He’s freewheelin’ all right—Bob Dylan has slammed the critics who think he plagiarized songs.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the music icon angrily responds to accusations that he lifted quotes without citation from other writers such as Japanese author Junichi Saga’s “Confessions of a Yakuza,” and poet Henry Timrod in his 2001 and 2006 albums “Love and Theft” and “Modern Times” respectively.
“Oh, yeah, 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,” the singer-songwriter said.
“It’s an old thing—it’s part of the tradition. It goes way back. These are the same people that tried to pin the name Judas on me. Judas, the most hated name in human history,” he added. “If you think you’ve been called a bad name, try to work your way out from under that…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–kers can rot in hell.”
He claims sampling works is part of the art of songwriting.
“I’m working within my art form. It’s that simple. I work within the rules and limitations of it,” Dylan said. “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.”
Dylan’s newest studio album “The Tempest” was released on Tuesday.