<My personal mindset says if it doesn't come out of my brain, its not mine and i can hardly be proud of it.>

You are right Wendy. But be comforted by the thought that something has to get into your brain before it can come out modified in such a way to be your own inspiration.

So, if you over hear a catchy phrase spoken by someone else in a conversation in an elevator and you manage to 'cheat' and make the phrase into a song, so be it. That's inspiration, not cheating.

Take Heart? "For the benefit of Mr. Kite" and "A Day in the Life" songs written by the Beatles, were both developed in such a way. "For the benefit of Mr. Kite" lyrics are nearly verbatim to the circus poster John Lennon used to capture the song idea and "A Day in the Life" was inspired by a newspaper article. Lennon and McCartney musical analysts bandy the terms inspired and genius about their lyrics and never the word cheating.

I wrote song lyrics for an original "Trucks" that were inspired by the insane and stereotype comments on a Facebook post of a 4 wheel pickup truck...

Another original song's lyrics came from a list of song titles on a forum members web site.

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