I don't know any songwriter or performer worth his or her salt who hasn't identified a great phrase, or line and made something of it. There's nothing new under the sun, someone famously said. I began in the 1950's coffeehouse era and almost immediately learned of the phenomenon known as "the folk process." There is a great difference, I believe, between adaptation and making something your own and outright plagiarism. The latter is stealing; claiming authorship or ownership of someone else's work.

I've truly enjoyed some of the songs of both Dylan and Mitchell. Some of the work of both has been inspiring and thought-provoking and some of it insipid. At their best, both were at the top of their generation. The last time I saw Dylan, he was unintelligible - NOT enigmatic, but unintelligible.

I guess what I will never understand is the dedicated and passionate fan who refuses to admit to the shortcomings of a hero who had a time in the sun, but is fading. It's unseemly when your hero worship verges on the risk of incontinence.