Name that tune?

I feel like I used to know more about music.
It's not that I was ever any kind of expert. I could never have told you who else was on the bill when Dylan went electric, or what the Kingsmen are singing in Louie Louie or what, exactly, living la vida loca entails (presumably a lot of ointment). But I used to at least know the names of the songs I was listening to.
Set the bar low. That's what I always say.
These days, though, I struggle to maintain even that much knowledge. I've bought three CDs in the last month or so and listened to each of them multiple times. I've enjoyed each of them, some a lot. And yet, off the top of my head I can come up with the titles for maybe four songs. And to be fair, that's largely because in three of them the song's title is featured in the song to an almost ridiculous degrees. For example, here's the chorus to the Black Keys song Lies: "Lies, lies, lies, oh lies." Taking credit for getting that one right feels a little like taking credit for predictions like, "I bet we'll have a new President in January" or "I bet some celebrity will get a lot of publicity for doing something embarrassing this week." It just feels hollow.
There are songs I like a lot on each of those three CDs but I'll be damned if I could name them for you.
By contrast, with roughly the same amount of thought I was able to come up with five song titles from REM's 1992 classic Automatic for the People even though I haven't listened to that CD in at least a year.
I'm not sure what this says about me as a music listener. I still believe music is important, and I still enjoy discovering new artists. But the way I listen to music is different than it used to be.
Back in my younger days I'd get a new CD or, let's face it, cassette — but only rarely an eight-track — and pop it into the player. I'd sit and listen to it while scanning through the liner notes to see if they'd included lyrics or photos or free gum or anything.
These days the liner notes don't always even make it out of the case. That is, if I have them at all.
Technology has changed things. With more and more people buying their music online, physical packaging is becoming less common. Those last three CDs I bought all involved me going to the store and bringing a CD home, but the purchased music file in my iTunes player has more than 250 songs. And even when I buy an actual CD the second thing I do usually involves transferring the music to my computer.
The first thing I do is listen to the CD in my car on the way home, but that's a process that doesn't much lend itself to in-depth reading.
The third thing I usually do is dance around in my underpants like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, but that's really neither here nor there.
One by one, it seems, song titles are being moved out of my brain and into my iPod playlist. They're still there, but I'm usually devoting my attention to something else, anyway.
I suppose this isn't all bad. Eliminating the song title section of my brain frees up more space to remember things like credit card numbers or recipes for mixed drinks.
And sure, it can get a little challenging when you want to tell someone about a song you like and can only describe it as, "You know, that one with the guitar?" But honestly, which would you rather have: A song title or a well-made mojito?
That's what I thought.


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Now playing: The Bad Plus - Everywhere You Turn
via FoxyTunes