About two months back, I got forwarded a link to a website where I could download an album by Bob Dylan singing the words of Dr. Seuss. Or so it advertised. Titled Dylan Hears A Who, the music was a mash of 1960s era Dylan that recalled classic albums such as Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde.
It obviously wasn’t Dylan, but sounded so close to that style, cadence, phrasing and instrumentation that it was really fun to imagine it actually was him. Sort of a grandly inspired “What If?” or “Super Marvel Team-Up!” re-imagining two of the most important artists of the Sixties.
The music was an instant viral hit on sites such as Boing Boing and other music blogs, but soon the creator received a cease and desist letter for copyright infringement from Dr Seuss Enterprises. Though he complied immediately, Salon takes an interesting look at the legal recourse of the half homage, half parody project, completely intended as a lark.
In our current state of mash ups and remixes, where do they draw the line on maintaining intellectual property, copyright infringement and public domain fair use for basis of parody?
Here is are two of my favourites from the album: “Green Eggs and Ham” and “McElligot’s Pool.”