G'day yet again,

I still can't think of the author's name (undoudtedly it will come to me the moment I stop trying!).

The bit about the transposition is unclear - as the song is written out here, what I refered to is a transposition of the second and eighth words of the first line to: "Oh, dream of the morning with a cock in your hand,".

A reversal like this can lurk in the back of your brain and surface, unbidden, in the middle of a song. Two singers have mentioned this in respect of this song and I suspect it happened to Martyn ... and that is why he changed the line.

Then again, it could just be the persistence of an established phrase: the well-known line of the Scots song slipping in and displacing the correct wording and taking up permanent residence.

I'll be back as soon as I can remember the author's name. She was a well-known character about the literary scenr here; a larger than life blonde who actually played a sort of Marylin Monroe / Mae West character in a minor local film - as well as being an outspoken, left-wing author in a decidedly right-wing, traditionalist, male-dominated society.

Regards,

Bob Bolton