Dear Malcolm: copyright is an important question and I do not disregard it. At that time here in the states, the rule on it was: life plus 50 -- i.e., fifty years after the death of the writer or composer. What was/is the British copyright deadline? If it was extended, when and by whom? I do have a more jaundiced attitude toward anyone milking a cash cow long after the original artists are gone, especially if the driver in the song really is traditional; hence my original question: is the chorus an older song? Did the composer lift a fisherman's chant? This is what I want to know.

Yours, MA