Is Bob Dylan “The False Prophet”?
Did George Harrison “borrow” from The Shirelles?
Did “Ghostbusters” sound a lot like “I Want a New Drug”?
Did Michael Jackson just happen to “invent” the same phrase Manu Dibango used years earlier?
The Beach Boys from Chuck Berry?
The Beatles from Chuck Berry?
Sometimes the court weighed in on those, other times the parties settled out of court. Now we’ve got a new one, and great thanks to storied journalist and superb author Jeff Klinkenberg for passing this along:
The minute I heard Bob Dylan’s new song I recognized the riff and the melody from the old Billy the Kid Emerson tune, “If Lovin’ Is Believing.” A Tarpon Springs resident, Billy wrote and recorded for Sun Records in the ’50s. Elvis recorded one of his songs, “When It Rains It Really Pours,” and Billy Lee Riley had a top ten hit with “Red Hot.” I don’t know if Dylan gives him any songwriting credit for “False Prophet.” My essay about Billy is included in my most recent book, Son of Real Florida.
You be the judge… for now. We’ll know more when new album Rough and Rowdy Ways comes out June 19.