Guest Gerry ---
   All you have to do is listen to the original version by Billy Edd and the cover version by Richie Havens and you could figure out what I meant...
   Billy Edd wrote a coal mining song: "I used to have an old man and he worked in the mine/He never saw the sunlight but oh Lord he kept on tryin'/Then one day my daddy he up and died, my old man up and died, my daddy up and died/Oh, he had to fly away and the only way to fly was to die"...
    Richie sang it this way: "Now I had a woman, lord she lived down by the mine/She never seen the sun, oh lord never stopped trying/Then one day day my woman up and died/Lord she up and died now, oh Lord she up and died now/She wanted to fly and the only way to fly is die, die, die"
    Cover versions by other artists strayed even farther from the original lyrics - e.g., I knew a man who lived inside his mind; I had a woman who was blind, etc etc.
    I understand that's part of music and covering another songwriter's song, but in some cover versions, the altered lyrics really didn't make much sense...
                           Tony