feuds in popular music and film

I've always liked tit for tat in popular art.

I mean those feuds between artists which pepper their work.

The most memorable one growing up was when I discovered as a teen the lyrical cut and thrust between Canadian folk rocker Neil Young and American Southern Rock gods Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The initial salvo was Young's with his song Southern Man on his iconic After the Goldrush LP in the Seventies.

The disparaging lines did not go unnoticed and Skynyrd came back a few years later with a personal repost in Sweet Home Alabama where they actually state that a Southern Man don't need him around.

Coming up to press I discovered a new such artistic skirmish whilst flicking through the Fourtean Times. It concerns films and a gore war.

Apparently modern horror pioneer Wes Craven included a torn Jaws poster in his redneck mutant horror flick The Hills Have Eyes.

Rather than Steven Spielberg coming back on this one [he'll be above all that] it was young horror upstart Sam Raimi who picked up on it and featured a torn Hills Have Eyes poster in his sensational Evil Dead 2! there's mud in your eye Craven!

I am sure there are more of these artistic riffs in song, film and writing. Maybe even in the world of toys and games!

Whether they are gimmicks, devices, memes or tropes I don't know but I imagine my learned friend Bill will.