Here are two versions of a song one original the other a cover. Which one would you say is the original and which the cover version?

Did you get it? Actually Sting wrote it though on youtube you find it far more often credited to Johnny Cash. Who sings the simpler version.  

If you're the type of person who gets given the job of waggledancing chances are that you enjoy thinking and exploring ideas. And you are comfortable with complexity. Which is dangerous.  Effective communication almost always involved distilling and simplifying - art is what you take out not what you put in. I like the Sting version of the track - no way could he play it like a straight country and western song.  The best bit for me is the joy on the face of the late Kenny Kirkland his keyboard player - playing 5 beats to each bar is musically interesting but does it really add to the somg? Turning to Cash's version which I heard before I heard the Sting original - at first I couldn't believe Sting wrote it because Cash sings it as if he wrote it. And the song follows a familiar Cash theme of cowboys, guilt and of course his own death. Stripping it down makes it powerful. Works the same for messaging.

One other thing - it was quite hard to find the Cash version on Youtube because there are so many covers - of people singing what they think is a Cash song. That's because its a simple song to play. But that makes it easy to play badly or cheesily. Making something simple is not dumbing down. Simple is actually difficult. Anybody can play an easy song. Its takes art and practice to sing simply.