Me and My Rogue DJ

Imagine that you can hear a piece of music just once, and it stays with you forever. Now, imagine that you hear it a second time. By now, you’ve memorized the lyrics, the rhythm, the bass and the chords. Now imagine that this is the case with every single bit of music you have ever heard, from when you were in utero until right this minute.
Now, add to all of this a strange mental hiccup that plays all of this music in your head all the time. Every single  instant of the day or night, you have a song playing, just like canned Muzak or Sirius, in your head always.
If you have no idea what this is like, then you probably have the ability to empty your mind of all thought, and are close to enlightenment. If you understand even one of these symptoms, then you know what it's like to be me.
I have always loved music, and I know that I have a gift. But I tell people all the time that I have a Rogue DJ in my head that loves to spin tunes from the past, and takes every bit of stimuli from the outside world; beeping trucks, windchimes, TV jingles and birdsong and spins it into a reference to one of the million songs in my mind.
Now, before you go calling the nice young men in their clean white coats to take me away, understand that I’m not suggesting that there is actually someone else in here with me. Rogue DJ is just a phrase I use to blame this tendency on something other than myself.
I actually don’t mind the selections most days. Anything from AC/DC to Warren Zevon, from Nat King Cole to Collective Soul, from Peter Frampton to Eric Clapton; I can dig it most of the time.
Occasionally, though I find that there is a little bit of mischief going on. Why on earth would a ringtone from someone else’s phone get stuck in there? Why would the cardinal’s territorial tweeting cause me to whistle his tune all day?
Perhaps, if Freud were here to help me delve into my Id and dissect the internal working of my subconscious, we might see that my sense of humor and musical sensitivities are wired together.
Or, if Jung could come by, he might suggest that the Jokester part of my personality, is also the pan flute playing satyr. In mythology, my brain’s capacity to remember and play back music would be akin to the Pied Piper, and my misbehaving sense of humor would be related to the Trickster. A Spike Jones meets Mozart kind of situation.
All I know is that when a song or bit of music gets stuck in my head, I sometimes wish I had a switch or a ‘scan to next song in playlist’ button available.
The fact that the Germans invented the term ‘earworm’ to denote a song or jingle that gets stuck in your head, suggests to me that I may not be alone in this. I hope that there are others out there with varying degrees of mental musical madness. And if so, I’d love to hear what it is you’ve learned to do to change songs.
But, for right now, it’s J.S. Bach playing up here, later it will be Burt Bacharach.