Perhaps it's this Michael Pender

I very rarely write words so I don't have a repertoire of my own songs. I have quite a lot of tunes though just not the words to go with them.

Have to say that I have sat and listened to a lot of original songs which add nothing to what has already been written. But I suppose that they make the person who wrote it satisfied.

I play other peoples songs - some of them closer to the originals than others.

There is a song that I learned from the writer which I play very differently to the original. Have had negative comments from people who like the original 'as it should be' telling me off for doing it wrong. Luckily on tis occasion the person who wrote it approves of my version but it is an example of what people 'expect' of songs that they know.

I have sat in sessions where people do a version of a song and are then told how to play it properly - which can have some amusing reactions. Conversely I have sat and listened to people murdering songs by changing the tune and the words and the timing and ...

I am quite musical and been called a musician by people who I hugely respect as players (some who write their own songs) but I still play other people's stuff.

Perhaps I should stop as I am not worthy? *sniff* *wail* * weep*

I have a friend who wants to learn a particular song that they have been struggling with for years - perhaps I'll tell them not to waste their time!

It strikes me though that wanting to replicate a song is a huge compliment to the person who wrote it/arranged it/did the definitive version. It also perhaps reflects how difficult it is to re-arrange a song to give it a new and different life outside of the original that at the same time adds something to the original while still acknowledging it and being true to the song. I used to find it hard to envisage anyone doing 'Fire and Rain' other than how James Taylor did it. That's until I heard Richie Havens do it.

I pay Vincent Black Lightning 1952 and listened to Richard Thompson's version recently. He doesn't do it like me. We play a lot of similar bits but it isn't the same any more. When I started playing it it was closer but it seems to have wandered over time into something else. I also realise that I can probably play it in four or five different ways depending on my mood.

Off to a singaround this afternoon with a 60's theme so perhaps I'll do 'Needles and Pinsa' just in case.