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Dylan Poem Actually Canadian Country Song Lyrics
By
Jen Carlson
Published May 21, 2009
Modified May 21, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published May 21, 2009
Modified May 21, 2009
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Before you lay down some hard earned cash on that Bob Dylan poem, you should probably know a little bit more about it. Like, for instance, that those are actually the words of Canadian country singer Hank Snow. Reuters reports that earlier this week Christie's announced the sale of a Bob Dylan poem believed to have been written in 1957 when he was away at Jewish camp, but they "failed to detect that the words, with a few minor variations, matched those of a song previously recorded by Snow." A reader alerted Reuters of the fact, who then informed the auction house, who announced, "Additional information has come to our attention about the handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written when he was 16, entitled 'Little Buddy.' The words are in fact a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song. This still remains among the earliest known handwritten lyrics of Bob Dylan." The big question here is: did Dylan cop to copying the lyrics back in '57? It certainly wouldn't be the fist time he's lifted some lines.
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bob dylan
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Hank Snow
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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