I believe I have mentioned before how much I enjoy YouTube ‘surfing’.
That’s where you go to YouTube looking for a particular video, find it, then start looking at the list of other videos on the right side of the screen for the one you’re going to watch next.
I’m sure there is some way to record what videos you were watching without having to write them down, which would be a better representation of how you got from Point A to Point B. After all, if you’re writing down each video as you prepare to watch it, you’ll probably start thinking more about where it’s likely to lead than just enjoying the moment of discovery when you pick the next video on a whim.
I’ve found lately one kind of music video I like watching is the unlikely duets or groups you sometimes find. Whether it’s an all-star lineup of Bruce Springsteen, John Fogerty, Darlene Love, Sam Moore and Billy Joel doing Higher and Higher as part of a Jackie Wilson tribute concert, or Def Leppard and Taylor Swift on an episode of Crossroads, it can be fun to see what lies down the rabbit hole after you jump in.
A couple of days ago, I decided to track my choices for a while, starting with the all-star lineup on Higher and Higher. It’s a great video, by the way, as you would expect with that kind of lineup.
The next one was the first choice I found at the top of the page – Fogerty and Springsteen teaming up to do Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman. Judging by the comments on the video, I wasn’t the only person surprised by how close they came to sounding like Orbison in some parts.
I took quite a jump with my next choice, but maybe not quite so much when you realize I love unlikely musical combos doing cover tunes from other bands. Like when I found Sugarland, on tour with Sara Bareilles, teaming with Here to do Come On Eileen, by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Definitely not a song I would think of as being country, which Sugarland is, but my goodness, it sounded great.
I then cheated a little bit. There’s a series of videos called Live from Daryl’s House, with Daryl being Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates. He has other musicians drop by his studio to (usually) do their own tunes. One I’ve watched a number of times is Kenny Loggins doing Footloose. What’s fun about the video is the trouble Loggins has remembering where the different instruments come in at the beginning of the song.
His explanation is basically, “When you do it so many times, you forget the details.”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some more of this rabbit hole to explore.