[New-Poetry] Bob Dylan, Plagiarist Poet

Tue Sep 19 00:43:55 EDT 2006

Thanks Dave--

And perhaps similarly
"Voice, fiddle and flute
No longer be mute,
I'll lend you my name
& inspire you to boot"
are
the original words to the melody commonly sung in the states
to  words
about Bombs and rockets giving proof that a flag was/is still there....

On Sep 18, 2006, at 3:42 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:

> A fact not probably widely known on either side of the Atlantic is  
> that 'Goodnight Irene' is the fan song of the Bristol Rovers  
> football club; now to hear the song burred in a scrumpy fueled  
> 'Brissol' West Country is an experience and a perspective beyond  
> Leadbelly. I have no idea where they picked up the song from, but  
> it comes out as if a traditional rural English folk song (even  
> though Bristol is urban)
>
> Best
>
> Dave
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: TheOldMole
> To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp;Views
> Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 1:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Bob Dylan, Plagiarist Poet
>
> I wonder what Mudcat.org is making of this -- that's a site for  
> unreconstructed folkies who hate Dylan for going electric. And I  
> wonder what I think of it, for that matter. I've stolen larger  
> chunks than that to put into poems, but they weren't from other poems.
>
> Here's one:
>
> THE CROCODILE PEOPLE
>
> They used to practice cannibalism, until
> they went away from the river
> when the colonists came. It’s said
> they have some power over the crocodiles.
>
> But since they pulled back, humans are scarce,
> reptiles live in trees. Oh, you’ll still hear
> the odd story – a child crunch’d, a maiden bathing
> surprised by one, two, three, shuffling from the bank.
>
> Mostly, though, things change. You lose the taste
> for long pig, and make a virtue of it.
> Crocodiles, neglected, no longer smile for you.
> Their memory is ancient, but shallow.
>
>
> The entire first stanza of that comes from a Johnny Weissmuller  
> "Jungle Jim" movie, watched on TV one Saturday morning. I heard  
> that line, grabbed the nearest envelope I could find, and wrote it  
> down, knowing that it had some power over me, though I didn't know  
> what. But that's "found poetry," finding the poetic in something  
> that wasn't meant to be poetic. Dylan is finding the poetic in  
> something that was meant to be poetic.
>
> The great blues composers, like Robert Johnson and Leadbelly,  
> borrowed all the time from earlier songs -- it was an accepted  
> practice. I've heard Leadbelly criticized because "Goodnight Irene"  
> was -- in the critic's view -- essentially a rewrite of a  
> sentimental 19th century lyric. And I've seen the poem in question,  
> not that I could find it right now. It's terrible, and "Goodnight  
> Irene" is a masterpiece.
>
> I probably shouldn't quote from myself twice in the same note, but  
> this is maybe relevant in a different way. It's a -- not exactly a  
> translation, because I was translating a memory of something I  
> hadn't read in thirty years.
>
>
> A PAINTER OF REALITY
>
> ‑‑adapted from the memory of a poem by
>  Jacques Prevert, read 30 years earlier
>
> There's a story about a painter
>   of reality in the South of France
>   or one of those islands
>   like Ibiza or Majorca
>   where the sun's ego runs wild
>   and color is a riot
>   of civil disobedience
>
> In front of this painter is an apple
>   on a white plate
>   on a window sill
>   the color the sun decreed
>   the painter of reality
>   addresses the apple sternly
>   orders it to reveal
>   its external core
>
> But the apple spins
>   in its molecules
>   prismatic to the sun's reality
>   hermetic to the painter
>   of reality
>
> He breaks for lunch
>   bread and cheese
>   white wine
>   a boiled potato
>   leaving the apple
>   to reflect on its self‑absorption
>
> At just that time
>   along comes Picasso
>   a spectral swirl
>   a many‑hued presence
>   always where he's needed
>
> And Picasso eats the apple
>   and the apple says thanks
>   and Picasso walks down to the ocean
>   leaving a shower of seeds
>   strewn across the plate
>
>
> Prevert had the painter, and the apple, and Picasso, and the apple  
> thanking Picasso for eating it; I'm not sure how much else. I  
> credited him in my epigraph, but my poem was later set to music and  
> recorded by Fred Koller (I think the album may have been released  
> in Italy, Annie), and he didn't include the epigraph. I don't know  
> if the frail flowers are going to be thanking Dylan, but I don't  
> think they'll be cursing him.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Graham
> To: NewPoetry &amp; Views
> Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 10:34 PM
> Subject: [New-Poetry] Bob Dylan, Plagiarist Poet
>
> http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1603668.ece
>
>
>
> ==========================================
> David Graham
> grahamd at ripon.edu
> Home Page:
> http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
> Poetry Library:
> http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
> ==========================================
>
>
>
>
>
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