赤铁炎

一直很喜欢 Patti Smith，所以一知道她在上个月刚刚发行了一张纯翻唱专辑 Twelve，就立即到 iTunes Music Store 去下来听。当听到第三首 Helpless 时有种似曾相识的感觉，很象 Bob Dylan 的 Knocking on Heaven’s Door（可能有人更熟悉 Guns N’ Roses 的版本），查了一下知道这是 Neil Young 很有名的一首歌。但是这两首歌又是什么关系呢？Google 到这样一个页面，看上去挺乱的，总结一下就是，有人说 Dylan 抄袭可是名声在外了：

It seems Dylan is fairly well known for stealing music now that I look at
the web. Several smaller song writers have accused him of similar acts. And
at least two major artists have also noted remarkable similarities to their
music in Dylan’s. “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” is almost an exact clone of
Neil Young’s “Helpless” and “Shelter from the Storm” is an exact melodic
copy of Foggerty’s “Down Around the Corner”.

然后就有人出来为 Dylan 辩解，说民歌只要没写下来，大家都抄来抄去的，Dylan 只是“不太礼貌”而已：

And before the music of the folk was written down and copywritten, many
many many songs sounded identical — they were the same tune, using
different lyrics, or similar lyrics, because that’s how the music
propogated. Ever notice how 90% of folk music is the same I/IV/V chord
progression?

Granted, Bob is being impolite by not acknowledging his sources. But
impolite and unethical are very different.

不过资料显示 Knocking on Heaven’s Door 发表于1973年，而 Helpless 发表于1977年，这又是怎么回事呢？

回到 Patti Smith 这张专辑，感觉还是不错的，特别是因为有些歌曲是大家都很熟悉的，对那些不喜欢她音乐风格的人也有一定的可听性。