Theodore Strugeon

[dragonworks]

I was reading a long short story by Theodore
Sturgeon one time and there, line by line verbatum, dispersed throughtout the story was
the song Crown of Creation by Jefferson Airplane. I am pretty sure Sturgeon wrote this story before the aiplane were the airplane, but as hard as I look on different alblums and cds he is never given credit for the lyrics. Anybody ever stumble across this or hear anything about it?

[Qasper]

Wow... Never heard of it, but I'll get to digging. I just don't get these people who rip off lyrics. Any self-respecting songwriter should be proud that his repertoire is his own. Anyways. I'm on it! I'll let you know as soon as I get some info!

[Brad]

DW - are you sure it wasn't "Re-birth" by John Wyndham? (later titled "The Chrysalids")
That is the book Paul Kantner says he "borrowed" from to write Crown of Creation. But he was also a big Sturgeon fan, so maybe he borrowed from both - which, by the way, is not illegal. If these are sentences that could be spoken or written by anybody, then they are free to use. Think of phrases or sentences that are repeatedly in songs, just as you can't copyright a chord progression, you can't copyright a sentence (unless you are KingNothing). Usually, if you are going to do this, you get permission from the author or publisher of the book to be considerate, but you need not credit them.

Brad

[dragonworks]

Qasper

It was a long short story in a sci fi collection. Something about the end of the
world I think where mutant children with extrasensory poweres were gathering or something to that effect. It has been a long
time since I read it. Maybe they thought they
would never get caught.

[dragonworks]

It was definately Theodore Sturgeon and I dont care about copyrights or anything but if
I borrowed from someone I would give them credit for it.

[dragonworks]

Let me rephrase that. I am 99% sure it was
Sturgeon. I never heard anything about it and
I have asked alot of people about it. You are
the first one to tell me anything.

[Brad]

I dig what you are saying about not giving credit. I guess he didn't on the albums or in liner notes. (I don't know, don't have the album[s]) But at least I have read/heard interviews with Kantner where he gives the credit. Big sci fi reader he was. But yeah, that blows not to even mention where you stole, uh, I mean borrowed from. Hell it was the 60's. He was probably on acid. He probably thought he WAS Sturgeon.

[dragonworks]

I have 30 seconds over winterland on cd and there are no credits on that, and I checked
record alblums in old record stores and there
is none there either.

[Dragon]

It was definitely Re-Birth by John Wyndham, I noticed that myself many years ago. I have the book here in case anyone wants me to type in some of the text. That doesn't mean there weren't phrases from Sturgeon in there; I just happened to notice this in Re-Birth.

And to give Kantner his own credit, this was NOT "ripped-off lyrics", there were simply a few phrases, that obviously meant a lot to him, taken here and there from a single part of the story (it's a book-length novel). Most of the song was pure Kantner, period.

It's a great story, BTW, about why it can be both good and difficult being "different".


[This message has been edited by Dragon (edited 06-09-2000).]

[dragonworks]

Dragon

I probably stand corrected but I could have sworn it was Sturgeon and 90%, if not
the whole tune was taken from the story. I am
almost sure I read it in an Anthology of short sci fi stories and that was about the longest in the book. But then again I visited my home town for the second time in
thirty years and the streets were much narrower. I dont know how they managed those
big old cars. I really dont give a darn about
ripped off lyrics, copywright, etc. This was
something I had stumbled across and was curious about and never recieved an answer to until now. I am sure we will get to the
bottom of this, IT COULDNT HAPPEN NO WHERE
ELSE BABE.