For some reason, she thought it was terrible for Robert Zimmerman to become Bob Dylan, but not Roberta Anderson to become Joni Mitchell, etc.
Why do I bring this up now? We all know that Bob has often ("in the folk tradition") adapted old folk songs into new ones ("Blowin' in the Wind" is an oft-cited example), that he borrowed Dave Van Ronk's version of "House of the Rising Sun," and has often peppered his lyrics with movie quotes (which some think are original) and even lines from some guy's novel.
I bring it up NOW, because in tossing stacks of National Geographics and tons of accumulated paper, I finally found the photo that "inspired" Joni Mitchell's cover for "Hissing of Summer Lawns." You remember that cover? Most figured in composition, it was a brilliant bit of Mitchell minimalism.
A bunch of natives carrying a big snake...and generic civilization in the background....
Did Joni just invent that snake and those natives out of her head, as you figure artists do? Or did she go down to South America and ask a bunch of natives to pose for her carrying a snake, so she could render her lifelike image?
Actually, she took it from a photo she saw in National Geographic.
The photo appeared in National Geographic in February 1975. The album was released in November 1975.
Plagiarism?
Well, HELL YES, if you follow the same screamers who grumbled about Bob Dylan's art exhibit a few years ago. Bob displayed his paintings at a NYC gallery (one that had guards in every room telling people to put their cellphone cameras away). The price Bob wanted for the paintings was astronomical, and lithographs were so high priced they probably were only framed and hung in the offices of hip dentists and hedge fund weasels.
Look what that awful Bob Dylan did! He worked from PHOTOGRAPHS. (Same as JONI MITCHELL). For example:
Bob would tell you that what he did was to create a different style and feel. He could've globbed the paint more like Van Gogh, or gone for pointellism ala Seurat, but he made it, well, Dylanesque. Hey, it's not like he put the photo into Photoshop.
Likewise, Joni would argue that she created a whole new artwork by sticking her snake-carriers into the foreground of the big city. And just imagine...snakes accounting for the "hissing of summer lawns," when you thought it might just be water sprinklers!
Bottom line, to the former Robert (Zimmerman) and Roberta (Anderson) ...you're both mighty original in your own ways, and we don't need to shout "PLAGIARISM!!" when, once in a while, you borrow here and there to fulfill your vision.
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