20-X~ 1y THE DAILY TELEGRAPH ARSONS Where did Bob get his Dylan? BOB DYLAN has stunned the personal computing industry by bringing a law- suit against the mighty Apple corporation. The grizzled legend ‘objects “t ieee naming one’ of | ‘inger’s lawyers hat the word’s ROM labels could.be mis isleading,” reports Melo- dy Maker. ‘‘An Apple spokesman pointed. out that Dylan, stands, for ynamic Language 4 id be against Ap ple. However, it is difficult: not. to. “wryseyebi Sat ‘/plaint that the »been misappropriated. Because surely this is exactly what Dylan —. ne’ ‘Robert Zimmerman — did to a deceased Welsh poet.. ; : Or did he? Rather uncon- vincingly, Bob Dylan has always denied lifting his ‘stage name from Dylan _Thomas. He told his first “girlfriend that Dylan was ‘the name of his mother’s brother, a Las Vegas gam- bler. However, the “Uncle Dylan” theory took.a ham- mering when his mother . told a reporter that there was ‘no one in her family ‘with that name or anything _ dike it. But Dylan — who started. /using his adopted name in 1959 and changed it legally ‘in 1962 — has always been adamant that he owes noth- “ing to the sozzled seer of Swansea. “Straighten out in your book that I did not take my name from Dylan Thomas,” he told biographer Robert Sheldon, who happily . obliged by suggesting that {Dylan possibly named him- self after Matt Dillon, the hero of the Fifties tele- | vision series Gunsmoke. “But surely that would have made him Bob Dillon? Or Matt Zimmerman? “I needed a name in a hurry and I picked that “one,” Dylan told another “biographer. “...the name just came to me. Wasn’t Dy- lan Thomas at all.” Pull the other one, Bob — it’s got a harmonica on. But fh Jet’s give the guy a break. For 30 years his name — whereverhe got it from as. bi nonymans ith Dynamic language? That’s his stock-in-trade. Which no doubt is why he plans to see Apple in court. This is not Apple’s first run-in with the world of rock and roll. Melody Mak- er reports that the com- pany “is still in litigation with the surviving .mem- bers of the Beatles and their label Apple Corps”. But things could be worse. Apparently there is no truth in the rumour that the rabbit from Magic Roundabout is also about to sue Apple. m@ COWARD or martyr? Selfish weakling or tor- tured genius? The great Kurt Corbain debate con- tinues to rage in the corre- spondence page of Rolling Stone as America argues over the significance of Co- bain’s short, sad life. There are not too- many suicides in the record industry. A drugs overdose, a plane crash, choking to death on your own vomit — or even someone else’s vomit — all this is old hat. But suicides are very rare. And so America is divided as to whether Kurt Cobain should be considered a star- crossed hero or a gutless cop-out. “| Initially, Rolling Stone’s knee-jerk reaction was to elevate Cobain to rock and roll Valhalla with Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and John Lennon. He’s dead, ergo he’s dead good. How- ever, a surprising number of the magazine’s reader- ship objected to seeing Co- bain portrayed as a tragic spokesman for his genera- tion. The Saint Kurt con- tingent is now fighting back, although there are still plenty of dissidents. Does rock music have a future in America? Not when they are incapable of mournin, ing the only interest- ing rock musician they have produced over the last 10 years. But fortunately some Rolling Stone readers still care about exciting new bands. “Your article really got me interested in the Roll- ing Stones,’ writes 14- year-old Jamie Dalbesio of Philips, Wisconsin. “They’re really bitchin’.” Perhaps rock music does have a future in America. But it will look exactly the same as the past.