If you haven't read this 2008 New Yorker article about a woman who had a chronic itch on her head and over time scratched through her skull in till she reached her brain, here it is. And when you're finished, give this song a listen. Singer-songwriter Teddy Blanks was inspired by the article to compose and record The Itch.
In “The Itch,” Atul Gawande wrote about a woman called M. who couldn’t stop scratching an itch on her head, so much so that, at some point, she scratched all the way to her brain. It was a gruesome read for some of us — little, imaginary itches began to sprout, and it was impossible not to scratch. But for the singer-songwriter Teddy Blanks, it was an inspiration. Blanks remembers reading the article one day on the train and was, as he puts it, “squirming in my seat.” Later that night, as he tried to write, he saw The New Yorker on his bedside table. Unable to get Gawande’s words out of his head, he composed his own “Itch,” a little ditty about, well, itching.
