Out of Step

I feel like the soldier whose mother calls out at a parade: "Look! My boy's the only one in step!"

Why does no one else seem to share my three big beefs?

In 1966, track 7 on his Jack Orion album, Bert Jansch recorded a fine version of 'Black Water Side'.

Years later - too many to plead concidence - one James Page, guitarist with a combo known as Led Zeppelin, blatantly copied Jansch on a track he thinly disguised as 'Black Mountain Slide' or perhaps it was 'Side'.

And yet one still hears of him referred to in almost laudatory tones.

In 1963, a girl group known as The Chiffons recorded a superb song called 'He's so Fine'.

Many many years later, a guitarist called George Harrison pretended to have composed a ditty called, 'My Sweet Lord', as obvious plagiarism as I have heard.

Research also reveals that Harrison performed with a popular songster quartet known as The Beatles (further information here).

Today's news includes coverage of the arrival in a northern city of the disgraced footballer, Mr Diego Maradona. As I recall, there is overwhelming evidence of Mr Maradona having once used his hand to guide a soccer ball into the opposing net.

Rules of the game penalise this sort of play, and yet even today one sees this Latin afforded the same publicity as some sort of athletic celebrity.

Is the world topsy-turvy?