NEW YORK — In a new Rolling Stone interview, American folk-pop singer Bob Dylan shares his thoughts on the legacy of American slavery. The critically acclaimed singer/songwriter spoke out about the continuing taint of slavery on the United States, according to the Associated Press. America was “founded on the back of slaves,” Dylan said. “If slavery had been given up in a more peaceful way, America would be far ahead today.”
Bob Dylan, who is also promoting a new album released Tuesday, “Tempest,” added that people are “at each other’s throats just because they are of a different color.” “[I]t will hold any nation back.” Blacks know that some whites “didn’t want to give up slavery,” he continued.
Asked whether President Obama was improving relations between blacks and white, Bob Dylan replied: “I don’t have any opinion on that. You have to change your heart if you want to change.”
Bob Dylan has faced criticism in some circles regarding the originality of his lyrics, with charges that he has quoted or outright plagiarized other writers’ words in some of his songs. In his Rolling Stone interview by contributing writer Mikal Gilmore, Dylan does not mince words: “Oh, yeah, in folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition. That certainly is true. It’s true for everybody, but me. There are different rules for me,” he stated in an excerpt released online.
Gilmore cited specific instances in which Bob Dylan has been said to have pinched concepts and phrases from Japanese author Junichi Saga and Civil War poet Henry Timrod, to which Dylan retorts: “In folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition.”
“I’m working within my art form. It’s that simple. I work within the rules and limitations of it,” Bob Dylan continued. “There are authoritarian figures that can explain that kind of art form better to you than I can. It’s called songwriting. It has to do with melody and rhythm, and then after that, anything goes. You make everything yours. We all do it.”