On Wednesday we reported that Tom Petty had no axe to grind with The Red Hot Chili Peppers or The Strokes for ripping off “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and “American Girl,” respectively. Many of you rock savants responded that Petty himself ripped off The Jayhawks’ guitar riff in “Waiting For The Sun” when he wrote “Mary Jane” (hear snippets of the Jayhawks here, and Petty here), which seems like a fair point to us. There’s more, though: Listening to an advance copy of Petty’s excellent upcoming album Highway Companion, a few Rolling Stone staffers were struck by how much the track “Down South” bears a resemblance to Bob Dylan’s 1965 classic “Love Minus Zero” (lest ye forget, Dylan and Petty were both in the Traveling Wilburys, and have toured together).

Of course, Dylan has lifted his fair share of work, too. The cosmic wheel keeps turning; to prove that we still love all these rock and roll hustlers, here’s a link to Petty’s Yardbirds cover from Bonnaroo:

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “I’m a Man”