repeat)

  All I wanna do is-*(bang, bang, bang, bang)

 And a-*(gun cock sound, cash register)

 And make some honey

 (repeat 3x more)

 Daisies and cherry blossoms

 Carrots, squash and beans and corn

 Sunning when we sit ‘em

 Healthy nectar for the system

 (repeat)

 No one on the corner has a nose like us

 Attracting pollen to our body of fuzz

 We roll it in balls, store it in our legs

 Fly to the hive so the honey can gush

 (repeat)

 All I wanna do is-* (bang, bang, bang, bang)

 And a-* (gun cock, cash register)

 And make some honey

 (repeat 3 x more)

 B.E.E.

 We serve the queen

 We got more drones than linked or indeed

 So, no funny business and we won’t swarm

 

Some, some, some I, some I land on

 Some, I some I let go

 Some, some, some I, some I land on

 Some I, some I let go

 

All I wanna do is-*(bang, bang, bang, bang)

 And a-* (gun cock, cash register)

 And make some honey

 (repeat 3x more)

 ***END***

 If you’ve heard the song, you will recognize it by the meter. I don’t think it would be legal or respectful to name the song here. Curious people who know me can text or email me and I will tell you title and artist.

 My dad used to do this. Not in the same way or for the same reason. He would hear a song and he wanted to sing along but he didn’t know the words – so he would make them up. Usually his version would be bizarre and random, often funny.

There’s a song by Stephen Foster titled Jeannie with the light brown hair. My mother’s middle name was Jeannie. Somewhere in almost all of my dad’s made up songs was the line – “I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair”. If my mother was present when he was singing she would roll her eyes but she would also smile.

Although what I did here is not like what my dad did, I envision myself doing this a lot in the future. My small way of cancelling out the negative world that words or lyrics can create.

Here's a song for a kind world:

Put A Little Love In Your Heart by Jackie DeShannon