Hi Alan,

Much of this debate reminds me of a story they tell about the sculptor Rodin. Someone asked Rodin, "How do you sculpt an elephant?" Rodin replied, "Well, you start with a big block of stone and chop away anything that doesn't look like an elephant." Incidentally, what Rap "music" does is start with the elephant and slap sufficient concrete onto it until you get back the block of stone.

This is an old philosophical chestnut. Since things are defined by their features, how many features must be altered or removed before the thing in question fails to qualify as its former self. Take, on the one hand, some cattle and, on the other, some steaks. Obviously a cow is not a steak and vice versa. At what point in the butchering process can you point and say, "There! Stop there - now its not a cow." A less frivolous example concerns how modern homo sapiens stands in relation to its anthropoid ancestors. Was there a "first" homo sapiens? In a continuum of small adaptions it's hard to know.

For the very same reason, all other considerations put aside, the idea of a cover song is inherently vague.

In conclusion, let me say that none of my posts have been taken down by moderators, and in past discussions, I have offered over and over to take down any post that offends any member for any reason. I haven't received my first such request but I continue to maintain this policy. I would never be offended by such a request precisely because, as has been pointed out, this is a civil Forum of many talented, thoughtful and articulate people all of whose opinions get the same weight.

With kind regards,

Aleck