Composition 2a/b

MUH 1024/5

Memes and Music

See also Memetically sealed pop

Main Text

What makes a piece of music different?

Rolling Stones and Rolling Pebbles

On 8th May 2002, a Google search of rolling stone gave about 516,000 results. rolling rock gave 'about 32,000. rolling pebble resulted in 34 references. Try it yourself, you'll get similar results.

You know why. The phrase rolling stone has been made famous from a variety of sources. Try here for one set. There'll be many others:

Rolling Stone.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.	1
Greek: Λo oεo o ϕo oϕ oε. (Erasmus: Proverbs; Assiduitas.)	2
Latin: Saxum volutum non obducitur musco (or Saxum volubile etc.)	3
Planta quæ sæpius transfertm non coalescit. (Fabius.)	4
Sæpius plantata arbor fructum profert exiguum.	5
French: Pierre qui roule n’amasse jamais mousse.	6
La pierre souvent remuée n’amasse pas volontiers mousse.	7
Pierre souvent remuée n’attire pas mousse.	8
Italian: Pietra mossa non fa muschio.	9
“Three removes are as bad as a fire.”	10
“I never saw an oft-removed tree, Nor yet an oft-removed family. That throve so well as those that settled be.”

One of the better known variants, at least to thirty- and forty-somethings, is the Bob Dylan song Like a Rolling Stone. Most of you will know it - or at least one version or another of it.

The phrase Like a Rolling Stone results in 'about 32,500' references.

For a discology of the song, try here.

Versions

(All links to RealPlayer clips)

• Highway 61 Revisited, 1965
• Self Portrait, 1970, [live]
• Before the Flood, 1974, [live]
• At Budokan, 1979, [live]
• Biograph, 1985
• Bootleg Series, 1991 [in 3!]
• MTV Unplugged, 1995
• John Mellencamp, The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, 1993
• Live 1966

Questions

• Which is the 'real' version - is there one?
• Is it the earliest one, or does each subsequent one 'revise' the song?
• In live versions, what is the importance of the audience's contribution, whether through singin' along or the ambience?
• Compare the 'original' with the MTV unplugged version, with the John Mellencamp version. Would the latter have taken as many liberties with the song as Dylan himself did later, if the song had been 'his'?
• To what extent does the song 'belong' to Bob Dylan (not including the tedious legal/financial reasons)?
• Why on earth did he write the line Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat ?

Vocal performance and speech intonation: Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone"

Michael Daley, York University, Toronto

Other Memes

Unchained Melody

Unchained Melody Collection [weird!]

My Way

• Sinatra
• Sid Vicious