Remember the song "Love Is Blue"? A beautiful song, and a number one hit for Paul Mauriat in 1967. For me it was a source of pain and frustration for the first ten years of my marriage. You see, my wife and I could hum the tune, but couldn't for the life of us remember the song's name. Sure, I could've gone to the library or asked every person I knew till someone recognized it, but it wasn't that important. Just something that would periodically piss me off.
Can you even imagine a scenario like this happening today? Now I'd simply type in Google: "instrumental hits of the 1960's" and I'd listen to a few free sound clips and BINGO, question answered in less than five minutes. Or, if the song came on the radio, hold my iPhone up to it and it will identify the tune instantly.Even better, I can, within a few minutes, learn everything there is to know about the song through Wikipedia, blogs, fan sites, etc. On Pandora I can listen to a selection of songs that are scientifically calculated to be similar.
I mean, crap, is it even possible to just be bugged by not knowing something anymore? When was the last time you said, "I don't know" and just left it? When was the last time you saw an actor in a movie, but just couldn't recall his name and did NOT look it up on IMDb?
I think the fact that there's no "not knowing" anymore really sunk in for me when I was talking with a friend about The Incredible Hulk TV show. In the show's intro, David Banner's wife is shown in a burning car. I wondered if this woman was somebody famous. Within 30 seconds I was told by my friend at the computer that it was Lara Parker from Dark Shadows.... and that her husband played Tommy Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life! Damn. This is just ridiculous.
What does all this have to do with Beatle's cover songs? Precious little. I thought about all this when I was listening to Mauriat's Blooming Hits today. I'd planned on writing about "Penny Lane" but got distracted by this thought. Don't blame me - blame my ADD.
It's a pretty blah piece of muzak. The only thing exciting about this recording is its album cover. This spooky chick has always caught my attention since I was a little kid. I wonder who she is. Man, that's going to bug me. How long do you think it will take me to find out?
Damn! I just spent ten minutes looking and turned up empty! I guess there are a few things still obscure enough to keep someone stumped.
