Sandy,

There are other Pete Seeger songs that borrow melodies from traditional songs and are credited as Seeger compositions. "Quite Early Morning," which takes its tune from "Lonesome Valley," comes to mind.

One of Tom Paxton's uses of a traditional melody that comes to mind is "Katy," which uses the tune from "The Rites of Man."

The period when Utah Phillips was not copyrighting his songs was fairly brief. He changed his mind when he realized that record companies, etc. would just be keeping the songwriting royalty money for themselves. For example, Emmylou Harris' recording of "Green Rolling Hills" at the the height of her commercial popularity would have generated thousands of dollars in income.

Like you, I generally avoid these discussions as well. But I decided to jump in because one person in particular is being taken to task for doing something that was a common practice in folk music long before he did it.

BTW, one of the most gorgeous songs of the last couple of years is "Cut By Wire," co-written by John Gorka and Geoff Bartley. John hasn't released his version yet, but it's on a Geoff Bartley album and also on Mary Black's new album. Its tune is from "Bob Dylan's Dream," I mean "Lady Franklin's Lament."

Mike Regenstreif