The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. -- Robert A. Heinlein
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Location
Somewhere in the crusty outer layer of small towns surrounding the warm creamy center that is Oklahoma City.
I remember as a kid sitting in church, any time my mother had to whisper to me (usually to tell me to settle down), the sound of her voice at that level used to stand my hair on end. I told her that it "hurt my ears" when she did it, but the fact was that I didn't know how to explain what was going on... It was as though thousands of ants were crawling all over my body, and every hair from my ankles to the top of my head would stand up.
Later, I found that certain female vocals did the same thing, but to a lesser degree. The most pronounced and memorable of these was the female backup singer in Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight", specifically at the 2:44 mark:
Recently, I saw the commercial for the Lincoln MKZ, featuring the song "Major Tom (Coming Home)", covered by Shiny Toy Guns. Eddie Money's backup singer produces a rather mild effect, but the female vocalist from STG positively lights me up on the chorus:
The weird thing to me is that the reaction is completely involuntary, happens consistently, and apparently there's no "building up a resistance" to it. "Take Me Home Tonight" has been doing this to me for 20 years, give or take, and I have no reason to expect the STG version of "Major Tom" to ever diminish in its effect. Stranger still, my wife doesn't feel it at all, and I don't recall ever talking to anyone who had the same reaction. So now I'm of course wondering... is this just a neurological curiosity, or does everyone have these reactions, just to different sounds -- a sort of personal resonant frequency?
There's no point to this post, really. These are just the sort of things that run through my mind when I'm closing in on my bedtime and not really ready to go to sleep yet.