An Exercise In Discipline

I just finished reading “Broken Prey”, a John Sanford novel with the detective character, Lucas Davenport. In this novel, one of the underlying themes is that Davenport’s wife has given him an Ipod and 100 downloads off I-Tunes. Davenport looks at the 100 downloaded songs as an exercise in discipline by choosing ONLY the top 100 rock songs of all time.

So, throughout the book, conversations will flash up debating whether or not Tina Turner is really considered rock, or if there are too many Rolling Stones songs on the list, etc. Another debate is whether a song like “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” covered by Guns-N-Roses is really a G-n-R song, or if the originator, Bob Dylan, should have his version on the list.

This, THIS is the sort of banter on which many, many hours of my young life has revolved around. Across a sticky tabletop witth Clapton tunes blaring over the bar’s sound system, I have seen the personalities of my friends come front andd center whenn topics like this come up.

I love, LOVE debating such things! After all, it’s an intellectual argument whichbrings new ideas and thoughts to the surface. Plus, it’s more fun than talking sports.

At the end of “Broken Prey”, a list compiled by the fictional Lucas Davenport was written. And, I was surprised to find, “Stairway to Heaven” wasn’t on the list…and neither was “Wish You Were Here”…two songs I’d like to debate with Davenport…as soon as he materializes from fictional characterhood!