Robert Allen Zimmerman, the kid from Hibbing, Minnesota, is without a doubt a giant among 20th century songwriters. He is on one level a supreme genius and on the other hand one of the
thieves of time or in other words:
plagiarist. With his emergence in 1961 Bob Dylan was aping Woody Guthrie and other leading folk singers and borrowing from Dylan Thomas or as he said, "This is the land of the free." Legendary songwriter Joni Mitchell trashed Dylan as a plagiarist in this April, 2010
La Times interview reviving arguments about Dylan, plagiarism, and art. I realize, of course, that a blogger talking about plagiarism is pretty ironic. Hell, maybe that's what Dylan was all along, . . . a blogger before his time.
For a law blawger it's amusing to
take note that a study by law professor Alex Long at the University of Texas that combed legal opinions quoting music lyrics. The research confirms that Judges (and presumably clever law clerks) "in apparent efforts to add rhetorical flourish to their rulings, judges [quote Dylan's lyrics]" most frequently. Or put another way, to be hip and cool.
Once again, hat tip to the
ABAJournal website.
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