Yesterday was Bob Dylan's birthday. Speaking of Bob Dylan, an important legal precedent was created last Friday by the Kansas Court of Appeals. In State v. Birth (boring legal link), the Court ruled that it was error to quote Bob Dylan lyrics in closing argument. I realize that this information is completely inapplicable to most of you, but I am very concerned about the limitations being placed on closing argument and whether there is a genre of music that the court would prefer. Another possibility is that the babyboom generation court finds it offensive for the DA to quote Bob lyrics in support of itself. (If you are like me, you had lots of ideas about what a case titled "state v. birth" might concern, and none of them dealt with Bob Dylan. In fact, most of the people I know who read this opinion disagree with me about its far-reaching ban on Dylan lyrics during jury trial).
I spent some time singing to my 4 year-old nephew, J. on Wednesday (if you were around Wednesday, you know what a long day it was for him and for everyone), including "Blowin' in the Wind". He kept requesting another when each song ended. I began with "Swing Low Sweet Chariot"(some links allow you to have a little sing along at your computer) followed by "Beautiful Kittenfish" from "The Cat in the Hat" cartoon. I then switched it up with "Can't Smile Without You" and when I finished, J. said "that song was too long". Since Barry Mannilow was one of my favorites at his age it was a little disappointing to hear (I'll have to try "I'm not Lisa" another favorite from that time in my life just to see if we maybe still could have been friends had we been 4 at the same time). As mentioned before I sang a Dylan song, but I always have trouble mixing lyrics from different lines and it doesn't come out quite right, but J. was ok with that. I ended the set with "Three Ways" by the Wallflowers. The song has 3 verses. J. wants me to come up with another verse. If you have any ideas let me know. The song follows a simple pattern and verse one is about getting out of a box, verse two is about getting off of a merry-go-round and verse three is about getting off of a burning bridge.
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8 comments:
Just what is the legal system coming to?
I was in a store with Kathryn Thursday when Jeannie C. Riley started singing "The Day My Mama Socked It To The Harper Valley PTA" which was my favorite in Kindergarten. She looked at me and said, "I like this song." It was a cool moment.
Is it just Bob Dylan, or all songs? I stopped reading "boring" after college.
malh-- that's the problem with legal precendents is determining how far reaching they might be. The court specifically referred to the line "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" (from subterranean blah blah which is linked to both in lyric and in concert). However, some will argue that this bans all pop culture reference during trial, or some will say that I am overstating the focus on Bob Dylan and that the case has more to do with a DA commenting on a defendant's credibility (that last one I think is narrow-minded and just plain silly).
There's three ways out of your bunk bed
You either jump or you climb down instead
There's three ways out of your bunk, your bunk bed
But if you are just too tired
You just burn it to the ground
Then you sleep away
Till noon
Into dreams you've found
I like it.
What happened Wednesday?
Quams last night in GC
i have been thinking about this post and the idea of the da quoting bob and i agree with the judge
i didn't understand anything about bob until i recently read up on johnny cash and u2 and they both understand bob so i will accept the judgement of men i respect regarding a man i have maligned in the past
i suppose there are some situations where the da could get away with it...but i also suppose the sitting judge would have known if any of those situations would apply at the time
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