The Ocean

Part of my role as a consultant is to be in front of the room.  It might be giving a presentation about a deliverable that our team created.   Other times, I hold the marker and run the whiteboard, diagramming or making points and connections about applications and servers and databases, trying to understand them so we can plan to move them from datacenter A to datacenter B.  

I know I'm no Tony Robbins, and also that the topics I'm talking about are low on the scale of exciting.   There's seldom a rush, or high, associated with this kind of work I do, especially when people are reading their emails, texting, or doing other work.  On some occasions, the impact of the potential savings or  new way of looking at an asset and solving a problem causes people to stop that other work and focus on what I am saying.  Even then, I don't often sense from the audience an energy and excitement about the topic at hand.  But there are times when I am working on a project and there are "A-ha" moments with the customer in a workshop, or a presentation… and the energy begins to build.  There is mutual understanding and ideas start to flow.  

When we are a the end of a successful project and complete a weekend of data center relocation, for example, I'm physically tired after being up all night but my mind is just racing and thinking about how well we did on this largest and potentially disruptive project a company has undertaken.  It's gratifying to know that the customer's customers had no idea this project went on.  I get home and I can't sleep. I know part of the issue is the caffeine and sugar overdose, but for the most part it's adrenaline and excitement of executing a well-planned event.

On the other hand, Zeppelin had crowds, tens of thousands of people who paid money to see them and were excited beyond measure to feel the music pound through them.  I have been lucky enough to see Page and Plant in concert together, as well as Robert Plant a couple times.  I can't imagine how great it was to have seen Zeppelin in concert.  Just being in the same room as these greats is a lot to handle, and hearing Zeppelin songs by them at a show has been joyous beyond words.

That's the type of energy and feedback going on in "The Ocean."  This is a song about Zeppelin's fans: The Ocean in the halls, the stadiums, and what message and feeling it sends back to the band.   I know and have had that feeling, that moment of "I get it!" for us at work and the customer engages.  When Zeppelin showed up, that was already there. 

Personal gripe:  If you only hear this song on the radio, you almost certainly miss hearing the beginning of it, when John Bonham counts off the beat:

We've done four already, but now we're steady

and then they went: 'One, two, three, four!'

Most radio stations edit that out, but they wait and wait and wait at the end of "A Day In The Life" by The Beatles to hear the chair creak.  Unfair!