(Right: Richard Haslop. Pic
supplied)
Friends of the late Pieter Scholtz who invented the Mondays
@ 6 at St Clements programme, invite audiences to a Bob Dylan evening, with a
difference. Come and be entertained, intrigued, enlightened by multi-talented
musician, music guru, raconteur, former president of the SA Society for Labour
Law, blues and roots music aficionado, Richard Haslop.
Bob Dylan uses tunes, lyrics, ideas, stories, characters, song titles and so forth from all over the place, yet seldom gives direct credit, says Richard Haslop. “This has led to his being accused of plagiarism but, as Oscar Wilde may have said, ‘Talent borrows, genius steals’ and, as T S Eliot definitely said, ‘Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal’…”
Dylan, says Haslop, has been borrowing, lifting and appropriating from both traditional and composed sources ever since he started out, and the folk and blues traditions have been fertile hunting grounds. Song To Woody, one of only two original songs on his 1962 debut album, took its entire melody from Woody Guthrie’s own 1913 Massacre. “It’s a melody that almost certainly has its roots in English traditional folk music.”
"That same debut album featured Bob’s versions of a number of blues songs, for one of which he pilfered the guitar figure from the 1957 Everly Brothers hit, Wake Up Little Susie, which is anything but a blues.
“And so Dylan has carried on, adopting and adapting the words and music of as disparate a group of sources as little-known Civil War poet Henry Timrod, a Japanese Yakuza crime syndicate boss, the great Latin language poet Ovid, and, more relevantly for our purposes, the obscure bluesman Hambone Willie Newborn and dozens of unknown sources of centuries-old traditional folk songs, presenting them as his own and coming up with songs like Blowin’ In The Wind, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Masters Of War and many more across a more than six-decade career.”
Bob Dylan and the folk and blues traditions might sound more like a doctoral thesis than a listening session where really nothing more than the surface can be lightly scratched as we spend about an hour-and-a-half comparing those often-ancient sources with what Dylan ended up doing with them. “But let’s scratch that surface, anyway,” says Haslop, “and hope that we don’t end up with something too superficial.”
Richard Haslop, a practicing attorney with a focus on human rights, labour law, arbitration and industrial relations, is a multi-instrumentalist, music reviewer, radio personality and one of South Africa's leading experts on blues and roots music. He is a former president of the South African Society for Labour Law (SASLAW) and has acted as a judge in the Labour Court of South Africa on a number of occasions.
Richard Haslop has:
-written about music for national and international
publications for more than 30 years;
-presented a number of seriously eclectic music shows on
SAfm;
-lectured courses on the history of popular music at UKZN
Music Department;
-given talks, lectures and presentations at a number of
festivals and conferences in SA and overseas;
-played an incredible number of weird and wonderful musical
instruments, solo and in a variety of aggregations (for more than 40 years).
Link through to this
article, which lists some of his favourite artists and music.
http://www.rock.co.za/files/cs_richard_haslop.html
When the donation box is passed around, a minimum of R50 per
person is suggested.
NB: For Monday at Six, feel welcome to book for one (single) person (and join Val’s table, or another).
Weather permitting, the show will be outdoors.
Bookings limited to diners in support of St Clements restaurant and staff. (They stay open specially for this project.)Table Bookings Essential: RSVP ST Clements +27 62 582 0980
Be there in time to open your tab, order at the counter, find your table and settle in before the scheduled 18h00 start. If you wish to dine after the presentation, place your order before 18h00.
Please cancel if you book then can’t make it. (They are often at capacity.)
St Clements is situated at 191 Musgrave Road in Durban
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