2003年07月18日 金曜日
Love and Theft
by Justin Hall
Books
Bob Dylan is arguably the most famous living English language bard. For decades he has drawn from the Bible, myth and literature to fill his songs with memorable characters and striking situations. Now it looks like he might have lifted extensively from a book by a Japanese author for songs on his most recent album. E! Online News details the situation - you can see Dylan's lyrics overlapping between the songs and the text of the novel.
It looks like Dylan borrowed from (plagarized?) author Junichi Saga. Saga has written a number of oral history books detailing life in Japan in the early 20th century. I read Memories of Silk and Straw - it was a charming, eloquent vision of another place and time, told with accents and attitudes of a wide range of characters (Amazon.com; more information). Dylan didn't borrow from that book, though, instead he seems to have read Confessions of a Yakuza, an oral history of a single gangster in Japan.
The parallel texts were discovered by Dylan-fan Chris Johnson, an English teacher living in Kitakyushu. He posted a list of the Textual Sources to the "Love and Theft" songs on dylanchords.com.
Confessions of a Yakuza authro Saga was mostly happy about the situation, telling the Wall Street Journal: "Please say hello to Bob Dylan for me because I am very flattered and very happy to hear this news." The publisher was excited that the incident might lead to larger sales.
When you're borrowing from the Bible and singing in English, no one questions your sources. But if you're quoting a thin paperback by a dedicated amateur historian? That seems like the kind of source that might inspire generosity of artistic spirit. A relevant link, if you will. Maybe the quotes were deemed too minor to credit; too nestled in Dylan's context. Or maybe Dylan thought that no one would make the connection between the book and the song. Perhaps Dylan or his people are bent on preserving his image as a independent rhyme spinner. I believe Dylan read the book - the passages are too close. He should honor this inspiration.
Posted by Justin Hall at 2003年07月18日 11:52
Comments
maybe some other artist will take dylans extension of Saga's work and extend it...and will sadly I guess get sued by the RIAA
well, as a hardcore dylan fan, my comment comes with my own bias and context:
dylan has never been known for being upstanding or forthright - he is perhaps the most uncommunicative (on a personal level) artist in popular music. he has always been agressively self-promoting before he was ever popular, to the point of treating others badly (perhaps through a combination of selfishness & ignorance).
dylan's genius is interwoven with dishonesty and always has been. like many artists, he built a tale of his past & his inspiration for his audience that was very different from the truth of the matter. he is incredibly gifted, but he is also a master emulator of others - he began emulating buddy holly, moved on to emulate woody guthrie's oklahoma accent, worked himself into a political folk scene when he was actually far from political, etc.
the newest revelation of his dubious inspiration doesn't come as a surprise, and learning more about your favorite artist will almost always knock them off a pedestal. in some ways i do believe dylan received much divine inspiration for his work, in other ways i think he is a cultural puppet, gifted at selling and emulating the revelations of others in his own special way. his mark on our culture is irrefutable, but it is not, and never was, entirely his own voice at work.
dylan will never give Saga credit. i like the stance that the fan Chris Johnson takes on the page of lyric/textual comparisons: "hey, dylan must have liked this book, so you should check it out." perhaps dylan sees the rephrasing and lyrical glorification of Saga's words as a compliment. it's as if he is surreptitiously inserting Saga's work into the collective unconcious.
or maybe he's just a panicked old man who has trouble finding inspiration. dylan has writting hundreds of songs, released about 20 albums, toured more often than not touring. though he is well known his career has been bad more often than it has been good, and releasing more work, any work, is important. even at the cost of poor Saga.
sorry bout the lengthy response. dylan is just about the only thing that can get me going on and on, besides astrology. :)
-le
correction: try between 30 & 40 albums.
A good artist copies. A great artist steals. --Pablo Picasso
Not having influences means you're artistically dead. Every great artist does derivative work. The greatest wordsmith of all time, Shakespeare, started his career rewriting the stories of others. Not drawing inspiration from, and I'm not talking historical dramas, but the same works of fiction retold. Does it matter? Hell no.
Every great idea started off as a good idea. Artistic progress often means just polishing up the old apples.
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet a thief."
- Bono.
We are products of our environments. Everything we see, hear, touch, taste and smell, influences what and how we communicate.
"Stealing" is not the issue. Copy and pasting is. Inspiration is not theft. Plagiarism is.
But of course, "in Jersey everything's legal, just as long as you don't get caught."
i'm not trying to defend dylan here, but i wonder if we are reading too much into the situation. if someone went through what i've written over the years, i wonder how many remarkable similarities they would find. often, a phrase, an image lingers in my mind. i don't know where it's from, so i think it's an original creation. sometimes, i find out much later that it is not.
my point is, yeah, some of it seems suspiciously close. but others on johnson's list seem like they might just be accidental parallels.
i'm not trying to defend dylan here, but i wonder if we are reading too much into the situation. if someone went through what i've written over the years, i wonder how many remarkable similarities they would find. often, a phrase, an image lingers in my mind. i don't know where it's from, so i think it's an original creation. sometimes, i find out much later that it is not.
my point is, yeah, some of it seems suspiciously close. but others on johnson's list seem like they might just be accidental parallels.
whatever. its clear dylan copied. the question is, does it matter?
when money is involved, it always matters.
Why do not I see me posts???
"Inspiration is not theft. Plagiarism is."
Actually, no.
Plagiarism is fraud.