St Clement’s music stampede

'I WAS a record turnout at the St Clement's arts soiree this week as musicologist Richard Haslop treated the punters to a fascinating account of the way maestro Bob Dylan used tunes, lyrics, ideas, stories, characters, song titles and so forth from all over the place, yet seldom gave direct credit.

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He was speaking to a record turnout, hardly a spare seat to be found, according to the organisers. When a pal and I arrived, the out-of-doors audience was so vast we at first had to stand on the fringes where a ginger cat tried to coax us into climbing a tree with him.

But matters improved slightly, although my pal and I had to separate to get seats. What a get-together!

According to Richard, Dylan has been accused of plagiarism but, as Oscar Wilde may have said: "Talent borrows, genius steals" and, as TS Eliot definitely said: "Immature poets imitate; mature poets stea."

Dylan, says Richard, has been borrowing, lifting and appropriating from both traditional and composed sources ever since he started out, and the folk and blues traditions have been fertile hunting grounds.