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Talk:Broken Wings (Gibran novel)

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Inaccurate non-corroborative source

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"The song "Blackbird" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney was also inspired by the novel.[2]" This references a non-authoritative source that itself makes assumptions about the inspiration. The source claims that the Beatles used a line from a different work by Kahlil Gibran in a different song therefore they must have been inspired by Khalil while writing Blackbird. This is a logical fallacy. In addition the line they cite from the second work is only partly similar to the Beatles line. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.16.130.17 (talk) 10:37, 16 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. "Take these broken wings and learn to fly" is not in the translation of the book, yet is in both songs [1]. It's true the Mr Mister songwriter claims to have been inspired by the novel, but that claim seems to be self-serving, like an argument he might make if McCartney decided to go after him for plagiarism. Paul has talked extensively about the meaning and origins of the song and never that I can find mentioned Gibran [2]. All that remains is the fact that Julia took inspiration from Gibran, but that means nothing. For one, Lennon wrote Julia [3]. Just because John Lennon was familiar with and drew inspiration from one work of Gibran, doesn't mean we can assume Paul was familiar with and took inspiration from a different one, especially when I don't find any connection beyond the two word phrase "broken wings". Gripdamage (talk) 19:56, 12 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
"Richard Page: It was a mindless unintentional reference. As a matter of fact, in all honesty, John [Lang] got that from the Khalil Gibran book called The Broken Wing. He actually went to Khalil Gibran’s estate and asked for permission to use it which made me wonder if that was where Paul McCartney got it, too, but who knows?

In any case, the sequence of those words is very close to “Blackbird” and I was not even aware of it, believe it or not, until it became a hit. Somebody pointed it out to me and my heart sank. I just felt like, “Oh wow, we shouldn’t have done that.” But it was no big deal because legally it’s not a copyright infringement so it’s all good. Actually I hung out with Paul not too long ago in New York with Ringo."

Again this guys story is totally self serving and makes no sense. His partner had to go to Gibran's estate and get permission because two words in the song share the title of a book, and yet 7 words lifted directly from another song "aren't copyright infringement"? I take no position on whether Paul could win a lawsuit or not, but that story is ridiculous. Gripdamage (talk) 20:16, 12 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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