Bob Dylan Slams Plagiarism Accusations

Bob Dylan did not mince words on his new interview with Rolling Stone, when he was asked about the allegations that over the past decade, he plagiarized phrases from Japanese author Junichi Saga and Civil War poet Henry Timrod. Dylan, who's new album Tempest is expected to debut at Number Three on the Billboard 200 charts next week, defended his work, saying, ". . . In folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition. That certainly is true. It's true for everybody, but me. There are different rules for me. . . Wussies and pussies complain about that stuff. It's an old thing -- it's part of the tradition. It goes way back."

He went on to reference a bit of his own history, when a fan yelled "Judas!" during Dylan's 1966 Manchester, England show in response to his electric music: "These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history! If you think you've been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that. Yeah, and for what? For playing an electric guitar? As if that is in some kind of way equitable to betraying our Lord and delivering him up to be crucified. All those evil motherf***ers can rot in hell."

Dylan explained that pinching ideas from other works is a common place thing in the folk songwriting genre: "I'm working within my art form. It's that simple. I work within the rules and limitations of it. There are authoritarian figures that can explain that kind of art form better to you than I can. It's called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm, and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it."

Rolling Stone magazine's contributing editor Austin Scaggs believes that despite Dylan living a somewhat bohemian lifestyle both on and off the road, Dylan is far more involved in the business side of his career than most fans think: "I think that Dylan's probably way involved with the business aspect of it, or more -- y'know, he makes decisions that we think he might not consider, or might not take the time to debate. I mean, I know that he has two managers. I've seen him backstage a couple of times having real intense discussions. There have got to be so many business interests, whether it's new records, reissues -- that's just the surface of it that we know about."