According to iTunes, I’ve played this song 72 times since I bought it on Friday. It lists only three songs I’ve listened to more often, and I’ve had those since iTunes 3 introduced the listen count feature last July. Not only that, but I can still hear the lyrics. That’s pretty unusual for me: After a half-dozen listens in a row, my brain usually begins to filter out a song, so that even if I concentrate, I can no longer hold on to the words for more than a few phrases. I’ve only had Poodle Hat for a few weeks, for example, and I already can no longer hear the words to most of the tracks. This is especially annoying for artists like Weird Al, whose main attraction is the lyrics.

This is the second song I’ve bought from the iTunes Music Store. What’s worth telling about this story (the first song was one I’d heard part of on the radio, and bought so I could hear the whole thing; it turns out I don’t actually like it that much) is that I’d never heard of this song, or even the album, before I found it on the Music Store. I like Gordon Lightfoot, of course, and I was looking at his albums because of that. I found this song, however, entirely by looking through the album listings and listening to the 30-second previews. I liked what I heard on this song well enough to pay 99¢ for it, and it seems to have worked out pretty well. I’m pleased.