wrapped in influences

"There is nothing new under the sun."
Wondering, "Who said that? Who is the famous person who made that statement, which became a quote?"
--------------
Ecclesiastes, that's who.
didn't know, was biblical.
--------------------------
"What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun."
--Ecclesiastes 1:9

--------------------------------------

Listening to that Neil Diamond CD, came upon a song called "Done Too Soon" --

Jesus Christ, Fanny Brice,

Wolfie Mozart and Humphrey Bogart and

Genghis Khan and

On to H.G. Wells.

Ho Chi Minh, Gunga din....

and it goes on like that -- bunch of people, through History.

And I thought, "That reminds me of something."

Billy Joel.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio.

...

Rosenbergs, H-bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom,

Brando, "The King And I,"and "The Catcher in the Rye"...

...

We didn't start the fire, it was always burning,

since the world's been turning....

-- a song called "We Didn't Start The Fire" --he sang it in a real rapid-fire style, you had to listen fast to keep up.

-------------------------------

Both songs about same topic -- world's different yet the same, and People are essentially the same, but they struggle with differences in goals & what they think is right.

Stream-of-consciousness style.

The Neil Diamond song, 1970

Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start...", 1989

So I'd assume Billy Joel was influenced by Diamond's "Done Too Soon."

When I think about influences, I think about that "nothing new under the sun" statement.

Woody Allen has said Jack Benny was a powerful influence & inspired much of his own comedy. Or was it Bob Hope? (OK, Bob Hope.)

Bob Dylan idolized Woody Guthrie and was inspired to find his own style by soaking up Guthrie's style.

In rap music, & hip-hop (and also R & B, I guess) they sometimes use lines from someone else's song, and they call it "sampling." (There's a Janet Jackson song with Joni Mitchell lyrics in it, for example.)

------------------------ And I was very interested to learn, back in the 90s, that the movie "Clueless" was based on the story-line in Jane Austen's "Emma."

------------------

There isn't anything new. And yet everything is new.

-30-