"Joni Mitchell has expressed a similar gripe. She once said, in response to repeated requests for one of her standards, that no one ever asked Van Gogh to "Paint `Starry Night' again, man." Oh, go stick a sock in it."
Well now, Joni, painting and music are NOT the same. I suspect Van Gogh would have been thrilled if he'd had a paying audience for "Starry Night" or any other of his paintings. And we can stand in line and pay to see the original at the Museum of Modern Art, or buy reproductions to hang on the wall and enjoy. But there's nothing quite like the original artist interpreting - not creating, a one-time thing - his or her work live.
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