Moments are forever. They may be gone but they did in fact happen. They're still as real as the moment they happened, and they will continue to be every bit a real for eternity. Because a moment or even a lifetime has passed doesn't make it any less. Even a billion years from now when there's not a single piece of evidence or shred of memory left from a special moment, it still did in fact happen, and will continue to have happened until the end of time. So if your song sucks it will suck forever. There are two reasons to not worry about it. 1, you can try again, and B, there's evidence from dudes in lab coats with blackboards full of chalk scribbles that time is an illusion. As we all know from media, the scribbly chalk stuff is solid proof. God created time so everything doesn't happen at once, which is a total bonus because that means you haven't actually failed until you give up. Come to think of it, there's a third reason to not worry about it. Most financially successful music sucks too. So even if your wheezings of muse are just awful, you still might make a buck on it. You can join the long line of musical staples being kapunked into your brain via the Great Media Blitz. Listen to the radio. Kapunk kapunk. It gets complicated because music is our dealio. Everybody has a dealio. Something that makes them individual. Something that defines them and makes them a cut above the crowd, and above all, something that makes them cooler than you. A person's dealio can be anything from a Harley to a PHD. Flower arrangement, cooking, remote controlled airplanes, cycling, recycling, fly fishing, blogs, and music. Many many are the dealios of mankind. Most people are quite proud of their dealio. They hold their dealio aloft announcing to the world they're quite special. It defines us as more interesting than others so therefore we should be listened to because they have such a cool and important dealio. We wear the gear associated with our dealios to announce our dealio. Full spandex with backwards pointy helmets and ten thousand dollar bicycles, leather vests with colors on the back, tweed jackets with elbow patches, all to announce our dealio. In the eighties when I was a bar star we'd go to Bino's after the gig wearing our stage gear to show off our dealios. Bandanas, chains, and eye makeup to enhance our vertically teased mullets. Sitting in a booth with 20 pounds of chains wrapped around you is not the most comfy way to eat a burger, but We were the coolest dudes in Bino's ever. Comfort is often the first casualty when displaying one's dealio. Dealios can be life paths, or just things we use to announce how interesting we are. The dude with a ferret in Starbucks, the car with plastic army men glued all over the dash. Go stand on the corner of First and Commercial for a while, or any area where bohemian fashionistas congregate. It's a veritable dealio-fest. The reason music as a dealio becomes complicated is because we have our egos all wrapped up in the act of creation. If our efforts suck our dealios suffer, our egos get all bent. Our sense of self worth is so wrapped up in our dealios that we tend to avoid exposing our dealios to potential suckage. This can lead to ignorementation of suck. So the key to creation is leaving your dealio right out of it. Prepare to suck hard. Prepare to abandon all the things that make you special. Don't let fear of a dented dealio drive the bus of creation. If your dealio is that important go buy a ferret and stay away from music. Of all the dealios out there music and art is the most fragile. Teddy Roosevelt once said: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." Teddy is talking about two people, the critic and the criticized. Musicians are both of those in one person. To create, one needs to give creation full veto over doubt while keeping your ears open to outside criticism. It can be a tough juggle when you throw a bigass dealio into the mix. This is why many people opt for the ferrets, or the tube of glue and bag of army men. Those are much easier dealios to maintain and keep in perspective. This is also why you need a clear vision of your song, and why a producer who gets it is a great thing. The path to hearing with your ears what you heard in your head is fraught with great peril to your dealio. Separate the dealio from the creation. Embrace the suck. Great things may happen.