<sorry! sorry!>
<totallyAndCompletelyOT>
That complaint about Dylan, which has been around for 40 years, rests
on several profound misunderstandings. First, of folk music, the
medium in which Dylan began. Second, of how art works and how
artists work. (T. S. Eliot: "Bad poets borrow. Great poets steal."
Every poem enters, and alters, a vast context of other poems.) Third,
of how audiences work. In "Sweetheart Like You" he sings, "They say
that patriotism is the last refuge / To which a scoundrel clings. /
Steal a little and they throw you in jail, / Steal a lot and they
make you king." The first half is lifted from Dr Johnson ("Patriotism
is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Boswell, Life of Johnson, October
18, 1769), and recognizing it gives complicated pleasure, because it
sounds so odd in the mouth of that song's narrator. And the second
half of Dylan's stanza? It's certainly nor original, but is he
stealing it?
</totallyAndCompletelyOT>
</sorry! sorry!>
Charles Hartman
On Dec 15, 2005, at 12:20 AM, Judy Perry wrote:
It's been mentioned that Dylan has an, um, appropriation problem:
http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/column95l4.html
Judy
_______________________________________________
use-revolution mailing list
[email protected]
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
