Stolen Property?

I’ve been uploading songs to YouTube again over the last couple of weeks, and have had some surprisingly pleasant comments. In order to allow me to embed one of them on my stumble blog i had to give it a thumbs-up – something i generally avoid doing with my own work as it smacks of shameless self-promotion. However, on this occasion it seems to have worked out ok – no one seems to mind and it’s brought some people to my page who would otherwise not have seen it, and who have been saying very nice things about what is essentially a clumsily and hurriedly rendered version of one of my old songs, played on piano as an experiment. In any case, I’m happy that the outcome has been so positive and may try doing it again sometime as, not only has it fuelled interest in this particular video, but a few people have obviously clicked through to my other stuff and have left nice comments there too. The most bizarre thing about it all though is that a few of the people who’ve commented have remarked on it being “better than the original” and “a good cover” which, while extremely flattering, is also completely baffling as it’s one of my songs. The only other version on the internet that I'm aware of is my own guitar version which is also on YouTube. I look fairly similar in both vids, which added to the fact that both were uploaded using the same username it strikes me as unlikely that anyone would think this is a cover of the other one – they are both quite obviously me. So the question is, where does this notion come from that it’s a cover? are these people just poking fun? or is there a song out there that sounds the same? I certainly didn’t consciously plagiarise anything, and haven’t come across anything that sounds similar enough for me to think “oh dear, best scrap that one then”, or even anywhere close. Granted, the chord sequence isn’t uncommon, but neither is it particularly common, and given that there are only 7 chords in any given key, all songs inevitably sound a bit like something else. But, close enough for people to thinks it’s a cover? that’s another thing altogether. So, if you know what song it is people think I've ripped off, I'd love to hear from you – I'm completely intrigued and not a little concerned. Anyway, enough of my rambling, here’s the song. I hope you enjoy it (at least as much as the original). As ever, comment and feedback are welcome.

New songs on youtube

Well, new versions of old songs. Been playing a lot of keyboard recently to try and level up a bit so am tackling old songs and trying to work out better arrangements of them. They’re still rough as balls at the moment because I am a sloppy pianist at the best of times and I still stumble over the notes and it’s a bit of a lottery as to what chord comes out and whether it enhances or detracts from what I’m playing. That said, I’m fairly happy with how Sleepyhead came out. It’s still a bit clumsy, but presentable, so here it is. Comments welcome, as ever.