I started out thinking that using someone else’s rhythm or melody in a song wasn’t a terrible thing. I mean, if one person can write a song, but another person can write it better, that second person should get the credit, right? I understand now how stupid that logic is. Maybe if both people wrote the melody from scratch, but one person just making changes to the others work is not the same as ownership. I can’t just walk into a house, hang a picture on the wall, and claim the house is mine now.

Similarly musicians should not be stealing other people’s music, or using it at all without permission. If your contribution to that song is going to be so great, then the first thing you should do is tell the original artist. Musicians love constructive feedback, right?

But, as we discussed, at what point does it stop being plagiarism and start being memory? I know I’ve got a million tunes rattling around in my head that I could never hope to identify in a million years. They are so old, and have been there for so long that to try to figure out where they came from would take a mind reader. If I used one of those tunes and made a million dollars, and some 80-year-old burnout comes up to me and claims credit, am I really responsible? At that point I don’t think so.

I find it hard to believe that there were really 3,000 black confederates at one point or another. The idea that an individual would fight against their freedom is so foreign to me. But, on the other hand, they were slaves. Intentionally kept ignorant as long as the white owners could pull it off. I have no doubt that they were capable of convincing their slaves of their cause. Or just flat out ordering them to partake.

The part I find unrealistic is the 3,000 portion of it. That level of manipulation seems unmanageable, just from a logistics standpoint. But to comment on the dependability of the storyteller, I’m not sure Steiner was really on top of things. There’s no way he was the only person to see this army of black soldiers. Had it really existed there would have been some other accounts, I’m sure of it.

Why then, though would he commit to writing such an absurd story? As an educated man, you’d think he’d know better than to exaggerate to that extent.