In Reply to: I didn't say it was, but what about All Along the Watchtower? posted by geoffkait on November 30, 2021 at 11:50:33:
Remember T.S. Eliot: "Bad poets borrow, good poets steal."
One can have no end of fun tracing the allusions in writers like Eliot, James Joyce, and definitely Bob Dylan. Blue Oyster Cult lifted the entire lyric of "I Love the Night" from the dialogue of the original 1936 "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi, just rearranged the lines to tell a different story. Paul Kantner lifted any number of passages from his favorite Sci Fi authors. Robert Hunter lifted from Eliot himself in "Dark Star" -- "Shall we go, you and I while we may?" -- and elsewhere drew upon the whole tradition of American folk song.
It's a game between writer and reader -- the writers WANT astute readers to catch the references.
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Follow Ups
- I didn't say you said it was, just acknowledged that you spotted the references. Thanks for spotting them. - Brian H P 11/30/2115:19:36 11/30/21 (0)