Gene E wrote: I've read that many of them believed that if they gave their music away, they would become immortal.

Therapin wrote: The one thing I wonder, though: if the song is not the performer's, but rather belongs to the tradition (or whatever), how does the performer guarantee HIS immortality as opposed to, say, the person who sang it in the generation before or after him?

I think the singer/creator knows that what he is putting out is authentic and meaningful, and cares that it lives on beyond what he alone can do. If he can turn others on to it, regardless of meaningless things like credit, he does in fact live on...or at least the message does. What else or more can you do?

MA