Imagine you’re in a band and decide to do a cover of a popular song. Imagine then that you feel that you need to take the piece in a new direction with a different hook. Imagine that you think that the hook should be “ooga-chucka” over & over again. Now imagine that that crappy idea wasn’t even your own; it was someone else’s. Now imagine that your band name has been changed from Blue Denim to Blue Swede. You are now in hell or in the US during the Spring of 1974 when that song went to #1. Also, the “ooga-chucka” riff isn’t even original. It’s ripped off from Jonathan King’s 1971 version. Uff da.

If they left out that caveman mantra, the song might have been fine on its own, a brassy slice of Swedish soul sung in over-pronounced English. But instead, I was frightened as a child every time I heard this, which was plenty. I can imagine all of my brain synapses performing a simultaneous shutdown to never have the memory of hearing that song enter my cortex. Maybe this can be therapy for both of us. Listen and let go.