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Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Judges Love the Bob Dylan
Alex B. Long's [Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses and Misuses of Popular Song Lyrics in Legal Writing was featured on NPR's fabulous On the Media last weekend. You can get some of the highlights if you listen to the OTM story, but the article itself is, though longish, very readable (even the footnotes).Perhaps the most surprising revelation of the Alito hearings was not that Senator Durbin had such knowledge of arcane Springsteen lore but the bombshell that now-Justice Alito had once attended a "ska music festival."Top 10 bands/people quoted in legal writing:
10. REM
9. Joni Mitchell
8. Simon & Garfunkel
7. Grateful Dead
6. Rolling Stones
5. Woody Guthrie
4. Paul Simon
3. Bruce Springsteen
2. The Beatles
1. Bob Dylan
In case you are wondering, yes, Mr. Long does address the fact that some might take issue with saying Woody Guthrie fits into the cateogry of "Popular" Music.
I can only hope that among the Woody Guthrie lyrics used in legal writing are "Hoodoo voodoo, chooka-chooky-choo-choo True blue, how true, kissle me now..."
2 Comments:
I'm a little disapointed the article makes no mention of Laurence Tribe's quoting the MC5 in his Supreme Court argument in Rust v. Sullivan:
"May it please the court, Kick out the jams, mother fuckers!"
How many songs did Garfunkel write? Long probably should have combined S&G with Paul Simon.
In a slightly related note, I've long felt that Paul Simon would make a better lawmaker than Paul Simon.
By 
Joey de Vivre, at
6:26 PM
