News Bob Dylan thought John Lennon plagiarised an iconic opening riff
The Beatles have been credited as some of the most innovative and influential songwriters of all time. Between Paul McCartney’s melodies and John Lennon’s sonic storytelling, the band pumped out an unparalleled number of all time greats – the shimmering ‘Here Comes The Sun’, the danceable ‘Twist and Shout’, the pacifying ‘Let It Be’, the list goes on. But there was one song that Bob Dylan suggested wasn’t entirely their own doing.
As the 1960s drew to a close, the Fab Four may have been approaching the end of their existence as a band, but that didn’t stop them from putting out hits. In 1968, they put out ‘Hey Jude’, a song McCartney wrote to comfort his songwriting partner’s son amidst Lennon’s divorce. The number one hit was accompanied by a B-side titled ‘Revolution’, which opened with a particularly rocking riff.
Before Lennon launches into a scream and ruminations on revolution, a fuzzy guitar riff introduces the song, one that fellow songwriting giant Dylan suggested was ripped from a much earlier track. Selecting songs to feature on his 2008 compilation, The Music That Matters To Me, the folk legend included the song in question, Pee Wee Crayton’s ‘Do Unto Others’.
Dylan praised Crayton for somehow managing to “turn lead into gold for a couple of minutes” with the track before taking the opportunity to note the similarities it bears to ‘Revolution’. He did give Lennon the benefit of the doubt that the rip-off wasn’t intentional, beginning, “I bet that John Lennon heard this record at a party once and probably didn’t even know who did it, but that guitar just stuck in his head.”
“The song was released in 1954,” he continued to explain, “The ‘B’ side of ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles is called ‘Revolution’, and it was released in 1968. The start of both of these recordings is identical.” To Beatles fans, the start of ‘Do Unto Others’ will certainly sound familiar, barely distinguishable from the opening of ‘Revolution’.
The riff certainly is very similar to Crayton’s song from over a decade earlier, with the same fuzzy rock and roll sound. Although his riffs were, clearly, just as rocking as those penned by The Beatles, the blues guitarist would never achieve the same acclaim as the Fab Four and ‘Revolution’ remains far more revered than ‘Do Unto Others’.
Listen to ‘Do Unto Others’ by Pee Wee Crayton, the song Bob Dylan thought John Lennon plagiarised, below.
