This is the sixth in a series of examinations of music legends and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the previous five.

Let’s begin!

MUSIC LEGEND: Michael Jackson’s song “Dirty Diana” was about Diana Ross and/or Princess Diana

STATUS: Basically False

For years, Michael Jackson’s 1987 hit song off of the album of the same year, Bad (the fifth single from the album to hit #1 on the charts), “Dirty Diana,” has been rumored to be about Diana Ross and/or Princess Diana.

I think there’s really two ways of looking at this, and it really depends on how slim your definition of a song being “about” someone is.

First off, the people who think that “Dirty Diana” is about either Diana Ross or Princess Diana are obviously just looking at the name of the song, because the lyrics don’t support such a reading.

Take a look at a couple of verses from the song before I tell you who Michael Jackson (the writer of the song) and Quincy Jones (the producer of the song) both say the song is about.

She likes the boys in the band
She knows when they come to town
Every musician’s fan after the
curtain comes down
She waits at backstage doors
For those who have prestige
Who promise fortune and fame
A life that’s so carefree

She’s says that’s ok
Hey baby do what you want
I’ll be your night lovin’ thing
I’ll be the freak you can taunt
And I don’t care what you say
I want to go too far
I’ll be your everything
If you make me a star

Now, of course, reading those lyrics right now, what do you think the song is about?

If you say “groupies,” you are capable of putting two and two together and getting four. Well done.

To go one step further, both Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones have specifically said that the song is about groupies.

Here’s Michael Jackson from an interview with Barbara Walters…

Jackson: I wrote a song called “Dirty Diana.” It was not about Princess Diana. It was about certain kind of girls that hang around concerts or clubs. You know; they call them groupies.

Walters: Groupies?

Jackson: I’ve lived with that all my life. These girls…they do everything with the band, you know, everything you could imagine. So I wrote a song called “Dirty Diana.”

Can you even IMAGINE the sorts of groupies Jackson was probably dealing with in the late 1970s and early 1980s? I can’t even fathom it.

So yeah, the lyrics seem to be clearly about groupies, he says it is about groupies, so the song is about groupies, right?

Well, yeah, but here’s where the whole “depends on how you look at it” deal comes in.

It simply canNOT be a coincidence that Jackson just happened to use the name Diana in the song, when he was so close with Diana Ross and Princess Diana was one of the most famous people in the world at the time. I just don’t buy it. I believe that the song was not written about them in the sense that they are not the “Dirty Diana” he describes in the song, but at the same time, I just don’t buy the name of the song as a coincidence.

I think he was thinking of at least one of them when he came up with the name, even if he meant it as a tribute. Jackson has said that he picked the name “Diana” for the song because he liked the name. That might be true, and if so, it is a bit of a tribute to either Ross or the Princess, just a bit like a writer naming a character after a friend of his. If a writer uses a friend’s name for, say, a murderer - he/she is not saying that the friend is like a murderer, he/she is just tossing in a little tribute, and I think that’s at play here.

Does that count as the song being “about” them? I say no (hence the false) but I can see how you could possibly argue otherwise (hence the basically).

As an amusing side note, Jackson pulled the song from his act when he was performing in England and the Princess was in attendance. She told him, however, that she loved the song and insisted he play it. I’m a bit unclear if he did end up playing it or not (he did four shows at Wembley, and I don’t know for sure which one she attended).

MUSIC LEGEND: An American poster company airbrushed a cigarette from a poster of the Beatles’ Abbey Road.

STATUS: True

The cover of The Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road is one of the most iconic cover images in the history of rock and roll.

It also was a big “clue” to those crazy fans who believed that Paul McCartney was dead (note that Paul is the only Beatle not walking in step with the other three AND he is the only one barefoot - PROOF! PROOF!!).

In any event, as you might imagine, such an iconic cover made for a great poster.

However, in 2003, American poster companies got into a bit of a public relations snafu when they actually used airbrushing to EDIT the Abbey Road cover for release in the United States as a poster!!!

In 2001, George Harrison of the Beatles died of lung cancer. Harrison attributed smoking as a leading cause to his cancer.

That possibly might be one of the reasons that some American poster companies actually aibrushed a cigarette out of Paul McCartney’s hand for the poster…

Apple Records, who own the rights to the image, were not asked beforehand and did not know about it until reporters contacted them.

A spokesperson for Apple said:

We have never agreed to anything like this. It seems these poster companies got a little carried away. They shouldn’t have done what they have, but there isn’t much we can do about it now.

Naturally, it appears pretty clear what is going on - it is all a conspiracy to hide Paul’s death from people.

Clearly.

Thanks to the BBC News for the quote!

MUSIC LEGEND: Bob Dylan had an amusing response to The Byrds changing the lyrics to one of his songs.

STATUS: True

Late in 1967, Bob Dylan and the Band got together in the basement of “Big Pink” (a house in Woodstock that a few members of the band owned) and recorded a dozen or so songs. Dylan and the Band had been jamming for most of 1967, mostly recording cover songs of other artists, but as time went by, Dylan soon began coming up with new songs of his own (including a couple of songs he co-wrote with members of the Band).

These songs were generally intended to be demos for other artists to hear to see if they wanted to do their own versions of the songs.

These almost mythological jam sessions were officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes.

In early 1968, the cover versions from the album soon began pouring in, most notably with Manfred Mann’s cover of “Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn),” which was a smash hit for the British group (it went to #1 in England) under the name “The Mighty Quinn.”

Most of the songs were given to other artists at Columbia (Dylan’s record company at the time), like the Byrds, who recorded two of the songs on their classic country rock record Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

The Byrds recorded “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “Nothing Was Delivered.”

On “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” however, the Byrds changed a line in the song (seemingly by accident, as it is a small change that would seem too slight to be purposeful).

Instead of saying “Pick up your money, pack up your tent,” the Byrds say “Pack up your money, pick up your tent.”

Well, in 1971, Dylan decided to record some of his Basement Tape recordings to put on to his 1971 Greatest Hits Volume 2. One of the songs he chose was “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.”

Dylan decided to take the opportunity to take a good-natured swipe at Roger McGuinn, guitarist and singer for the Byrds (who sang “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” on the album) by changing the lyric HIMSELF to basically the Byrds’ new lyric, only adding, “Pack up your money, put up your tent, McGuinn.”

McGuinn seemed to be delighted at the attention, and I know I’ve seen him talk about the line a number of times over the years.

In 1989, McGuinn guested on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s all-star second volume of their classic 1972 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken (also an all-star album), Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two.

The first single off of the album was a cover of “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” sung as a suet between Roger McGuinn and his former Byrds band mate, Chris Hillman (their first time singing together in years).

On the tune, McGuinn gets his revenge, of sorts, by changing the lyric once again to:

“pack up your money, pick up your tent, Dylan.”

Here’s a YouTube clip of the song…

Thanks to vickieburns3 for the clip!

Okay, that’s it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com