Marc, I think by comparing a great song which has a similar theme to the one you wrote is a way to see if your song can measure up. I thought "What's left to finish" was covering similar ground. My point being: take a listen and ask yourself: Is my song that good? For me the comparison makes an obvious statement that even the writers can't deny if they are honest.

As far as trying to stay current, I think the remedy for that at any age, is just to be authentic. Like you said, the deadliest thing to attempt is to copy something else. That is what is so tiresome in uninspired writing- the notion that somebody wrote a song as a exercise and just laid down one formula over the top of another. I personally think a song can start at any point- even a pretentious or fabricated place and still turn into a great song (think of the Beatles being ask to write a song called "Eight days a week") BUT- this is the big but- somewhere in the process of the writing, you have to catch the magic. You have to be inspired in some way. You have to jump into that stream of consciousness where all the creativity and energy is. If you don't feel that when you are writing, you can pitch it (in the garbage) even if it appears to be a perfect song.

By the way, it is that piano riff between the interesting pauses in the Grand Tour that makes the song so musically compelling- so your friend can be proud indeed. Which makes me wonder- who made up the guitar riff in Pretty Woman? Was that Roy?


"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein