Recently, Johnny Depp and British guitarist Jeff Beck released a joint music album called 18. However, the release was not without a scandal – the artists were accused of stealing the lyrics of one of the songs.
Folklorist Bruce Jackson claims that Depp and Beck stole lines from his 1974 book Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim, which collected toasts popular with African Americans. The author worked on the collection together with former prisoner Slim Wilson.
According to Bruce, the lines from his “Hobo Ben” toast are almost verbatim in Johnny and Jeff’s “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade”.
“The only two lines Depp and Beck wrote were ‘Big time motherf-r’ and ‘Bust it down to my level,'” Jackson told Rolling Stone. “Everything else is taken from Slim’s stories, from my book. I have never come across anything like it. I have been publishing materials for 50 years, and this is the first time that someone took something and put their name on it, ”added the folklorist.
Bruce Jackson has not yet filed a lawsuit against the artists, but does not rule out such an outcome. True, in court proceedings, he may be hindered by the fact that toasts belong to works of oral creativity.
