Vert

One of the songs off of Some Beans & an Octopus, namely The Familiar Girl is hugely ripped off — lyrically — from Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn, The Fortress of Solitude, and so much more besides.

I took the idea for the song from a short story of his called out of the Vivian Relf out of the Men and Cartoons collection.

Spurred on by his great essay on plagiarism, the The Ecstacy of Influence, I sent him a copy of the album, and pointed out the, er, similarities. His response?- “It’s terrific, I like the song very much, and the album too! Thanks so much for taking the inspiration”

Finally got round to putting photos from Vietnam online: I played 3 concerts there, 2 as Adam Butler (my seated, après garde alter ego) and 1 as Vert, with a band of Vietnamese musicians, namely Huy the drummer, Thuy the Đàn tranh (traditional Vietnamese 17 stringed zither-like instrument) player and DJ Kruise the turntablist.