Down the Rabbit Hole

Today we were listening to the radio and a tune came on from years ago that both Matt and I recognized.  And though we recognized it, we couldn’t remember the year, the artist, or the title.  So I went into the house to find it on the internet.  That’s when I became Alice and scampered down the rabbit hole.

               The internet is quite a rabbit hole, isn’t it?  You get on there and suddenly you’re going all kinds of places you didn’t intend, but find interesting and then you’re off on an adventure of discovery that can (and often does) take you far afield.

               So I started out looking for “instrumental songs of the 70’s.”  Actually, the tune we heard was mostly instrumental but had one line in it – “let’s get it on, you got to get down.” I made the mistake of typing that, and got a host of information on Marvin Gaye’s hit “Let’s Get It On.” A good song, but not the one we had heard.

               But that took me to another YouTube site for – strangely enough – a high school choir performing the William Tell Overture. It’s the Timpanagos High School Choir, just in case you feel like looking it up yourself, and is three minutes of fun.

               So I watched that choir and the next site was a “mistake mix” of ballet dancers.  I’m not knowledgeable about ballet, and they looked quite graceful to me.  If there were mistakes, I didn’t spot them. Before I could click back to my 1970s quest, the video changed to a Jeannie Robinson clip called “Don’t go rafting without a Baptist in the boat.” If you haven’t watched this lady, she’s really funny.

               Naturally, I watched this clip all the way through. When that nine minutes was over, I noticed that the next clip was a five-year-old performing on America’s Got Talent.  But the clip after that was called “Host Loses It Over 93-year-old Raunchy Joke.” I had to watch that!  It was from a news show in Australia and was another five minutes of fun.

               For some odd reason, the next clip in line was “what happens when I put foil in chicken.”  This was a video – eight minutes of video – for a recipe that quite frankly, looked unappealing to me.  Yuck.  But I watched it. Then the internet took me to “Buddy Hackett’s Duck Joke on Johnny Carson.” I assume this was a natural progression from chicken videos to duck videos.  But I didn’t watch it.

               I didn’t watch it because I became fascinated with the 7 ½ minute video of “babies funny reactions to dads shaving their beards.” I was, at first, fascinated because I could not figure out why shaving or beards had any connection to ducks.  But then…the babies.  They’re just so cute.

               That led me to “kids react to the Sponge Bob song from a street performer.” I was glad this was only 42 seconds long, because the “kid” in question didn’t react.  At all.  He just listened.  I guess that’s a reaction.

               Then I started watching an April Fools prank played on a teacher.  It was hilarious, and only lasted two minutes. The topic of pranks took me way around the barn, to a cat vs. dog obstacle course, then to changing the floor texture that dogs walk on, and finally, to a hallway filled with water that posed a problem for a really cute Husky.  Another six minutes or so of fun.

               Are you keeping count?  So far, I’d frittered away over 40 minutes and still had no idea what that song was that we heard this morning.

               I started over, well I started to start over.  The next set of video clips were dance scenes from movies and I just had to watch those.  So after “Thriller” (from “13 going on 30”) and a flash mob based on “Mamma Mia,” I got down to business.  Without much success, I might add. 

               At last, a brainstorm!  I went to the radio station’s website and found their listing of songs they had played in the last few minutes.  I actually had to review the whole list played that morning and success was mine!  The tune was T.S.O.P. (The Sounds of Philadelphia), by the Three Degrees.  I would never have remembered that title, or artist, but good to know.  Plus, it only took about an hour to find and whoosh!  I was right back out of the rabbit hole.