The Original, the Alpha, the A-Number One
July 23, 2002
7:20 a.m.
I put a new ending onto the story I first wrote Sunday and Monday. It still needs smoothing, but I like the story-ness of what I've got. I'll do that tomorrow, so all total I'll have put four days into it. Not bad overall. Of course, we'll then see if anyone else actually likes it. Sometimes you pour your heart into something, and it still winds up being crappy. [grim] But I have high hopes--writers, after all, must be the world's foremost optimists.   I'm listening to James Taylor on the CD today, and thinking of a conversation Lisa and I had a few days back. Someone was doing a cover version of "Sweet Baby James." It was a credible cover, but still ... "The problem with doing a James Taylor song is that no one else on the planet sings like him," I said. "And his voice is perfect for his work." And that got me to thinking about a young woman who used to sing down in Florida back when I used to travel there a lot. Her name was Pamela Brown. She played acoustic guitar and she sang covers in bars. She was really, really good. I traveled there a lot, and made it a point to see her play whenever I could. I asked her once why she didn't write her own stuff, and she just shrugged. But the next time I was there, she had put one of her own songs into her set, and I really liked it. She sent it to some publishers, or whatever the equivalent is in the music business, and a short while later, Reba McIntyre's folks picked it up. And so a song titles' "The Stairs" made it onto a Reba album. I remember the look on Pamela's face when she talked about that. "I'll still like it better when you sing it," I said. She laughed. "I'm no Reba McIntyre," she said. I didn’t tell her that this is not necessarily a bad thing in my book. Reba is highly talented, and a legendary singer for her type of stuff, but her stuff is not necessarily what I listen to, you know? But I told her this. "A song is always best when its sung by the person who wrote it." I know there are people who disagree with me on this point, but this I my opinion. I'll stick with it. I think your perspective is tainted by how you perceive the act of creation versus how you perceive the act of performance. I'm into creation. I'm into doing something no one else can do. I've realized that over the last few days, both here in my writing and in my "other" life at the day job. Give me something complex that I can manage to arrange into something understandable, and I'll be a happy camper. Using someone else's process is boring. Maybe this is why, on the occasions where I pick up my guitar, I only play bits and pieces of other people's songs. Once through the melody, and I've done it all, you know? Where's the challenge in going further? I never got good enough on that instrument to really create the way I need to, so I stopped. Luckily, I'm better at this writing thing than I ever was with the guitar. Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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