Steal Like an Entrepreneur, with Austin Kleon
By Brian Clark
The other day I was listening to the “classic alternative” channel on SiriusXM. “Message of Love” by the Pretenders was on.
In the song, Chrissie Hynde sings:
“We are all of us in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars.”
Wait a minute … didn’t Oscar Wilde say that in the late 1800s?
Or how about when the late, great Kurt Cobain sang:
“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.”
That’s a line from the 1961 novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Yes, musicians steal lyrics. Perhaps the most honest admission of this fact comes from Wilco on a track from …read more
