Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Why the Internet is Still Amazing
I went out with some girl one night during my sophomore or junior year of college. We drank some drinks and she told me she wanted me to hear this Grateful Dead version of Neil Young's "Broken Arrow".
We got in the car and began driving east of town on a country highway, and she plays this tape of the Dead from '92 or '93 in Seattle. And while it was immediately clear to me that this wasn't Neil's "Broken Arrow", the song was good. I told her that, and thought to myself that I'll have to look for it on CD some day.
Seven or so years later, I think of this while looking at Google's home page. I type in: Grateful Dead, Broken Arrow, MP3. And suddenly a seven-year "search" is over.
A couple more minutes of searching shows me that the song is really not a Dead song, but a Rod Steward song. Actually, it's not even a Rod song; Rod just sang it's most recognizable version. It's a Robbie Robertson song, written for Rod.
That MSG version doesn't sound quite as good to my memory as the Seattle show I heard seven years ago. But then, I'm not in a car driving fast out of town on a cool, quiet night.
You ever put a puzzle together, only to finish it missing a few pieces? Those last few minutes are so disappointing because you spent all this time putting the puzzle together, and you see that you don't have enough pieces to complete it, and damnit -- where are those three or four pieces?! You look under sofa cushions. You crawl the floor. Google is like the perceptive cleaning lady -- Hey, idiot! Here's the piece you were looking for! Right in front of you this whole time!
We got in the car and began driving east of town on a country highway, and she plays this tape of the Dead from '92 or '93 in Seattle. And while it was immediately clear to me that this wasn't Neil's "Broken Arrow", the song was good. I told her that, and thought to myself that I'll have to look for it on CD some day.
Seven or so years later, I think of this while looking at Google's home page. I type in: Grateful Dead, Broken Arrow, MP3. And suddenly a seven-year "search" is over.
A couple more minutes of searching shows me that the song is really not a Dead song, but a Rod Steward song. Actually, it's not even a Rod song; Rod just sang it's most recognizable version. It's a Robbie Robertson song, written for Rod.
That MSG version doesn't sound quite as good to my memory as the Seattle show I heard seven years ago. But then, I'm not in a car driving fast out of town on a cool, quiet night.
You ever put a puzzle together, only to finish it missing a few pieces? Those last few minutes are so disappointing because you spent all this time putting the puzzle together, and you see that you don't have enough pieces to complete it, and damnit -- where are those three or four pieces?! You look under sofa cushions. You crawl the floor. Google is like the perceptive cleaning lady -- Hey, idiot! Here's the piece you were looking for! Right in front of you this whole time!
