Sheesh, 'Spaw, maybe everyone else "knew" about that one, but I never heard "Masters of War" until last night. I posted the Lyman & Brockway version of "Fair Nottiman Town" because I thought some might appreciate seeing another variant of that melody.

Whistle-Stop, I don't think many of us, if any at all, are finding fault with Dylan for using and adapting old tunes. As I mentioned earlier, I think that is what those old tune are for: the public domain exists to be copied. But someone who copies an old tune doesn't take anything from himself by being up front about where he got the melody. Instead he gives to all of us a gift of his new version, a gift of respect (since he doesn't seem to be trying to mislead) and, to those who didn't know the old tune, a gift of knowledge about our common musical inheritance.

I get the impression from Oscar Brand's book The Ballad Mongers that there was a period when performers were pressured into claiming full authorship of traditional material, in order to provide an additional layer of legal defence for the broadcasters and others. Brand Wrote:

"If I were to sing 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' on a program, the 'music clearance' department would insist on knowning the name of some book or publisher who would be willing to claim authorship."

I find "musical borrowing" a fascinating area of study.

T.