As an occasional singer of written songs (as opposed to, I guess, not-written ones) I find that I'll sometimes find a line that I just can't hack. One that's either hard to sing or clumsy or just half-assed. And I'm talking about my own songs!

The process of writing goes on forever. The song is a road, and the road goes on forever. No song is ever "finished;" some just escape.

Sometimes something I wrote doesn't sing well, or is clumsy or even just wrong, and it takes a while of singing it to realize that the word or phrase or line doesn't work, or the verse could even be dropped, or two verses shoved together, throwing out half of each to do so. It's a process, and getting there is half the fun. So I rewrite, sometimes on the fly, or change styles and accompaniment.

But I have been known to rewrite a word or two of other folks' songs as well. I sing "Old Bill Pickett," which ends with these lines:

"Old Zack Miller wrote these lines,
And left them there for me to find
To put to music and sing to you."

Well, I didn't find the lines and put 'em to music. So I changed it to:

"Old Zack Miller wrote these lines,
And left them there for me to find
To learn the music and sing to you."

The first version can only be sung by one person -- the writer, Mark Ross, and anyone who sings it as written is essentially taking on Mark Ross' persona as he sings (You can do that in first-person songs like "Oh, my name's Napoleon Boounaparte..." or "My name is is Sam Hall, damn your eyes!", but Old Bill Pickett isn't that kind of song).

There's a Tom Paxton song I sing, "Out of Luck and Out On Another Highway," where he had a bridge that I thought made a damned fine chorus; so I and my friends sing it that way, despite how he wrote it.

So I agree mostly with this thread -- certainly for Eric Bogle's songs, since those are crafted really well, and for lots of others' songs, too -- but reserve the right to fix what I think needs fixing in any song I sing. Call it "personalizing."

And I expect to be taken to task if I let that tendency get out of hand. It goes with the territory.

Bob Clayton