Every student’s nightmare: Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck are accused of having written plagiarism. Her song “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade” is said to share striking similarities with the poem “Hobo Ben.”
Officially, “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade” was only written by Depp and Beck. But the US edition of ROLLING STONE has reasonable doubts. Some passages are taken from the poem “Hobo Ben” published by Bruce Jackson in 1974. “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade” seems to have stolen his name as well.
Too many similarities?
“Better try to keep you ass in this corner of shade/ ‘Cause if the man come you make a sad motherfuckin parade,” says Hobo Ben. Now this can also be understood as a homage. But later the similarities become more and more noticeable. Hobo Ben continues: “I’m raggedy, I know, but I have no stink/ And God bless the lady that’ll buy me a drink/ Heavy-hipted Hattie turned to Nadine with a laugh/ And said , ‘What that funky motherfucker really need, child, is a bath’”
Depp sings very similarly on “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade”: “I’m raggedy, I know, but I have no stink”. And later: “God bless a lady that’ll buy me a drink/ Sad motherfuckin’ parade/ What that funky motherfucker really needs, child, is a bath”
“Nothing like this has ever happened to me”
Jackson, told ROLLING STONE, was appalled. “Nothing like this has ever happened to me. I’ve been releasing stuff for 50 years and this is the first time someone has stolen something and put their own name on it,” he said.
The poem “Hobo Ben” was not written by Jackson himself. It goes back to an inmate in a Missouri prison who recited it himself in 1960. His name is unknown, the work was published under the pseudonym “Slim Wilson”.