By Tony Attwood
From time to time we have articles submitted whcih point out that certain lyrics or maybe a melody in a Dylan song are copied from somewhere else. I suspect most of us know that “Blowin in the Wind” uses the approach (I’ll call it that in general terms, to avoid getting into detail arguments about exact differences between one song and another) of “No more auction block for me”.
Now of course in such debates we have a problem as to what is copying and what is not, plus what is permitted and what is not. And if you find other versions of this song you will hear numerous variations.
In the folk music tradition there is an acceptance that songs (that is melodies) can be reused from one song to another, but there is also an awareness among performers that there should be limitations as to how far thsi should go.
For example the question and answer process used in “A hard rain’s gonna fall” was not an original idea and many people interested in traditional folk music will know “Lord Randall” as predecessor of this type of song.
And I suspect most people who have studied English folk music will be aware of “Scarborough Fair” which evolved into “Girl from the North Country”.
The laws on what can be copied with legal impunity vary from country to country and so I can’t give any specific rules here, but I do think that in terms of “copying” or “borrowing” or whatever it is to be called, there can be a certain level of misgiving within the field of folk music.
Take this for example:
Do you hear any of “Ballad of a Think Man” in there? I believe you might if you keep going long enough. But that really isn’t the question: the question is “does it matter”?
There are several problems in considering this. One of course is, is it deliberate? Another is, does it matter if the song copied is an old folk song, which itself has no copyright claim? Another is, are we just talking about the melody, or the accompaniment or the instrumentation – or do we only get into this convesation if everything is copied from another source?
Which would bring us to the question of “The 51st (Highland) Division’s Farewell to Sicily” which many feel has a deep similarity to “Times they are a changin”. But then again, does it matter?
As we press on with such questioning we must inevitably come up against a double issue. On the one hand, are we talking about copying as a moral issue, or on the other hand, are we arguing about copyright?
And such debates leads us back to traditional songs – if a composer uses a folk song from the 15th century for his/her melody then yes, obviously that melody has been copied. But there is no legal issue in that, at least not in my country. So the composer might well put her/his name on the record under the title, to indicate a claim of authorship.
Generally speaking in the USA and in the UK (as far as I know, and I am not a legal expert) the copyright on something written lasts for 70 years after the death of the creator – the person who registered the copyright. So there is no copyright control over older works. But of course if it is relevant and reasonable you can copy someone else’s comments in an article or book – providing also you indicate the source.
Dylan appears to have gone further and as far as I know, if one is not charging for an article, then simply printing Dylan’s lyrics on line (for example) is allowable. At least I hope it is, since I have done that here many times, and very openly, to illustrate debating points in relation to songs. And of course I am just one among millions..
But if we are talking about music that was created more recently by other composers there could be a copyright argument. Indeed we have seen a few of these in the UK where they have been such legal cases these have often become very convoluted – and hence very expensive.
I’m not going to go through the details of any specific case because such arguments can become very involved and convoluted, but if you want to explore some you could search for the cases involving “Blurred Lines, “My Sweet Lord and “Thinnking Out Loud” – they are all on the internet.
Now in such cases it is not geneerally asserted that the composer of the “copied” piece actually did the copying deliberately, but rather that she or he knew the original piece, and subconsciously used it when creating the new piece. Indeed I suspect many of us will have done that in terms of humming or singing a song without actually knowing it what the song is. Our brains seem to have a capacity for holding music in the memory for a long time, without associating it with anything else.
And the fact is that Bob Dlan has reused all sorts of bits of music, and occasionally there are accusations that he has copied someone else’s song. I’m certainly not making such an accusation, although of course I believe that he has occasinally used old folk songs (which are out of copyright, at leaast in the UK) as the basis for a new composition.
This of course is not a secret. “Bob Dylan’s Dream” is based on “Lady Franklin’s Lament“. I Shall be Free comes from LeadBelly’s “We Shall Be Free”, Masters of War is an arrangement of Nottamun Town, Girl from the North County is based on Scarborough Fair, Blowin’ in the Wind” is based on “No More Auction Block.”
But who is to say how much use of one Dylan’s lyrics is reasonable in another, before the composer of the new song should acknowledge his/her debt and/or pay copyright money if some is due. No one really knows. But the copyright act of each country gives an indication in terms of legal requirements, while many listeners do seem to agree that there is a moral duty to say that a song is based on an earlier work, even if that work is out of copyright. It doesen’t often happen though.
Perhaps the biggst problem can be examined however by thinking about the 12 bar blues, which in traditional form has three lines, the second being a repeat of the first, and the third lines rhymes with the first two. Perhaps the most famous early 12 bar is the “Hell Hound on my trail,” although there have been hundreds of thousands (or more) since.
Is there a copyright there? I acknowledge Robert Johnson’s performance and know he died in 1938, so by British law that recording and composition are out of copyright, being currently 88 years old. Which is a bit of a relief.