"It was certainly the case in the days of the oral tradition; noone sang someone else's song without that person's permission: allegedly Cyril Poacher was nearly lynched in Blaxhall when he filled up his LP with 'other people's songs'."
As Walter Pardon said when he heard of two folkie 'stars' arguing about who should sing one of his songs "They're not mine, they're everybodys".
That is certainly not true; it's pne of the great myths of how the traditian was. If singers claimed songs as their own we wouldn't have a tradition. We have many hours on tape of singers describing in (often great detail) how they both taught their songs to others and learned songs from other singers.
"Two Little Boys", "Mozart", "Summertime", "Mad World", "Chasing Cars".... and being fined £5 for singing 'Wid Rover' - I do hope Bryan Creer is reading this!!!
Jim Carroll