In the chess world, the World Champion has created a bit of a stir by accusing an opponent of cheating. On that note: is Dylan’s song “When the Deal Goes Down” plagiarism and thus cheating, or is the issue more complex?
That is true, although in many different ways over the years, some more palatable, others more on the dubious side, both aesthetically and even legally, I would say. I draw a sharp line between plagiarism and collage art, and that line is quite clearly illustrated by the two areas in which accusations have been made: the musical and the lyrical. I think the borrowings from Timrod and Ovid and guide books from New Orleans and what not (and in earlier years: from movies and from nursery rhyme) are potentially quite fascinating. Musically, though: to lift a whole arrangement is not collage. At best, it is intertexuality, at worst - well: theft.
Fascinating, thank you. You might find it interesting to read in the current issue of The New Yorker an article about T. S. Eliot, another Nobel Prize winner often accused of plagiarism. When Eliot published The Waste Land one hundred years ago he was nice enough to include a list of notes with line numbers pointing to some, but not all, of the “plagiarism”. I wish Bob would do that, it would be so much fun. BTW the YouTube of Bob reading the opening lines of The Waste Land is pretty amusing.
Lyrically and musically he has been a collage artist for a long long time.
That is true, although in many different ways over the years, some more palatable, others more on the dubious side, both aesthetically and even legally, I would say. I draw a sharp line between plagiarism and collage art, and that line is quite clearly illustrated by the two areas in which accusations have been made: the musical and the lyrical. I think the borrowings from Timrod and Ovid and guide books from New Orleans and what not (and in earlier years: from movies and from nursery rhyme) are potentially quite fascinating. Musically, though: to lift a whole arrangement is not collage. At best, it is intertexuality, at worst - well: theft.
Fascinating, thank you. You might find it interesting to read in the current issue of The New Yorker an article about T. S. Eliot, another Nobel Prize winner often accused of plagiarism. When Eliot published The Waste Land one hundred years ago he was nice enough to include a list of notes with line numbers pointing to some, but not all, of the “plagiarism”. I wish Bob would do that, it would be so much fun. BTW the YouTube of Bob reading the opening lines of The Waste Land is pretty amusing.