The ecstasy of influence

The ecstasy of influ­ence: A pla­gia­rism, By Jonathan Lethem Harper’s Magazine

In nearly one breath, [Muddy] Waters offers five accounts [of the ori­gin of his song]: his own active author­ship: he “made it” on a spe­cific date. Then the “pas­sive” expla­na­tion: “it come to me just like that.” After Lomax raises the ques­tion of influ­ence, Waters, with­out shame, mis­giv­ings, or trep­i­da­tion, says that he heard a ver­sion by John­son, but that his men­tor, Son House, taught it to him. In the mid­dle of that com­plex geneal­ogy, Waters declares that “this song comes from the cot­ton field.”

Blues and jazz musi­cians have long been enabled by a kind of “open source” cul­ture, in which pre-existing melodic frag­ments and larger musi­cal frame­works are freely reworked.

Com­pelling quote from a com­pelling edi­to­r­ial with an even more com­pelling ori­gin. (Be sure to read it to the end.)