Trying to be original is what's wrong with lots of things - it's why we get such grotesque ugly buildings, and such horrible "works of art" in galleries.

The Ministry of Funny Walks was a joke!! We don't in real life go round trying to think up some original and unique way of walking. So why should we have to do the same with something as natural as making songs and tunes. You don't get songbirds do that sort of thing.

Originality comes in of its own accord when it's called for. It's our job to give priority to the songs and the tunes, whether it's stuff we learned from other people, or stuff we (probably) made up for ourselves. Other things are interesting, but secondary.

There was some country musician who wrote a lot of good songs - someone told him that his songs were made up of bits of other songs stuck together, and he replied "That's how you make songs". It's not the only way, but it's a good way.

If you are making a shed you can get new timber, or you can use the bits from the shed that fell down and so forth. What matters is whether the new shed is a good shed, not what it is made out of, so long as it's good wodd. (And if you set out to make it look different from everybody else's shed, it won't be a good shed. And if it is a good shed, sooner or later after you've used it a bit, it will in fact probably look different from everybody else's shed.)

As for the song of mine I linked to, well it isn't all minor key, and I'd say it's a cheerful enough tune. Of course you can sing any song either happy or sad, but it's essentially a hopeful song, I think.

I'm trying to get round to sticking a few more songs on RealAudio with links from my website, and this is one I'll do that for. (It's on a tape I sent to Mudcat Radio, I think, and to a few other people on a "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" basis.)