According to ultimateclassicrock.com, Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck have been accused of stealing lyrics from an incarcerated man in their new collaborative album, 18. The lyrics for the duo’s song “Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade” were allegedly stolen from the late Slim Wilson, a gambler, a pimp, a robber and murderer, according to Rolling Stone. That is when Slim Wilson met Bruce Jackson who used his work in his 1974 book, then an album with the same name of “Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me.” “I’m raggedy, I know, but I have no stink / God bless a lady that’ll buy me a drink” and “What that funky motherfucker really needs, child, is a bath.” are lines that were taken off of Hobo Ben and were then used for Depp and Beck’s Sad Motherfuckin’ Parade and only credit Beck and Depp on the song. According to a lawyer and law professor who specializes in Black music and copyright law told Rolling Stone that that fixation doctrine requires works to be written down or recorded in order to be protected by copyright. This requirement has led to many Black artists getting their work stolen over the years.
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