Comments on: STREET SMARTS: Toughness Trumps Talent http://www.americansongwriter.com/2009/11/street-smarts-toughness-trumps-talent/ American Songwriter Magazine Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:05:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Benee Wafers http://www.americansongwriter.com/2009/11/street-smarts-toughness-trumps-talent/comment-page-1/#comment-5894 Benee Wafers Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:45:14 +0000 http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=29049#comment-5894 Toughness refers to the acquired ability of getting kicked in the groin so many times as to become impervious to the pain. Talent refers to that inate, unquantifiable ability to do something ordinary in an extraordinary way. So I ask " who holds the trump card?" As stated by the author toughness can be taught and talent cannot. So I ask " who holds the trump card?" No doubt the author refers to those few out of the hundreds of thousands of song writers who, after years and years of cleaning toilets, pumping gas, waiting tables, playing dives and getting relentlessly rejected, finally got a song they had written cut by an established artist. Yes thats tough. And it takes a whole lot of ass kissing, brown nosing, fib telling, belly crawling and tear crying.( I believe they call that "networking"these days.) And yes thats tough and makes you tough. However no matter how tough you are or how tough you get if at the the end of the day you ain't holding a great song all you got is one great big aching groin. And that great song was brought forth by talent not toughness. To suggest otherwise is to suggest that the songs we hear on the radio are not the best songs written by the best songwriters but rather songs written by the toughest songwriters and that would be a real shame, not only for the listener but also for those very talented songwriters who are perhaps not so tough. Perhaps that's why the Indie music movement? So don't think for a moment that toughness trumps talent. To do so would serve only to belittle yourself. Benee Toughness refers to the acquired ability of getting kicked in the groin so many times as to become impervious to the pain.
Talent refers to that inate, unquantifiable ability to do something ordinary in an extraordinary way.
So I ask ” who holds the trump card?”
As stated by the author toughness can be taught and talent cannot. So I ask ” who holds the trump card?”
No doubt the author refers to those few out of the hundreds of thousands of song writers who, after years and years of cleaning toilets, pumping gas, waiting tables, playing dives and getting relentlessly rejected, finally got a song they had written cut by an established artist. Yes thats tough.
And it takes a whole lot of ass kissing, brown nosing, fib telling, belly crawling and tear crying.( I believe they call that “networking”these days.) And yes thats tough and makes you tough.
However no matter how tough you are or how tough you get
if at the the end of the day you ain’t holding a great song all you got is one great big aching groin.
And that great song was brought forth by talent not toughness.
To suggest otherwise is to suggest that the songs we hear on the radio are not the best songs written by the best songwriters but rather songs written by the toughest songwriters and that would be a real shame, not only for the listener but also for those very talented songwriters who are perhaps not so tough.
Perhaps that’s why the Indie music movement?
So don’t think for a moment that toughness trumps talent.
To do so would serve only to belittle yourself.

Benee

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