I know this subject has been touched on in other threads, but I don't remember seeing a free-standing thread about it.

For most of us who sing, we learn songs frozen in time... frozen on a recording, or on the pages of a book. But, songs don't tend to stay frozen for long. And thawing is as much of a part of the "folk process" as is preservation. There are a lot of reasons why words get changed to songs... some come from a desire to make the song your own, and smooth out an awkward line, some are to remove racially loaded connotations, and some are just old-fashioned laziness. For those of us who love and cherish the tradition, changes are made with at least some level of respect for the original.

For songwriters, it can be difficult to witness the changes someone has made in "your" words. It can also be a pleasure, and the changes may be seen as another way of saying the same thing... not better or worse, just different. (It's the same with melodies and chord progressions, by the way.)

I'll give some examples as this thread goes along of changes I've made in words and why, but I'd like to hear from you..

Wotchasay?

Jerry