Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-869_87ad.pdf
Page Number: 80.0

Cite as:  598 U. S. ____ (2023) 

29 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

maybe rock’s only Nobel Laureate and greatest-ever lyricist
is  known  for  some  appropriations?    See  M.  Gilmore,  The 
Rolling Stone Interview, Rolling Stone, Sept. 27, 2012, pp. 
51,  81.10    He  wouldn’t  be  alone.    Here’s  what  songwriter
Nick Cave (he of the Bad Seeds) once said about how music 
develops: 

“The  great  beauty  of  contemporary  music,  and  what
gives it its edge and vitality, is its devil-may-care atti-
tude  toward  appropriation—everybody  is  grabbing 
stuff  from  everybody  else,  all  the  time.  It’s  a  feeding
frenzy of borrowed ideas that goes toward the advance-
ment  of  rock  music—the  great  artistic  experiment  of 
our  era.”  The  Red  Hand  Files  (Apr.  2020)  (online 
source archived at https://www.supremecourt.gov). 

But  not  as  the  majority  sees  the  matter.  Are  these  guys
making money?  Are they appropriating for some different
reason  than  to  critique  the  thing  being  borrowed?    Then 
they’re “shar[ing] the objectives” of the original work, and
will get no benefit from factor 1, let alone protection from 
—————— 

10 He is, though, also one of modern music’s most bounteous sources. 
His work has been copied so often that Rolling Stone (whose name was 
partly inspired by—OK, you guessed it—Bob Dylan) recently published 
a list of the 80 greatest Dylan covers.  See J. Wenner, A Letter from the 
Editor, Rolling Stone, Nov. 9, 1967, p. 2; J. Dolan et al., The 80 Greatest
Dylan  Covers  of  All  Time,  Rolling  Stone,  May  24,  2021  (online  source 
archived  at  https://www.supremecourt.gov).    (The  list’s  collators  noted 
that Dylan so “loved the ide[a] of other people doing his songs” that they 
struggled to settle on 80.  Ibid.)  To see how important all that copying 
was, consider Mr. Tambourine Man.  When the Byrds first heard Dylan’s 
demo  of  the  song,  they  weren’t  sure  they  could  use  it.  (David  Crosby
thought  it  was  way  too  long.)    But  Roger  McGuinn  decided  he  could 
“save” the tune.  Ibid.  Add a Bach-inspired guitar lick (truly, J. S. Bach) 
and a Beatles-inspired beat, and the “pound of Dylan’s acoustic guitars”
was “transformed” into a “danceable” and “uplifting” megahit.  R. Unter-
berger, Turn! Turn! Turn! 137 (2002).  And that rendition (not Dylan’s 
own) launched a thousand ships.  Among other things, it “spawned an
entirely new style” of music—what soon came to be known as “folk-rock.” 
Id., at 108, 132–133.