Johnny Depp, Jeff Beck Accused Of 'Ripping Off' Lyrics From A '70s Poem

Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck are being accused of scooping up lyrics for their Sad M**********n’ Parade song from a “toast” released in 1974.

According to Rolling Stone, Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck’s popular track has lifted numerous lines from a toast titled, Hobo Ben.

The lines including, “I’m raggedy, I know, but I have no stink,” “God bless the lady that’ll buy me a drink,” and “What that funky motherfucker really needs, child, is a bath” are ripped off straight out of folklorist Bruce Jackson’s book about toasts, Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me, that featured Black singer Slim’s–whose name is a pseudonym–Hobo Ben toast.

Hobo Ben was initially sung by the incarcerated man–whom Jackson dubbed Slim–and documented and released by Jackson in 1974.

Sad M**********n’ Parade is part of Depp and Beck’s album 18, and there is no mention of Slim Wilson, Bruce Jackson, or Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me.

"I’ve never encountered anything like this. I’ve been publishing stuff for 50 years, and this is the first time anybody has just ripped something off and put his own name on it," Jackson expressed his shock and disappointment.