Recently, Johnny Depp and British guitarist Jeff Beck released a joint music album called 18. However, the release was not without scandal – the artists were accused of stealing the lyrics of one of the songs.
Folklorist Bruce Jackson claims that Depp and Beck stole lines from his 1974 book Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim, which collected toasts popular with African Americans. The author worked on the collection with former inmate Slim Wilson.
According to Bruce, the lines of the “Hobo Ben” toast are repeated almost verbatim in Johnny and Jeff’s “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade.”
Jackson told Rolling Stone: “The only two lines Depp and Beck wrote were ‘Big time mf-r’ and ‘Get down to my level’. Everything else is taken from Slim’s stories, from my book. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve been publishing material for 50 years, and it’s the first time someone took something and named it, ”added the folklorist.
Bruce Jackson has not yet filed a lawsuit against the artists, but he does not exclude such a conclusion. True, in court proceedings, the fact that toasts belong to works of verbal creativity can hinder him.
Source: People Talk
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