Joni Mitchell: Everything about Bob Dylan is fake

[BeatlesFan]

Joni Mitchell, the Canadian singer-songwriter, has lambasted Bob Dylan as a "plagiarist" and a "fake" in a rare interview

By Tom Leonard in New York
Published: 5:16PM BST 23 Apr 2010

Mitchell, 66, attacked her fellow folk musician after an interviewer for the Los Angeles Times casually noted that both had changed their names, in Dylan's case from Bobby Zimmerman.

"Bob is not authentic at all. He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake," she said, not appreciating the comparison.

"Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I."

Her plagiarism accusation may be linked to a controversy in 2006 over Dylan's album Modern Times. Critics claimed his lyrics borrowed too heavily from the writing of the Confederacy poet Henry Timrod.

Dylan, an American Civil War buff, made no acknowledgement to Timrod in the album's sleeve notes.

He was also accused of borrowing the words of other writers in previous album lyrics, including a dozen passages allegedly lifted from a gangster novel written by an obscure Japanese writer.

In her interview, Mitchell also attacked her contemporaries Grace Slick and Janis Joplin, claiming both in their heyday were "[sleeping with] their whole bands and falling down drunk".

She criticised Madonna's cultural influence, saying: "Americans have decided to be stupid and shallow since 1980. Madonna is like Nero; she marks the turning point."

Mitchell did, at least, have something good to say about Jimi Hendrix, who she described as "the sweetest guy".

Source: Joni Mitchell: Everything about Bob Dylan is fake - Telegraph

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

Huh.....that's a pretty bold claim for her to make. Though I do agree with the part about Madonna.

 

[LG]

That's gonna leave a mark for sure.

I am not well versed enough with Dylan to say whether he plagiarized or not, wouldn't be the first time something like that happened in music.

As for Madonna, well my distaste for her as a person and an artist is well known, and if she does mark a turning point for young people in the US and here, then I am fine with her getting a beatin'...figuratively speaking of course.

 

[Foxhound]

In her interview, Mitchell also attacked her contemporaries Grace Slick and Janis Joplin, claiming both in their heyday were "[sleeping with] their whole bands....

I don't understand. Since when would that be a problem? A touch of jealousy on Joni's part perhaps?

 

[LG]

I don't see how she could be jealous of something that happened all those decades ago Fox. Maybe she is just being cranky, she's entitled seeing she's in her mid 60's now, and as we get older we simply don't care what other people think about our opinions on things.

 

[Craig in Indy]

The only thing I can bring to the plagiarism discussion comes from an issue of The National Lampoon that was published many, many (many!) years ago when I was in college. They frequently put comic book inserts into the magazine - things like "Son o' God Comics" and stuff like that. Well this one issue had a comic book with a big, bold title like "Superman," only it was "Zimmerman." Anyway, it was all about Bob Dylan and his entre into the world of popular music. It showed a panel or two representing his early years, showing him in the local library, going through volume after volume of Alan Lomax's field recordings, writing down music and lyrics, while the thought bubble above his head contained the words "these songs I am a-changing."

A humorous enough barb, though nothing to take very seriously, considering the long tradition of liberal "borrowing" that was the norm in early American folk music.

BTW, Dylan was a frequent target of NatLamp, particularly when they got into their radio show and its subsequent film and video projects like Lemmings, most of the cast of which went on to great fame on Saturday Night Live.

 

[Mr. Shadow]

She sounds constipated.

 

[PinkFreud]

Who the hell is Joni Mitchell? Seriously, why mock one of the most revered musicians when you're pedestal is nowhere near as high?

 

[Craig in Indy]

We all have our opinions I guess, whether Mitchell, Dylan, or we mere forum-dwellers.

While I'm not sure I understand Mitchell's rant against Dylan, PF, I don't think it's entirely fair to say her pedestal is "nowhere near as high." I would agree Dylan should be at or at least very near the peak of the late 20th century popular music pantheon, but I don't think Mitchell is or should be considered that far below him. She was a seminal and generally revered figure in the west coast branch of that same folk-rock movement that Dylan spearheaded. I think she'd probably be even better known now if her muse hadn't steered her off into the jazz-inflected avant garde music she ended up in. I know that's when I sort of lost interest in her output, though I always held her in the highest musical esteem. I don't think there's any question she's a very important figure in popular music history.

And let's face it - Dylan is, and always has been, a polarizing figure. People seem to adore him or despise him. Some have good reasons for either view, some don't. While I love most of his music, I also enjoy other people's perfomances of his songs more than his own, with one or two rare exceptions.

Was Mitchell harsh in saying that? Probably. Maybe she was having a bad day. Or maybe she knows more about that period of musical history than we do and has good, but unspoken reasons for saying what she did.

And that's all nothing more than my opinion.

 

[Soot and Stars]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Well said Craig!