Which I've always known, but didn't realize quite how embedded it is until today at lunch. At The Diner in the Adam's Morgan area of Washington DC, where I've been living temporarily for the last seven weeks (but which feels like way longer), I stopped in to have a Spanish omelet.
The White Album was playing. Whenever pressed to pick my favorite Beatles album, this is the one I almost always come up with. I was pleased to hear the strange Edwardian jump and bump of "Martha My Dear" as I sat down to order.
However, my meal turned oddly sour once "Martha" finished off and "Goodnight" came on. That's the very last track on the album. And instead of the jumbled end-notes of "Bungalow Bill" leading into the piano intro for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," it somehow, inexplicably, went straight into "Birthday," a universe away in the original playing order.
Someone had put the record on "shuffle." I really hate to admit this, but everything about my lunch from that moment onwards felt completely off. I became a bit uncomfortable in my seat, as if there was a leg missing and I had to prop myself at an awkward angle. The salsa in my omelet immediately lost its kick. The potatoes went dry and hard. I got the check as soon as I could.
This probably wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been on my own - I'd like to think I would have been able to block out this otherwise forgivable error (forgivable only once, of course) had I been with someone. However, I don't know. We'll see next time I bring a friend to brunch and the waiter decides to skip tracks 4 through 6 on Village Green Preservation Society.
1 comments:
The White Album on shuffle? As far as Beatles albums go, that is a close second to Sgt Pepper.
Another victim of the iPod age.
I feel your pain, Eli. I really do.
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