Marshall Brain's Blog

---

Finding the Music

I was in New York City. I had turned on VH1 -- I am doing a lot of music articles right now, so I watch VH1 more.

This video came on where a guy is on stage at a live concert. He is playing an acoustic guitar and singing. What was interesting about the video to me was that they had cut in a bunch of shots of the crew putting the stage together for the show (hanging the lights, putting up trusses, etc.). Then the phone rang, and I missed the name of the band. But I am pretty sure that the chorus of the song was, "living in rhyme" or something like that.

I said to myself, "OK, I am in NYC, I should be able to go buy this song." I walk down to the Virgin Megastore on Broadway, which is this huge huge 3-story store full of nothing but CDs. Millions of CDs. I find a nice salesperson and I explain to her I am looking for a song named, I think, "Living in Rhyme."

She asks, "What's the name of the cd?"

I don't know.

"What's the name of the band?"

I don't know.

"What do you know?"

Well, there was a guy on stage at a live concert playing an acoustic guitar on VH1 and I am pretty sure the chorus was 'living in rhyme' or something like that.

"We can't look up song titles -- only CD names or band names."

OK, is there someone here who watches VH1 and who would recognize the video?

"No."

Come on -- there must be 50 employees in this store.

"20."

OK - none of them watches VH1?

"I don't think so."

OK, where would you put songs where a guy plays an acoustic guitar on VH1?

"Well... it's hard to say."

OK, where would you put James Taylor?

"He's in Rock."

Rock????? So the guy I am looking for is in 'Rock'?

"Probably."

OK, take me to Rock.

So we go to Rock and she tries the Dave Matthews Band. No -- The guy I saw had curly hair. She tries a couple of other guys. No. We find James Taylor, just to prove he is there. She was incredibly nice, and she really did try to help. But as you can imagine, 'Rock' takes up nearly an entire floor.

So..... I come back from NY, come home and try to find the song on the Internet. There is no song named "Living in Rhyme." So what else is there to do? I turn on VH1 every so often. After a couple of hours the song comes on again.

His name is John Mayer.

The song is "Why Georgia".



I look up the lyrics on the Internet. Now that I know the name of the song it is easy. The Chorus is, "Am I living it right?"