How do you want to go down in history? For many of us, all that most people will know of us when we're gone will be our names listed on some records, CDs and such. How do you wish to be seen in this light?
I always wonder what the engineers who had to record Skip Spence's Oar record in Nashville thought of this crazed man with genius ideas. He wasn't anything like the country clientele they had to deal with most of the time, and his manner may have put them off a bit. Luckily for us, they did a decent job and we can hear what was going on.
Have you ever read about how hard it was to record Syd Barrett's two solo records? It was near impossible to get him to do the same thing twice, for a normal number of measures,or in tune. We're lucky that some people (including members of his ex-band, Pink Floyd) did bother to spend the time to extract these gems from him.
It's so tempting to want to throw up your hands in the studio, pull the tape off the machine, and hand it back to your clients while asking them to please leave. Maybe you don't like their music. Maybe they need to bathe. Maybe you want to be somewhere else. Maybe you're wondering if they'll even pay you.