"Rip-Off Artist"

[stilltrucking]

I hear so many voices when I write, bits and pieces, words and phrases, from everything I have ever read or heard. I want to put quotation marks around every other word I write or so it seems.

All aspects of creativity are basically reconstituted bits and pieces of things we’ve seen, heard and experienced, finely or not-so-finely chopped and served in a form that hopefully blends the ingredients into something “new.” The ancient Greeks seemed to know this, expressed in their belief that the Muses of creativity were the daughters of Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of memory. Perhaps we would like to think that the thoughts that go into creating a new song are purely impressions from “real life,” but a melody does not suggest itself as much from the impression of the 6 train ride you took this morning as it does from a melody from another song. The same for chord progressions, song concepts, lyric sounds and patterns, song structures and everything else. Folk music is supposed to be a shared continuum after all, and as Louie Armstrong said, “All music is folk music, I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.”

Despite knowing all this, as a supposedly “creative” artist I am often shocked to discover that a song I’ve written has been a blatant unconscious rip-off of somebody else’s song, either in its structure, or lyrics, etc; if I’m lucky the other person’s song is not particularly popular or recognizable!


You can read more about this at===
NYTIMESDOTCOM

[the mingo]

I believe this to be true. No one "creates" in a vacumn. "Makes" is a much better description for what all artists actually do when they are "creating"...years ago I would have argued for the notion of immaculate creation, but that was then, today the world & I are no longer so impressed with one another and it has been freeing in a way I cannot explain. We are all part of a moving thing, & this moving thing contains within itself all the influences that ever were or will be, influences that flow in all directions at once. I do not speak romantically when I say that with a certain brushstroke on my canvas Miro is there with me,& Pollack, & Goya & O'keefe & all graffiti artists everywhere.
When I lay down a sentence Hemingway is there with his shotgun, Bukowski with his bottle of Dago Red, Kerouac with his security blanket of doubts. When I go to make a move in chess, Morphy watches me, & Casablanca,& Fischer. The list goes on & on. We pick up where all before us have left off and are only purpose is to move it forward, not for ourselves, but for the ones to come. This is our only purpose in "making" anything and are only true reward.

[stilltrucking]

We pick up where all before us have left off and are only purpose is to move it forward, not for ourselves, but for the ones to come. This is our only purpose in "making" anything and are only true reward.

Yes
I knew that
but only on some subconscious level.
Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

[Jacob]

Considering the limits of the English language (and language in general), there's going to come a time when all possibly coherent sentences have been said, and the only differences will be the one who says the words. Unavoidable in the coming future.

But in the end, it's all about your own words, and the feelings you are trying to profess. Sure, what you share is merely recycled information that you have been fed through your living, but it's from you, and no one else can duplicate that.

[WIREMAN]

aristotle says it in poetics....it is in our nature to imitate.....

[stilltrucking]

I was just thinking about little things
Like everytime I say
"or something like that" I think of mnaz who I remember using that line and I think should I put it in quotes.
or walking around with "tented pants" and I think of bennie2 who used it a long time ago.

or "crumbs of happiness" I think of yabyum

stuff like that
just phrases that stick in my head.

What really bugs me is when I start spouting political opinions I have read like they were my own.

I remember reading some guy talking about the war last year between Israel and Hamas where he said Israel would never attack because they had an understanding. And I started repeating it like I knew what the hell I was talking about.

This war between Russia and Georgia another one.
So many opinions about that.
I have read.

[mtmynd]

opinions are like products
stacked on shelves in walmart
can't find the truth anywhere

[stilltrucking]

stacked up like goods whose expiration dates
have come and gone.

[Jacob]

So how do you tell the difference between ones true words, feelings and understanding from something somebody else said?

[stilltrucking]

I could not tell you
I think everyone has to find out for themselves
What Joseph Campbell called the Holy Grail
to live a life of one's own.
but for some it is too much hassle it seems
the confort of conformity

We live in an age of instant analysis
We have people who interpret everything for us
So we know what to think


I don't know jacob
I was born to follow it seems

[constantine]

hey! you're back, boss! i missed ya.

[mtmynd]

"I was born to follow it seems"

this 'it seems' you follow is futile
drop 'it seems' and go for truth



[good to see you back, amigo, even if it's briefly]

[the mingo]

Hey,Jack! glad back & thanks for putting a holler in on the jam over yonder, j was asking 'bout you the other day.

[stilltrucking]

wireman

I think I am over this wireman

I don't feel that compulsion to scribble

I used to know a veteran with the cb handle

Crispy Critter.

he always wore long sleeve shirts

even on the hottest days