Remember that poem we wrote about yesterday, written by a young Bob Dylan, that’s currently up for auction at Christie’s? Well, it turns out the dog-centered poem, “Little Buddy,” submitted by the 16-year old Robert Zimmerman to his summer camp newspaper, is actually a song written by the late Canadian country artist Hank Snow. The words are the same, with some minor variations.
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The song “Little Buddy” can be heard on the compilation album The Yodelling Ranger. It is thought to have been released in November 1948 as a 78 on RCA Victor.
“Additional information has come to our attention about the handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written when he was 16, entitled ‘Little Buddy.’ The words are in fact a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song,” Christie’s said in a statement.
For shame, Bob Dylan. For shame! In 2002, Dylan’s penchant for appropriating the words of others came under scrutiny when it was revealed that many lyrics from Love and Theft borrowed from Japanese writer Junichi Saga’s book “Confessions of a Yakuza,” among other sources. Old habits die hard.
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