The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #20317 Message #2702859
Posted By: GUEST,MtheGM
18-Aug-09 - 02:04 AM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Tree Song / Oak, Ash and Thorn (Kipling)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Tree Song / Oak, Ash and Thorn (Kipling)
All the tunes in Pete's The Transports ballad opera were his original compositions, apart from those used for the narrator's threads. One of them, tho, as I and others pointed out to him, I Once Worked In Service To A Lady So Fine, bore a strong resemblance to Fair Maid On The Shore. He swore he had never heard that tune, & asked me how it went. When I sang him a verse, he agreed that indeed he must have heard it somewhere and been unconsciously influenced by the recollection. But all those other superb songs do demonstrate his talent for original tunes. I once asked if he wwould authorise my recording DannyDeever/Derwentwater with Northumbrian smallpipe accompt [in fact I never did]: he replied that, as he had no rights of his own over words or tune, he didn't think he could claim copyright in the idea of combining them. As I have said on another thread, Best Song Of 60s, I think his Farewell To The Land, his own words set to a Copper Family tune, is the best original song of the whole Folk Revival.