The film is not too much different from the source material of Hubert Selby's novel. So maybe the blame or credit should go to him.

I picked Lennon because in interviews from around 1974 he was honest about what he, ahem, borrowed to use in Beatles songs. I am thinking in particular the opening riffs to "I Feel Fine" and "Day Tripper." As mentioned by another poster there was "Come Together" for which Lennon lifted lyrics from Chuck Berry's "You…

John Lennon would agree…

I like Steve Earle - I'll buy his music unheard based on his name alone. I've seen him multiple times live, have "Terraplane" on order from Amazon. "Transcendental Blues" is probably my favorite album of his and not just because it has my favorite song on it, "Galway Girl."

***Continued watching season 16 of "The Simpsons" on DVD, courtesy of Netflix. One thing I've learned from the later seasons is that without Matt Groening the commentaries for the episodes aren't nearly as fun to listen to.
***Saw a screening of "Blade Runner," the final director's cut version.
***Finished reading…

And, ironically, it was Allen Klein who owned the rights to "He's So Fine" by the time the litigation with George Harrison ended.

In the liner notes of "The Grand Theatre" CD it is noted that "Champaign, Illinois" was written by Dylan with new lyrics by Rhett Miller.

No, that song cribbed a few lines from "Idiot Wind."

Since there have been other examples of performers "ripping themselves off" how about this one:
"Boots of Spanish Leather," by Bob Dylan
"Girl From the North Country," by Bob Dylan

"If love truly is going out of fashion forever, which I do not believe, then along with our nurtured indifference to each other will be an even more contemptuous indifference to each others' object of reverence…But I can guarantee you one thing: we will never again agree on anything as we agreed on Elvis."
Lester Bangs

Finished re-reading "Player Piano," the first novel by Kurt Vonnegut. I last read this book 30 years ago when I was in a Vonnegut phase in my life and going after all the books of his I could find. ("Galapagos" would be the first book of his that I read immediately after it was published. I had a hardback copy I later…

Coming late to this party as well as I saw the movie this afternoon.
I expected it would be better than this review thought (really? Still bitching and whining over turning the book into three movies?) it was but having re-read it I think it's spot on. Especially about the diminishing returns of Jackson staging these…

"Although I’ll cop to hearing the 1988 Michael Jackson cover first (I was really into Moonwalker), MJ’s version can’t hold a candle to the original, which I must have heard a year or two later on an oldies radio station."

I just found out about Don Carpenter a few months ago when I read a piece about the re-release of some of his Los Angeles related books. So far I've read "Turnaround" and "Jody McKeegan," with "A Couple of Comedians" on hold from the library.

Not a new read for the year but a re-read was "Don Quixote," which even at 900 pages I finished in about a month. I returned to this book following the advice of the writer or critic (don't recall who at the moment) who said that "Don Quixote" should be read three times in life - in youth, middle age and elderly…

Lennon - which ever song of his I happen to be listening to.
McCartney - which ever song of his I happen to be listening to.
Harrison - which ever song…
Well, you get the idea.

The last true Lennon-McCartney collaboration was "I Got a Feeling" from
the Get Back/Let it Be sessions. John's part ("Everybody had a hard
year…") had been written as a separate song.

Ringo is credited on only three songs between 1962 and 1970 - "What Goes On," which also has a Lennon-McCartney co-credit; "Octopus's Garden," and "Don't Pass Me By," released in 1968 but actually dates from 1964. There is an interview from that year in which some of the lyrics are recited. (But then there is also…

I've read "American Tabloid" at least three times, twice for the "Cold Six Thousand" and once for "Blood's a Rover," I did not care for "American Tabloid" the first time I read it and I think it's because Ellroy's style of writing was so much different than what I had been used to. I liked it much better the second go…

In advance of tackling the new James Ellroy novel, I am re-reading the first L.A. Quartet. Re-read "The Black Dahlia" in September followed by "The Big Nowhere," "L.A. Confidential," and "White Jazz" this month.