This is never a topic we'll ever get closure on!

Some composers are only satisfied if their songs are sung exactly as they were written. And if one wants to record their song, one has an ethical and legal obligation to either do just that or not record it.

Other composers are more tolerant of changes, and will even acknowledge that some of the changes are an improvement, or will disagree whether it is an improvement but will not object to the song being recorded that way.

I do get irritated when one of my own creations gets radically altered (say by a band member) before it's had what I would consider a fair test. And I've taken a few songs "back" because of that. At other times I've been very pleased at the changes.

I often do some radical surgery on some of the poems that I adapt for singing, some are way too long and sometimes the words don't sound as good as they look on the printed page. I doubt if any of the poets would be very flattered when I do that, if they were around to comment.

However, with other poems such as "The Outside Track" by Henry Lawson, I've restored a verse that earlier singers had dropped. So sometimes it works both ways, assuming that you know where to find the original poem. On my website I always include my own lyrics as well as the original poem, if any, that I started from.

Still other poems I've worked with could be transformed seamlessly into song and that is a particular delight.

Dick Miles fitted C. Fox Smith's "Sailortown" so well to a tune that I can't imagine it being sung any other way. But I did some major reworking of one verse, and that was a judgment call that I still feel has merit.

Barry Finn doesn't leave much to tinker with after he's recorded a song. And I do believe I've heard a few other groups who have recorded songs that they learned directly from Barry.

And, Chas, sometimes it does take a lot of time to track down a song composer but it's generally a rewarding process in the end, and it's definitely the right thing to do.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble