Culture isn’t linear

In 1845, English poet Thomas Noel (allegedly) wrote, in “The Pauper’s Funeral” (there is some controversy over the authorship):

Rattle his bones, his bones, his bones / Over the stones, the stones, the stones / He's only a pauper, who nobody owns, / Nobody owns, nobody owns.

In 1922, James – impenetrability! -Joyce wrote in “Ulysses”, somewhere in chapter six:

The carriage climbed more slowly the hill of Rutland square. Rattle his bones. Over the stones. Only a pauper. Nobody owns. -- In the midst of life, Martin Cunningham said.

In 1929, the year of the great stock market crash, Al Jolson released “Sonny Boy”, the first record to sell over a million, then over five million, copies.

Climb upon my knee, Sonny Boy / You are only three, Sonny Boy / You've no way of knowing, There's no way of showing / What you mean to me, Sonny Boy ...When I'm old and gray, dear, promise you won't stray, dear / For I love you so, Sonny Boy ... Let me hold you nearer, One thing makes you dearer / You've your mother's eyes, Sonny Boy.

In her 1958 play, “A Taste of Honey”, Shelagh Delaney’s characters have the following exchange in Act I, Scene II:

BOY: Good night.
JO: Dream of me.
BOY: I dreamt about you last night. Fell out of bed twice.

In her 1960 play, “The Lion in Love” – the title is also that of one of Aesop’s Fables – she gives us:

So rattle her bones all over the stones, she’s only a beggar-man whom nobody owns.

In 1984, in the Smiths’ debut album, Morrissey sings, on the startling opening track, “Reel Around the Fountain”

I dreamt about you last night / and I fell out of bed twice / you can pin and mount me / like a butterfly / but “take me to the haven of your bed!” / was something that you never said / two lumps please, you’re the bee’s knees / (but so am I)

Closing out side one, on “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle”, he offers:

For you are all that matters and / I’ll love you till the day I die … So rattle my bones all over the stones / I’m only a beggar-man whom nobody owns ... Climb upon my knee, sonny boy / although you’re only three, sonny boy / you’re mine, and your mother she just never knew / I did my best for her ...

Johnny Marr’s chords for “Rusholme Ruffians”, on the follow-up album “Meat Is Murder”, were lifted and reworked (uncredited, just like Morrissey’s lyrical allusions) from Pomus and Shuman’s “Marie’s the Name of His Latest Flame”, as made famous by Elvis Presley. The band made this musical allusion obvious in concert, frequently performing the latter as a medley with the former.

The North American release of “Meat Is Murder” also contained their classic, anthemic, “How Soon Is Now?”, with Marr’s distinctive riffs. Even by the standards of a songwriting duo whose career was marked by brilliant matches of potent lyrics to some of the most sparkling tunes in pop history, “HSIN?” stands out. It is currently back on the airwaves in a partly-brilliant-but-mostly-dreadful cover by Russian duo Tatu.

“In the midst of life, we are in death, etc!”, Morrissey screamed on "Sweet and Tender Hooligan".

In their final studio album, “Strangeways, Here We Come”, Morrissey gives us one of his weakest lyrics before his mostly dreary solo career began: “Girlfriend in a Coma”. (“Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know, it’s serious”, etc.)

In 1991, four years after they split, the Smiths had their biggest chart success ever – albeit indirectly. Buried in the tracks of the one-hit wonder dance outfit Soho’s monohit “Hippy Chick” was a sample of that famous guitar riff from “How Soon Is Now?”.

In 1994, the Beautiful South released “Miaw”, on which album appeared their anti-racism, anti-prejudice song “Hidden Jukebox”... a track whose earliest version had the coda, “skinhead in a coma, let’s hope it’s serious”.

Clever little allusions on the part of the musicians and producers, in adoring tribute to a real band’s band, right?

Well, no. Not quite.

In both cases, the Smiths sued or threatened to do so; claiming a ludicrous 25% royalty on the former song, and forcing the offending version of the latter to be deleted from all future pressings of the album.

In fact and in law, there is a continuum of (re) usage that starts at allusion, careers through plagiarism, and terminates in infringement.

Culture is not linear. It is not even circular. It is like a tree, with a trunk that extends upwards into branches and twigs, and downwards into roots and capillaries. Those roots were once trunks of old trees; those twigs will become trunks of new trees. Culture grows.

Like a natural ecosystem, there are bacteria in the soil, nourishing the roots; there are birds in the twigs, eating and spreading seeds; and it is almost impossible at any given time to determine whether a cultural actor is a bacterium, a bird, or a tree, partly because most cultural actors are bacteria, birds, AND trees, frequently at the same time.

In a society where culture is an industry and a commodity, the right to control your cultural product, for limited purposes and limited times, is essential to that growth. But so is the right to allude, to tear down and build back up, to reinvent.

What is the difference between what Soho did to “How Soon Is Now?” and what Morrissey did to “A Taste of Honey”... and what Shelagh Delany did to “Ulysses” and what James Joyce did to “The Pauper’s Funeral”? 

Is there one? 

Whether you consider yourself, whether others would consider you to be, an alluder, a plagiariser, or an out-and-out infringer, depends largely on whether, in a given situation, you think of yourself, or others think of you, as a bacterium, a bird, or a tree. Perhaps, most importantly, whether you, or they, are able to imagine you to be two, or all three of those things, at once.