What Was That Song?
How do you find a tune’s name when it has no words?
There was a song that played on my classic rock station growing up that in my adulthood I could not name. It had a country-western backbeat and a thrumming guitar and in the last few years it’s been coming to me in the wee hours of the night. When I hummed it neither my teenage son nor my partner recognized what it was that I was humming.
The problem with this song is that you cannot Google it. It has no lyrics, and has left no textual footprints in the internet snow. It is one of those rare pop songs (the only one?) that managed to get on the radio for its guitar lick alone. It also goes on for some time and there are several licks within the main lick that I sometimes hum. No one knew what I was humming about.
But this was a real problem. Because I kept wanting to play this song for my son. He had just reached the age when he came to the slightest of passing interests in the music I listened to when I was his age. Moreover he’s into guitar solos. And this was the mother of all guitar solos. This was my chance to bond over music. But I couldn’t play it for him.
Now I know that this problem could have been easily solved by an iPhone and an app. I’m told in addition to Shazam (the app that recognizes recorded music) there is now an app that…
