[David Herrick]

Now for the daily tracking of the fortunes of Count on Me. For May 2nd (averaged over the entire day), V = 11736 and C = 32.7. For May 3rd, V = 7456 and C = 20.8. For May 4th, V = 4423 and C = 12.3. For May 5th, V = 3339 and C = 9.31. For May 6th, V = 5074 and C = 14.2. (Big rebound!)

[David Herrick]

If I may resuscitate another ancient thread, I just remembered this masterpiece that I first heard several years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwrgAnx6Q8

[David Herrick]

Here are the top 20 lists for April. All data are taken over the period from April 4th through May 1st, except for two of the most recent videos (Questionable and Good Day Sunshine), which are averaged over the last week of that time period.

Count on Me was just posted a few hours ago and is still in the supernova phase, so I’m not including it on this list, but I’ll provide the usual daily updates for the first week. The first data point, based on a one-hour average about twelve hours after release, is V = 16752 and C = 46.7.

.

simultaneous views:

1) Please Mr. Postman / Wipe Out: C = 8.35 (+0.30)

2) While My Guitar Gently Weeps: C = 4.14 (-0.50)

3) Wish You Were Here: C = 3.06 (-0.75)

4) Drive My Car (2012): C = 2.84 (-1.17)

5) Questionable: C = 2.55 (-1.47)

6) You Can’t Do That: C = 2.00 (-0.40)

7) Sound of Silence: C = 1.98 (-0.18)

8) If I Fell: C = 1.83 (-0.20)

9) I Saw Her Standing There: C = 1.79 (-0.14)

10) When I’m Sixty-Four: C = 1.63 (-0.40)

11) I’m Looking Through You: C = 1.54 (-0.37)

12) This Boy: C = 1.52 (-0.12)

13) MonaLisa Twins Interview 2016: C = 1.47 (-0.56)

14) Africa: C = 1.47 (-0.22)

15) Nowhere Man: C = 1.37 (-0.39)

16) Till There Was You: C = 1.16 (-0.19)

17) Good Day Sunshine: C = 1.13 (-7.32)

18) Stuck in the Middle With You: C = 1.10 (-0.30)

19) Day Tripper: C = 1.09 (-0.18)

20) Both Sides Now: C = 1.07 (-0.27)

.

views per day:

1) Please Mr. Postman / Wipe Out: V = 2945 (+107)

2) Drive My Car (2012): V = 1472 (-603)

3) While My Guitar Gently Weeps: V = 1305 (-158)

4) Questionable: V = 956 (-553)

5) You Can’t Do That: V = 917 (-185)

6) Wish You Were Here: V = 907 (-221)

7) Sound of Silence: V = 834 (-75)

8) If I Fell: V = 827 (-92)

9) When I’m Sixty-Four: V = 805 (-198)

10) I Saw Her Standing There: V = 763 (-56)

11) I’m Looking Through You: V = 762 (-182)

12) This Boy: V = 647 (-50)

13) Good Day Sunshine: V = 632 (-4077)

14) Till There Was You: V = 613 (-98)

15) Nowhere Man: V = 611 (-174)

16) You’re Going to Lose That Girl: V = 527 (-102)

17) Day Tripper: V = 475 (-78)

18) Please Please Me: V = 470 (-46)

19) In My Life: V = 442 (+3)

20) Africa: V = 437 (-66)

.

This was a bit of a down month for viewership, but we’ve seen several monthly fluctuations already, so the numbers are likely to go up again soon.

[David Herrick]

This is the only other dementia-themed song that I know. It’s one of the products of the Paul McCartney / Elvis Costello collaboration of the late 80’s that resulted in their respective albums Flowers in the Dirt and Spike:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zifeVbK8b-g

Full disclosure: although I watched this video several times when it first came out because of the Paul connection, I never really paid attention to the lyrics. But it showed up when I did an internet search to find Alzheimer’s songs. (Couldn’t think of any on my own!)

[David Herrick]

That’s an excellent point, Christopher. Mona and Lisa have taught me a lot of lyrics that I had always found to be muddled, ambiguous, or confusing. If not for them, I would have gone to my grave swearing that the Zombies were singing, “Is he rizzy rich like me?”

Not to rant, but why do some artists go to the trouble of writing lyrics if they’re not willing or able to communicate them clearly?

[David Herrick]

I guess my main criterion for “best” video would be the extent to which I can’t hear the song without having the video play in my head. On that basis, this would be my quick-assessment top five:

5) Won’t You Listen Now

4) I Wanna Kiss You

3) Here, There and Everywhere

2) Bus Stop

1) I Don’t Know Birds That Well

[David Herrick]

Jacki, I think counterpoint is basically just two or more different melodies played at the same time that sound good together.

[David Herrick]

Yes, watching an episode of MASH is like turning on the radio to a random song: you don’t know if it’s going to make you smile, or cry, or both. Sometimes it’s a barbed commentary on bureaucratic incompetence, and sometimes it’s about people trapped in a hell of war and death. And just as with a good song, even if you’ve seen the episode before, you’re ready to relive the roller coaster of emotions.

I typed “MASH final episode” into YouTube and immediately found an unofficial copy of it taped with a VCR from when it first aired.

[David Herrick]

Jung, if you’ve watched MASH at all, you HAVE to see the final episode! It originally aired as a 2.5-hour special and contains many memorable moments as each major character gets his/her own story arc and sendoff. I believe it still holds the record, nearly 40 years later, as the most-watched episode of a scripted TV series ever.

[David Herrick]

Of course how a given song makes you feel can change over time. I keep thinking of this profound example from the final episode of MASH. It’s in four segments, so to get them all in one message I added a bunch of spaces to the URLs that need to be removed when you copy and paste them:

https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v= MXNgf88W8BI

https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v= jkwkFClbaKI

https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v= 5T6Q5cHSAMw

https:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v= vmcQt0fdftw

[David Herrick]

Here are the latest weekly figures for the newest videos: Good Day Sunshine is at V = 758 and C = 1.36, while Questionable is at V = 954 and C = 2.54.

Coming up next weekend: the monthly report for April.

[David Herrick]

That’s a very intriguing video, Jung!

Maybe I’m weird (okay, forget the “maybe”), but when I’m sad I generally don’t listen to music at all, preferring just to be alone with my thoughts. And when I’m happy I’ll listen to pretty much anything, but sad songs will make me instantly sad.

[David Herrick]

Agreed, Maureen! It may not have a lot of flashy production values, but it’s certainly worth a lot more than its current rate of 1.9 views per day. Let’s see if we can push that number up a bit!

[David Herrick]

Washington is one of my uncharted states, so everything will be a new experience for me! But yes, I’ll be going through the Tri Cities, Yakima, and Ellensburg, and I’m looking forward the natural diversity.

I hope next year I can spend more time up there. For some reason the graduation at my college is taking place a full week after classes end, which really cuts into the time that I have free for travel before summer classes begin.

[David Herrick]

Hey, Jung! I remember you said you used to live in that area. If I do this trip a second time (maybe next year) I’ll take a different route that will allow me to explore that region, along with Yellowstone and the Colorado Rockies. But for the first one I’m just going to cut across Wyoming and Utah and then do a straight-line route (I-84, I-82, I-90) after clipping the corner of Nevada to get to Seattle as fast as possible!