Tom Bliss
"After all, who wrote the song is a lot less important than who chose keep on singing it and to pass it on to the next generation."
"I find this couplet more puzzling than anything I've encountered in the world of folk."
I assume that as this thread is aimed at 'folkies' we are talking about folk songs which are almost universally anonymous and have passed through a process which have earned them their spurs as 'folk'. Nobody would begrudge you recognition nor remuneration for songs you have composed; the fact that you have attached your name to them, makes them yours. What is difficult to understand that songs which have passed through so many adaptations by so many singers over countess years so that the original composers identity has been forgotten, if it was ever known, belong to either everybody or nobody?
Jim Carroll