Most of us music lovers know the pain - or the joy - of an ear worm, the repetitive phrase, lyrics or song that can stick with you, on repeat, for days.

Mine appears surfing related.

Though I will get ear worms at other times, particularly waking up with a song in my head that won't go until I play the song, it does seem to be the moment of paddling out that induces this wierd phenonema, and more often than not, it's the Rolling Stones.

I have an inkling why, but it's still not clear. I don't even listen to the Stones much anymore. I think it's because of childhood - Dad was a surfer and often played the Stones on the way to the beach. I can't think of a single other reason why Sympathy for the Devil or She's Like a Rainbow would just magically appear in my head.

Lately, it's 'All Down The Line'. Perhaps because that's the aim - to go 'down the line' of the wave. In my head I'm singing 'yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh all down the line' with the stoke of a grommet. That's the enthusiasm of a young surfer, in layman's terms.

Let me get this straight. I don't really like later Rolling Stones. I was chatting to it with Dad the other day after a surf over coffee. The best albums were the earlier ones - not super early, though they were fun, but Let It Bleed and Exile on Main Street. 1968 to 1974, when Mick Taylor was in the band, Dad says, as many other Stones fans will say.

Funny, I was listening to that album the other day doing the painting for the first time in a few years. It is still a great album. The following day I popped over my son's and he was playing it too - wierd coincidence.

I still think Midnight Rambler is one of the sexiest songs ever, and a masterpiece to boot. I can still hear it loud on Dad's stereo on a Saturday morning, or at their parties on Saturday nights. Jagger's doing his best to be a sex god in this clip, complete with glitter vest. Must have been something to see live - as my parents did at Kooyong back then. Must have been amazing and certainly is the stuff of legend for old Australians who managed to catch it.

Anyway, I have to say, it's about time I paddled out to a different band. It'll come - these things come and go. Once it was The Who's 'Let it Rain' for a whole month, and earlier in the year I couldn't get rid of 'Heroes' by David Bowie and then Dire Straits 'Sultans of Swing'. Hey I might even move to the current decade at some point. I can manage that on land, but on the water, it's usually the '70's.

Bloody brain.

With Love,

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