I met Barrie early in 1970, being taken to the Fitters by friends and heard Barrie sing Sunday Papers, I was most impressed and mentioned it to colleagues at work two of whom had known Barrie one from his arrival in Walsall and another since their arrival in the later 60ies. They both remembered Barrie writing that song and writing the "Knock on the Door in the Knight Squad"

Sorry Molly, but unless you can assure me that the song on the 1984 album was written before 1968 then your claim that your father wrote that song is false. Whilst your father never ranked in any of Barrie's circles of infamy, like the people who published translations of his books and forgot to pay him the royalties due, your claim of people tarnishing your dad's memory tarnishes that of a very dear, if somewhat flawed, friend of mine.

The 'stealing' of melodies and songs is however a legit part of the folk tradition. It is normally done as the singer acquires a repertoire and this process of accretion leads to a feeling of ownership. It progresses to though the "can't find out who wrote this" phase to a claim it as mine and if the author objects I'll just say "oops sorry, it was a clerical error I didn't spot!"

Barrie was most pissed by the attempts of a certain Mr Zimmerman to copyright many a melody from the folk tradition, had it not been for the song "Boots of Spanish Leather" he would have joined Czech and Turkish publishers in these circles of opprobrium.