I've said this before on another thread but Dylan built his song around Dominic's Patriot Game. Compare the following verse:

My name it means nothin',
My age it means less,
The country I's born in
Is called the Midwest
I was taught and brought up there
God's laws to abide
And the land that I live in
Has God on it's side

to Dominic's:

My name is O'Hanlon,
I'm just seventeen,
My home is in Monaghan
'Twas there I was weaned
I was taught all my life cruel England to blame
Which makes me a part of the Patriot Game.



It's obvious Dylan heard Dominic's song before writing his own and he probably didn't know the tune was trad. I discussed Dominic's song with Dylan before he wrote With God on our Side.


In answer to the last posting, I would say the original song is The Nightingale, melody as per Jo Stafford and Burl Ives. People sometimes confuse this Nightingale with the other trad ' ... and they both sat down together to hear the Nightingale sing ...'

Also Guthrie's 1913 Massacre could be the source melody.