Ray, my perspective is this. I don't write for anybody but me. My songs are stories about my life. I don't seek to collect empty praise from people of varying levels of knowledge just for an ego stroke. At my age my ego has been stroked enough. There are maybe a dozen people here (possibly more and I just don't know them) whose skill and knowledge level is sufficient that I would care at all about their opinion. The rest? Whatever.

I had a friend here where I live who sadly passed away a few years ago. Very good sax player. He would go around from bar to bar almost begging bands to let him sit in and then he would walk around to everybody in the room asking "How'd I sound? How'd I sound?" knowing that not ONE person was going to say "You sucked". A man in his 70s should NOT need to beg for approval from strangers unless he is deeply insecure about his talents. I mean, even if I post something and everybody hates it I'm not going to change it. So why bother posting if I don't care about the feedback? Maybe in my 20s I sought out approval, but there comes a point where it hits you that "Hey. YOU don't even play or know jack about music. Why do I care what YOU think?"

And that's just my honest perspective.

As far as cover/copy stuff, I'll just say that when clubs are open I only go hear acts that are 100% original. I will walk out at the first sound of a cover song. We have debated this to death and my opinion has not changed, nor will it. You can be the greatest copy guitar player ever but I want to hear what YOU have to say, not what HE had to say restated. Note for note cover music is of no interest to me. Tell me YOUR story.

Last edited by eddie1261; 04/27/21 05:06 PM.