"One of Dylan's most distinguished songs, The Lonesome Death Of Hatty Carroll, does have a tune that seems to be Dylan's own..."

Only one? Really? And such a simple monotonic chant, at that?

I think it would be nearly impossible to create as many songs as Bob has without borrowing phrases here and there, both musical and lyrical. As he famously said himself, when asked about his "influences," "All you have to do is keep your ears open and you can't help but be influenced."

Let me also point out that a preponderance of the songs itemized as being most obviously based on older material are Dylan's earliest compositions, from the 2-to-3 year period prior to the recording of his first album. In other words, from when he was learning to be a songwriter. I think it's obvious that his strategy for personal development as an artist worked.

Of course, the subject of this thread is "Stolen melodies," not stolen lyrics.

With all the decades-long discussion of Bob-as-poet, and about his lyrics, we tend to forget that he produced music as well as words, and that NOT every one of his melodies was "stolen" or even "borrowed."

One special favorite of mine among Dylan melodies is "Just Like a Woman." Beautiful piece of music that stands on its own even as an instrumental, in my opinion. Can anyone name a trad song from which THAT melody was nicked? I don't know of any such piece...

That's just one example. Dylan wrote some great melodies. Even in the lengthy article supplied by Spaw, there are many instances where the author makes note of a single word or phrase that can be found elsewhere in the canon, and concedes that the rest of the song in question is original...

Have I convinced any Dylan-haters to come over from the Dark Side? Hmmm, probably not. Just wanted to have my say, nevertheless.