Irresponsible Commenting Leads to ‘Baker Street’ Revival
‘Brett Guthrie’ commented on our Robert Hilburn vs Bill O’Reilly item:
Back in 1978 Hilburn gave a glowing review to Gerry Rafferty’s “City to City” album. He called Rafferty “McCartneyesque” and since I was way into McCartney, I bought the album. What a downer that piece of vinyl was.
Guthrie probably thought no more of his complaint, but he did not take into account the power of Google’s adbots. They ruthlessly absorbed his comment into the collective mind and started spitting out this ad on Independent Sources:
That ad has since been seen by thousands of people. Now, like a butterfly flapping its wings causing a storm half a world away, Guthrie’s throwaway comment has had real consequences.
“Right Down The Line: The Best of Gerry Rafferty” has risen to #11,255 on Amazon’s music bestsellers list — with a bullet. While no “The Very Best of England Dan and John Ford Coley” (#886, with “Nights Are Forever Without You” and “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight”), he’s moved ahead of “Best of the Dream Weaver” by Gary Wright. Talk of a Broadway show a la “Abba: The Musical” is in the air. An iPod commercial is rumored. Rafferty is cited as an inspiration for the nascent singer-songwriter revival (“Old Wave”), which has led to discussions for a reality show tentatively titled “Search for David Soul.” All in 24 hours.
So Guthrie has created a world in which his nightmares become reality; in which “Right Down the Line” is played hourly on every “The Jack” format station in North America. If only he had thought before he typed. We leave him with this haiku:
What were you thinking;
by seventy-eight, “like Paul”
was no compliment
Similar Independent Sources posts:
- Not The Onion: Lawyers prove to be too dull to save the world: From Bloomberg: -- Legal TV, the U.K. television channel devoted to lawyers, canceled a reality show where solicitors were asked to save the world fr ...
- Dallas beats Heat: Hagar loses $4k; Stallion happy; Dirk smirking: A quick shout out to the cast of "SMS Dispatches from Vegas," our lame attempt at an online reality show with Hagar, Stallion and Dirk. Tonight Hagar ...
- 10 really stupid people think they are in outer space–hilarity ensues: From the Independent: Endemol, the company behind 'Big Brother', is pulling out all the stops for its new Channel 4 production. In it, contestants vi ...
- Sit In A Cramped Airplane, Listen To Lawyers?: Next time you're stuck in a middle seat flying across the country, do you think you'll turn to the audio channel that features lawyers talking about t ...
- Caught On Camera: New Orleans PD Looting: This photo and caption are not out of context. Click on the link below to see the police being interviewed while looting. Their insolent audacity is ...


October 6th, 2005 at 9:43 pm
[...] pointed. At least we’re #1. While you’re here perhaps you’ll enjoy: Irresponsible Commenting Leads to Baker Street Reviv [...]