Some singers have been known to change their own words. I'm not sure what he's singing nowadays but I have a recording of Richard Thompson singing "Down Where the Drunkards Roll" where he changes the line "You can be lord Jesus, all the world will understand" to "You can mock lord Jesus, all the world will understand". Then there are those who change tunes. If you listen to someone singing the "City of New Orleans" you can tell whether they learned the tune from John Prine who made it famous or the late Steve Goodman who wrote it.
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