{"id":92120,"date":"2015-11-19T14:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T19:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=92120"},"modified":"2015-11-19T13:45:29","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T18:45:29","slug":"birdsong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/19\/birdsong\/","title":{"rendered":"Birdsong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PVvIpFhBmqw\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the past week, I\u2019ve downloaded a guided meditation app, bought a new album I\u2019d been looking forward to, and let several worthy podcasts pile up in my queue. And yet, the only thing I find myself listening to is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Skylark_(song)\" target=\"_blank\">Skylark<\/a>,\u201d the 1942 standard brought to prominence by Glenn Miller. Do you ever get in these obsessive ruts\u2014these experiences where suddenly, a song you\u2019ve heard a hundred times speaks to you in a new, urgent way? And nothing else feels like the sound track of that moment?\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>According to most sources, Johnny Mercer\u2019s melancholy lyrics were inspired by his ill-fated affair with the young Judy Garland. But Hoagy Carmichael\u2019s wistful melody is evocative in the many instrumental versions, too. And yes, I\u2019ve listened to plenty of those, because, as we all know, when you\u2019re in an obsessive musical rut the only variation permitted is in renditions of the chosen song. I find I return to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PVvIpFhBmqw\">the 1942 Dinah Shore recording<\/a> most often; she sounds genuinely sad.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it\u2019s something about the primer-like quality of the verses\u2014the speaker asking questions of a bird like some kind of Big Band\u2013era William Blake\u2014that contributes to its poignancy. Or the sneaky, slinky, key-happy bridge. Or just the fact that it\u2019s something to listen to right now besides the constant drone of voices speculating about geopolitical uncertainties. No matter the version, the notes always rise up hopefully in\u00a0the end. That\u2019s not nothing.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the <\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the past week, I\u2019ve downloaded a guided meditation app, bought a new album I\u2019d been looking forward to, and let several worthy podcasts pile up in my queue. And yet, the only thing I find myself listening to is \u201cSkylark,\u201d the 1942 standard brought to prominence by Glenn Miller. Do you ever get in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[3902,7393,20275,20274,20276,12507,12280,46,20273,13487],"class_list":["post-92120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-big-band","tag-birds","tag-dinah-shore","tag-distractions","tag-hoagie-carmichael","tag-johnny-mercer","tag-judy-garland","tag-music","tag-skylark","tag-songs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Song Stuck in My Head: \u201cSkylark\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"November 19, 2015 \u2013 In the past week, I\u2019ve downloaded a guided meditation app, bought a new album I\u2019d been 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