It seemed to me that this question of "originality" is an interesting one that merits discussion in a wider context than this particular somg - so I've started up a thread about it - Should we try to be 'original'?

As for Billy Bragg's song, as I indicated, it seems to me that there were valid reasons for him to use Dylan's song as a close model, and they had nothing to do with any inability on his part to write a very different song if he'd chosen to.

There's really no point in dropping stuff like "your sad response" into a discussion.