I wonder

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.