Songwriter

A man sat strumming the guitar in my neighbor's balcony. J was out playing with some other neighborhood kids and I had stepped out to fetch her for dinner. My neighbor invited me to sit down a while and listen to the man sing and so we did. He had a nice voice but he introduced himself as a songwriter and went on to add "I don't sing anything I haven't written".

What a shame I thought as I listened to some of his work. With a voice like that, he may have gone places if he picked good lyrics set to a decent tune. There were many popular songs I could think of that would have sounded perfect in his voice. My neighbor requested a 70s number despite his earlier disclaimer about what he will and will not sing.

He sang a few bars but clearly he wanted us to listen to "this thing I wrote about growing up on a farm at the end of a dirt road". Replete with clichéd lines and a completely pointless tune, we felt sorry for a really talented singer who fancied himself to be a songwriter. This guy reminded me of The Would Be Gentleman by Moliere where the protagonist M. Jourdain, a middle class man to create and air of nobility about himself goes remarkable lengths to emulate the aristocratic classes. The results like this guys songs is nothing short of hilarious.