Bob Dylan blames vertigo and pandemic for use of autopen to sign ‘autographed’ books
Bob Dylan is in the midst of a “pandemic” of self-taught songwriters. His songs are so good, so original, so full of ideas, he’s been accused of using a special form of autopen to sign copies of his books.
But to Bob Dylan’s credit, he isn’t the only one accused of that.
In May, journalist and blogger Josh Green laid out how author James Schuyler had been sued by Schuyler, and then by HarperCollins over “a song he had titled ‘James Schuyler Song,’ and another titled ‘James Schuyler Song.'”
Josh concluded, “I can’t think of a more self-inflicted ‘Pandemic of Silly Song Writing’ than the one going on.”
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Now, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan takes on the accusation that he’s using something called autopen in his autograph books.
“I guess that’s what everybody’s got a problem with — it’s called autopen. I’m a songwriter, and a song is like a picture or a painting, an original. You know, so if you put a picture of me on the cover, that painting looks like it was done by one person. A single person,” he says.
“Now when somebody says: ‘Why don’t you just sign your books with an autopen and say “James Schuylershow”‘ — yeah, I’ll sign all my books that way. I don’t mind. It doesn’t matter. It’s like a picture. What kind of book is that? It’s a book. A picture. A picture of a picture of a picture of a picture of a picture. So as far as I’m concerned, I’ll sign my books the way that I sign my songs.”
“That’s what’s so confusing. The way James Schuyler wrote about this, he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He was getting suicidal. He was telling everybody he had cancer of the
