How freaky is this? I have over 9,000 songs in the iTunes cloud. When I ride my bike, as I did today, I pick a song to start with and let iTunes select the rest. Here's what happened today. As I approached the point on the trail where I turn the music on, I wondered which song to start with. I hadn't heard any Led Zeppelin in a while, so I thought of my favorite Led Zeppelin album, Physical Graffiti (1975). My two favorite songs on this album have always been "Custard Pie" and "The Rover." I thought about selecting "The Rover," but settled on "Custard Pie."
To my amazement, the fifth song played was "The Rover." (No other Led Zeppelin song was played during the ride, which took two and a half hours.) My first thought was, where do I buy a Texas Lottery ticket? What are the chances that "The Rover" would come up out of over 9,000 songs? But John Sullivan tells me he's convinced that iTunes does not select songs randomly, and there appear to be others who share his view. Maybe iTunes "reasons" as follows: "This guy apparently likes Led Zeppelin, so I'll play another Led Zeppelin song for him." Then it occurred to me: I have 180 songs by Led Zeppelin. What are the chances that "The Rover" would be selected from 180 (or rather, 179) songs? So even if iTunes "reasoned" that, since I picked one Led Zeppelin song, I might appreciate hearing another, it's still freaky.
Then it occurred to me: Maybe iTunes "reasons" as follows: "This guy apparently likes Physical Graffiti, so I'll play another song from that album for him." But wait! There are 15 songs on Physical Graffiti. I chose one of them ("Custard Pie") to start my music for the day. That leaves 14 others, and iTunes chose the very one ("The Rover") that I was thinking of. Unless iTunes can read my mind—let's not go there—it had no way of knowing this. So, at a minimum, there was a one-in-14 chance that a second Led Zeppelin song would be "The Rover," and that's what came up.
Freaky Saturday. How freaky, I will leave for you to decide. Even John Sullivan will have to admit that it's a bit freaky.
Addendum: Here, as your reward (punishment?) for reading all this, is "The Rover":
