Hey, look, Pete Seeger is the sweetest guy in the world, and in the '40s, Elizabeth Cotten was a maid in his rather privileged family home. Should we hold that against him? Of course not. I'm sure Pete was the first to celebrate her recognition, and I'm sure he didn't try to finagle royalties for Freight Train.

But Lomax made a habit of treating his "discoveries" like musical exhibits and implying that were it not for the Great Alan, none of them would ever have become known. And apparently, an appreciable part of his living consisted of royalties for Goodnight, Irene. These are not the habits of a nice guy.

That said, whether or not Muddy Waters got paid for his 1941 Lomax field recording, Muddy said years afterward that listening to the one copy that Lomax left with him was the turning point in his career, because he realized, as he said, "I can do this!"