Earworms R Us, or Take two Creedence Clearwater Revivals and call me in the morning

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home

Oh, when them cotton bolls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home

It was down in Louisiana
Just about a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home

(Photo by Calsidy Rose, 2007, used in accordance with the terms of CC BY SA 2.0)

First of all, by way of full disclosure, my mama never rocked me in no dadblamed cradle in no cotton fields back home, to use the vernacular. Mama was a city girl from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was in Texas only under protest. Mama rocked me in a cradle in a third-floor walk-up apartment in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Second of all, that photo was taken south of Lubbock, Texas, in 2007 and my home was several hundred miles to the east where the land is black, not brownish-red.

Third of all, Louisiana is not just about a mile from Texarkana. Texarkana is a city that straddles the Texas-Arkansas border 35 miles north of Ida, the first community you reach in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, when driving on Interstate Highway I-45.

Fourth of all and finally, in spite of what anyone else may tell you, the above deathless lyrics, sung over and over ad infinitum, are permanently imprinted in the hippocampus of many an American of a certain age. The song was recorded by several artists over several decades, including Leadbelly, Johnny Cash, the Beach Boys, Phil Harris (I think, at least I distinctly remember hearing him sing it on the radio, probably live on either Jack Benny's or Bing Crosby's program), and -- probably most famously -- by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Public domain photograph of Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968). L-R: Tom Fogerty, Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and John Fogerty

According to our old friend Wikipedia, "Creedence Clearwater Revival...was an American rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s which consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty; bassist Stu Cook; and drummer Doug Clifford. These members had played together since 1959, first as The Blue Velvets, and later as The Golliwogs. Their musical style encompassed roots rock, swamp rock, and blues rock. They played in a Southern rock style, despite their San Francisco Bay Area origin, with lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern United States iconography, as well as political and socially conscious lyrics about topics including the Vietnam War. The band performed at the 1969 Woodstock Festival in Upstate New York.

"The group disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972 after four years of chart-topping success. Tom Fogerty had officially left the previous year, and John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in subsequent lawsuits among the former bandmates. Fogerty's ongoing disagreements with Fantasy Records owner Saul Zaentz created further protracted court battles, and John Fogerty refused to perform with the two other surviving members at CCR's 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Creedence Clearwater Revival's music is still a staple of US radio airplay; the band has sold 28 million records in the United States alone. Rolling Stone ranked them 82nd on its Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list."

I would guess that Jessye Norman is much farther down on anyone’s list, somewhere between Leontyne Price and Robert Goulet.

For those who care to have their hippocampuses stroked and other parts of their brain scrambled beyond recognition (I'm joking), here is Creedence Clearwater Revival singing "Cotton Fields" (2:58).

Enjoy.