999,862: Dennis Brown — Westbound Train

Some songs are full of those great melodies you just can't seem to get out of your head. Some might have a verse without much melody, but a chorus that really sticks with you. "Westbound Train" by Dennis Brown, has a single, tinny guitar lick that I have been humming to myself for about 6 years straight. It's the very first thing in the song and it's so goddamn catchy, I can't believe it hasn't been sampled by a million rappers.

The song itself, I don't know. It's been on my ipod for a long time, but I don't think I've ever intentionally played it. It was only about a week ago when it came up that I bothered to look down and see what the song was whose 3 second guitar riff had been torturing my brain all this time. I guess it's about someone taking a train to leave a girl, or to meet a girl? As for Dennis Brown, I don't know anything about him. According to the first line of his Wikipedia entry, he was a "singer." "Westbound Train" has some nice sounding horns too, and... AHH THERE'S THAT RIFF AGAIN. DING DING DING DING DING DEE DEE DONG.

I think what makes the riff stand out so much is that the song has no chord changes at all until the little lick comes in. Put this riff in a Beatles song and it might get lost in the shuffle of a dozen hooks, but in "Westbound Train," it's the king of the song, lording over it like Good King Wenceslas over the kingdom of christmas songs about kings. I almost feel bad asking any of you to click the link to hear the song, because it contains the swine flu of earworms. When you're tossing and turning at night, unable to sleep thanks to the Jamaican studio musician who probably tossed this lick off without a second thought about all the cancer cures and new polymers that wouldn't be discovered because it was playing on a loop in the brains of our nation's scientists, drowning out all rational thought, don't blame me. I warned you.