The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #140676   Message #3797812
Posted By: Stringsinger
26-Jun-16 - 02:54 PM
Thread Name: Hank Williams & plagiarism
Subject: RE: Hank Williams & plagiarism
The tune for Blowin' In the Wind is based on the traditional spiritual, No More Auction Block For Me.

Stravinsky said he never plagiarized. He downright stole.

Guess what, that's what folk music does, the reason there are so many variants
of one song. Only difference is that in the 60's, some pro folkies claimed copyrights on trad songs for money. I was surprised to find that Lou Gottlieb of the Limelight's wrote "Rock About My Saro Jane". On the flip side of the argument, no large percentage of the public would ever had heard "Tom Dooley" if it hadn't been for the Kingston Trio who put the hiccup in the "hang down your head Tom......" which popularized the song. BTW they got their version indirectly from the Folksay Trio, Erik Darling, Bob Carey and Roger Sprung on Asch/Stinson Records in the 50's. Derroll Adams was cheated out of his due royalties by John Stewart of the KT.

Music business is shit.