Regarding Klaatu Jamie said..

snip> The Morse Code in the coda of Klaatu's "Sub Rosa Subway" was 
misinterpretated to say "from the starship Apple". A more accurate reading 
had it still skewed with the lines "From London to New York" [i.e. The Big 
Apple]. Better still was the part of the song lyric that opined "It's 
Alfred". When spun backwards on your turntable it (allegedly says) "It's Us.

It's Us. It's The Beeeeeatles".

Thanks Jamie for the background information on Klaatu. It's very
interesting.

Slight babble....

It's amazing the power of what we "want to believe to be true" has on our
interpretations of what we perceive as truth.  Oddly enough, my brother-in
law and I were just talking about this last night. He said someone (I'm
blanking on his name) gave a large group of people individual slips of paper
describing their characteristics, based on their particular horoscope. Only
unknown to them was that he gave everyone the same set of personality
traits, regardless if they were a Leo, Pieces or whatever.  The vast
majority said that the horoscope described them VERY accurately. But more
amazing, when the "subjects" were told the truth about what he did, most of
them still wouldn't back down from how accurate the assessment was of them
in particular.  

Sometimes I think of this in terms of "discovering" new bands or music I
love. Yes, I think I overall l "know" my tastes, in what moves me and what
doesn't. However, I do admit to sometimes the excitement or even more
telling, the sheer desire/need to discover something new and exciting
impacts my reaction to what I'm hearing.  Another way of saying it is how my
wife teases me at times regarding the vast amount of new music I have
brought in over the years.  She (being a scientist) says, if you look hard
enough to find something that you think is unique, you will eventually find
something that you think is unique (whether it really is or not).  The built
in bias in the search. I think she has a point.

 I'm not knocking this quest, but I just find it curious. It's all part of
the process and part of the mystery of discovery and I just find it
interesting...

I wonder how you music critics manage this. I would guess by pure volume of
what comes across you desk and the stronger need to critique what you hear,
you fall "victim" to this less..??


Steve D