Embarassing moment on an airplane

In a few weeks I am performing Extreme’s More than Words, and The Beatles All You Need is Love at a friend’s wedding in France. I’ve been working on the Extreme song, but I haven’t so much on the other, so on the airplane I thought I would get out my laptop and listen to the song a few times, to get it running around in my head. I only had the earphones supplied by the airline, and no matter how carefully I pushed them into my ears, even turned up all the way I just couldn’t hear the song very well. I thought perhaps they were very low impedance. Then I realized they weren’t plugged in, and my laptop speakers were screaming out “All You Need is Love” at full volume. Unfortunately, that wasn’t until the song had ended.

I was very embarrassed, but surprisingly, I didn’t get any disapproving looks. The flight attendant actually smiled at me while it was playing, only later did I realize she could hear the song as well.

I wonder how much of a faux-pas this mistake actually was. Perhaps people were happy to hear some Beatles blaring through the middle of a very boring flight. Maybe they thought I was making some kind of political statement (the politics of “All you need is love”?). Either way, a funny incident – one that reminds me that anyone (especially me) can do very socially awkward things without realizing they are happening.