Johnny Depp And Jeff Beck Face Accusations Over Stolen Song Lyrics, Reportedly Taken From Incarcerated Man’s Poem

etcanada.com:

A song off Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck’s collaborative album 18 reportedly contains lyrics from a poem by an incarcerated man.

The duo have been accused of stealing several lines from the piece, called “Hobo Ben”, in their song “Sad Motherf**kin’ Parade”.

The poem was written by Slim Wilson, a self-proclaimed cheat and pimp, who served time for murder and armed robbery. While in Missouri State Penitentiary, back in 1964, Wilson met the folklorist Bruce Jackson who recorded his poetry and toasts- “a comic form of narrative Black folk poetry, akin to hobo balladry”- to include in Jackson’s 1974 book, a collection on the latter artform. READ MORE: Johnny Depp And Jeff Beck Announce New Joint Album, ’18′ Two years later, Get Your A** in the Water and Swim Like Me was accompanied by an album of the same name in which Wilson performed his works, including the toast “Hobo Ben”, where he seemingly asks hostesses: Multiple lines from the song are featured in Depp and Beck’s track including, “I’m raggedy, I know, but I have no stink”, “God bless the lady that’ll buy me a drink” and “What that funky motherf**ker really needs, child, is a bath.” “The only two lines I could find in the whole piece that [Depp and Beck] contributed are ‘Big time motherf**ker’ and ‘Bust it down to my level,’” Jackson, a professor at the University of Buffalo, told Rolling Stone. READ MORE: Christina Ricci Reveals Johnny Depp Explained Homosexuality To Her As A Child “Everything else is from Slim’s performance in my book.

I’ve never encountered anything like this. I’ve been publishing stuff for 50 years, and this is the first time anybody has just ripped something off and put his own name on it,” he continued. “Sad Motherf**kin’ Parade”