Fred Dyer seems to be reasonably friendly and Amos' song harmless, but in principle it is an interesting question: Does a songwriter have to make sure that all his statements are correct when using a name or something else that identifies who is meant, even if he relies upon a newspaper report?

Christy Moore lost a lot of money in a lawsuit for writing They never came home and the song had to be replaced by another on the LP. As far as I know he relied upon newspaper articles when writing a line of the song and this particular statement of fact was hotly debated in a lawsuit and Moore lost.

Christy Moore still has the relevant line blacked in his autobiography 'One Voice'. It is the line 'And all just because the fire exits were chained' in the third verse.

But that is serious threadcreep in a lighthearted thread. Though I still wonder.

Wolfgang