comments on the dylan-mitchell spat

http://flavorwire.com/85781/folk-face-off-joni-mitchell-vs-bob-dylan/comment-page-1#comment-27800



no need to get nasty with mitchell. she's done more damage to herself than to bob. i don't believe in sacred cows so i respect her for speaking her mind against an icon. she had some good points, but ultimately, she's incorrect. dylan clearly is guilty of plagiarism and he has invited the charge. sure, you can call it bob being sly...but it still invites the charge, so that's his fault. however, to reduce him to the title of "plagiarist" as if he's nothing BUT that is a gross error in judgement, and one which i'm sure she regrets. huge dylan fan by the way. even if he has committed this "sin", he's in a line of work in which it would be redundant and well nigh impossible to credit every source that he's using or borrowing or stealing from, and so even if he HAD credited the Japanese author, and the Southern poet in L%T and MT and other such "sly" takes (which to me, are actually enjoyable and actually serve to enhance the work, from an academic standpoint, he would fail the "proper citation" test throughout the 60s, 70s, and on up to today. perhaps it can be argued that he chose the best artistic route, which is: remain silent and enigmatic. surprise your investigative listeners. after all, he's not an academician, but a musician who has persistently explored, mined, and expanded on roots music.

let's hope he and mitchell patch things up. i agree with the person who said that the only one truly open to criticism in this case is the interviewer. how could he not follow that up with questions for clarification?

by the way, dylan is guilty also of (almost) trashing an iconic artist's work to his own shame: he recently praised johnny cash's early works at the expense of his later works. i vehemently disagree with his assessment of his late works. for my money, there are very few songs in the dylan catalog that reach the achievement of "the man comes around".

again, you dylan fan's, don't get nasty with joni.

--from possibly the biggest dylan fan under age 40 as of 2010... (wink-wink)