More on the Dylan plagiarism controversy! This from The Hartford Advocate.

http://www.ctnow.com/custom/nmm/hartfor ... a-advocate

I am not sure of where I stand on this. Anyone who writes creatively, whether it be song or verse or stories or articles, takes something from somewhere at sometime. A phrase sticks in your mind or rolls off the tongue. Todd Snider admittedly used the first couple of lines from an article on the human brain as the basis for and part of a song. Supposedly, John Lennon took a circus poster almost verbatim to write "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!"

This is fascinating stuff. Remember Woody's comment that "he (some
un-named songwriter) just stole from me....I steal from everybody."
Yes, Woody was making reference, in his way, to the long-established
folk tradition. The Dylan controversy really doesn't fit the folk tradition
but doesn't songmaking all come from one big simmering pot of
common experience and reference, even if the interpretation is so
varied?

I seem to recall a quote attributed to Big Bill Broonzy. "It's all folk music!" he said. Reckon he was right!

Big Bill Broonzy WAS right....it is All folk music. Might just be that some
of the folk are folkier than others. The whole folk tradition argument
is essentially an academic argument and I don't think that the very
human act of singing, or of making music to express love or sorrow,
political or religious commitment or whatever should be judged by the
rigorous and often uncommitted standards of academia. Hell no, it's a
SONG. A few years back I was working on a collection of coal mining
ballads and found that so many of the songs were adapted to the
popular hymns the miners and their families knew. Well, the Wobblies
did the same, giving the Salvation Army bands a little competition
on the streets of the western mining towns. Yep, it's all folk music,
isn't it?

...what an interesting article....thanks for posting it...i've been sitting here letting it roll over me....and around and stuff.....but something's itchin at me and i'll do my best to get it clear here...

yes, Denise and Cap....as Pete says something about Western civilization is all plagarized and certainly there are rare new ideas ... very rare... there is alot of beauty in the building of what has been on what is now and the re-creating and i expect that's how we all evolve....

..as a photographer and visual artist and sometimes poet... this kind of thing comes up alot in my work and that of my friends.....sometimes you just never know you are using something that has just stayed with you or some image comes to you and you have no idea if it's from your muse or last year's magazine.... and that's part of the creative process....
"make it your own" as the folkslinger has said is often said in visual arts, too...

...but when you are aware that you are using someone else's work (even though most likely they were using someone else's:).....why not own up to it?.....if we want to really dig into the creative process, why not admit to what one's is???....if it's not wrong, then where's the shame?.....tomorrow one of my paintings in an exhibit i copied from another artist to learn a specific technique....it came out pretty well and i show it sometimes....it's never gonna sell, but in the description, i write about copying and the artists name, etc....

another example...Arlo's story about Ring around the Rosy....and how he wrote it and the folk process and how long it took him to realize he had borrowed the tune from Stephen Foster....that's the way he tells that story...

....so i think we'd all be a little wiser....not to stop the process but to own up to it when we do it knowingly...

Really interesting.... Has Dylan said he actually read this Timrod? If so, why not acknowledge that he is quoting from the guy? That's the bottom line for me.... in this age of Google, you can't get away with just lifting lines from other places. Someone is always there checking....

Of course, we should give credit where credit is due. How many times
do we see on the sheet music to an old folk song, or labour hymn, the
words "to be sung to the tune of......".It's kind of like life, isn't it? It
too should be sung to the tune of something we've heard and liked a lot,
albeit with personal adaptation so as to suit our purpose.