Comments on: Auditory Memory

By: walt

walt — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:17:03 +0000

According to the liner notes in the Greatest Hits collection, the Spoonful’s first seven singles all made it into the Top 10–and some of their best songs were never released as singles. Summer in the City reached #1; Daydream and Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? reached #2.

They did indeed do many styles of music well–and Sebastian, besides being one of the most distinctive and memorable pop harmonica players (he was on a lot of other people’s folk, rock and pop albums) may be the king of the amplified Autoharp. (But he strummed, unlike Mother Maybelle Carter’s plucked autoharp style.)

By: David Bigwood

David Bigwood — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:24:27 +0000

The Lovin’ Spoonful was a wonderful band, they did many styles of music quite well. I was suprised that their best selling album only made number 10 on the charts. For those years it seems like the Lovin’ Spoonful were the only rivals to the Beatles.

The John B. Sebastian song I remember best from his first solo album is “Rainbows all over your blues” or something like that. Fun upbeat tune. Last I looked, the entire album was not available for download.

By: walt

walt — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:47:34 +0000

You’re probably right–an earworm is a song you don’t want to have occupying your mind over and over. (Although, if you’re trying to focus on something else, even the best song in the world can be an earworm at that point.)

I suspect accuracy of auditory memory varies a lot from person to person, just as what one pays attention to (and “hears”) in music varies. Certainly other forms of memory vary wildly, up to supposed eidetic memories. Some decade, I might read up on that…(or maybe not).

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:40:58 +0000

I cared but I had to cheat to find the answer so I didn’t comment as that would’ve been wrong.

As to “earworms” I am not sure I truly understand what they are. I’ve always (OK, only heard the term for the last couple of years) assumed it meant songs you did NOT want stuck in your head but you seem to be including positive instances so I guess I don’t really know. Not that I was convinced that I knew; just less so now.

Memory is not accurate as it is constructed on-the-fly (more or less) so I doubt auditory memory is accurate either. And accurate as heard on a tiny AM transistor radio in 1965 or as heard on a nice stereo system in 2000 or hard perform live in an intimate venue in 2005 or …?

I think accuracy is mostly beside the point, while effectiveness of memory is more to the point.