My standard favorite list of "top musical acts of all time you like" (or, "what records you'd take along if stranded on an island alone") nets out like this:
In no particular order...
- Van Halen
- AC/DC
- The Police
- REM
- Talking Heads
- James Brown
I'm not sure what purpose it serves, really. I'm not sure what this list actually symbolizes or says about me. I listen to so much stuff.
I was hooked on the trip hop XM channel for a while - now it's the Notorious B.I.G. channel, so, I don't know why I even have a list.
I don't even listen to The Police anymore. I listen to contemporary Christan pop and mainstream country on the car stereo more than I listen to The Police these days - I've just heard them too much.
But, I do have this list - whatever the meaning of it.
And I tried to think about the commonalities between the groups. I came up with:
- All are iconic
- All of the music sounds fresh and new. It's not dated when you listen to it. Brown's funk; Van Halen's guitar; Talking Head's world beat; Andy Strummers & Stewart Copeland approach to their instruments - it's all original, game changing and unrepeatable, no matter how mainstream and well-selling the music is.
- All are obviously in the pop/rock category, with a lean toward blues & soul.
- They come from the 7os and 80s. No 90s and beyond favs for me. I'm getting to be "of a certain age"
Then, one other thing came to mind - I've seen five of the groups live and in person.
Well, a caveat - James Brown was by himself singing Georgia on My Mind with the house band at a jazz dinner restaurant in Augusta, GA, where he lives and was celebrating with some friends. I never made it to his yearly concerts in Augusta when I lived there and he was alive.
And I haven't see The Talking Heads - only David Byrne solo.
But, I wondered, did that influence my list making?
In this day and age of digital this and electronic that - did the fact that I'd been in the same space with these artists and experienced their work human-to-human - does that play role?
And - does that fact have significance?
I think it really does. I'm going to have to ponder it for a while.