'Are you SURE you wrote that?'

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: oldstrings
Date: 03 Nov 10 - 04:03 AM

"I once sent Peter Yarrow the lyrics to this poem I found, called "The Lover's Task", Sugesting that he and the trio (Peter Paul and Mary) should record it. His reply was: "Riddle songs are out." A few years later these two kids who called themselves Tom and Jerry, changed their name to Simon and Garfunkle and recorded the song as Scarborough Fair. And yes PS takes credit for it."

Sharmagne, there are a number of riddle songs similar to Scarborough Fair, and several versions of Scarborough Fair. Paul Simon learned the version he recorded (minus the added bit sung by Garfunkel) from Martin Carthy. I was present at the time; Carthy and Simon were living in the same house.

Sidney Carter wrote Lord of the Dance to the tune of the Shaker hymn
Simple Gifts, and I don't recall him acknowledging the source. He may have learned the tune from Aaron Copland's "Rodeo". Copland, however, did identify Simple Gifts as his own source.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 02 Nov 10 - 04:41 AM

Tattie ~~ many thanks for that beautiful Van Dieman's Land.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 11:11 PM

Genie, Thanks for your reply. I agree with you about the chord patterns, Most common, of course, is 1,4,5(blues) but also a lot in folk and country. Another is 6,2,5,1, the pattern for 'Autumn Leaves', and many many standards, but it also is in 'Alice's Restaurant'.
I just put one together, for a quick gig that started with 1,4,5, then went into the 6,2,5,1..just for good 'measure'..(no pun intended). The melodies are done in a way that the chords are not as detectable, but the listener's ear will draw to what 'should' be heard next, so you accommodate that..but later pop in a 9th or 11th...and it really puts a little 'musical surprise' into the melody. Try it..(my gift to ya'). Actually you can add lot's of different stuff, to mix the melody around a little!

Also, 'Every Breath You Take'(I'll Be Watching You') by the 'Police', the chord pattern is just old 'doo-wop'...with the 9th's added to it!
Have fun with that one! (I don't play it).

Anyway, Best Wishes To You!

GfS

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Genie
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 10:24 PM

GFS, thanks for those hilarious links.   Yeah, it's interesting how often the same chord pattern pops up in so many songs.

But it's quite possible for two very different melodies to have the same chord pattern. That's what "partner songs" and canticles, etc., are about.   "Bill Bailey" and "Just Because" are such songs; they can be superimposed on each other but they are hardly the same tunes. Same goes for the duets Irving Berlin did, such as "Play A Simple Melody" and "I Want To Listen To Rag" or "I Wonder Why" and "You're Just In Love." "It's A Sin To Tell A Lie" and "Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter" - another two very different songs that have the same chord pattern and can be done as a duet.

Come to think of it, how many really different chord patterns are there in blues songs? Or country/western?   Yes, many times the tunes themselves are identical or nearly so. But many more times, the same chord patterns underlie melodies that are not even close to being the same.


And, Stringsinger, the tunes I've heard for The Prisoner Song are not the same as Honky-Tonk Angels / Great Speckled Bird / etc. But I'm not surprised if sometimes that tune is used for The Prisoner Song; it fits well.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 06:09 PM

See and hear here: Barbara Dickson's voice, I think. (Van Diemen's Land)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-Uk7K3lve0

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 05:56 PM

Starts "Come all you gallant poachers": see
http://www.contemplator.com/england/vland.html

HOWEVER: the tune in this link is NOT the one I know: but it does say in the notes in the L-hand column that it is sung to a number of different tunes - adn the version I know IS "Star of the County Down" tune - identical!

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Nov 10 - 05:32 AM

Which Van Dieman's Land vesrion would that be? The one that comes to my mind [Harry Cox's?] is to same tune as Gallant Frigate Amphitryte/Painful Plough.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 08:01 PM

LukeKellyLives mentioned Loch Lomond and Calton Weaver: I didn't see the resemblance at first, probably because they are so different rhythmically, but yes, more or less same sequence of notes: but Red is the Rose is pretty well identical to Loch Lomond.
Anyone else noticed that the first four notes of Flower of Scotland are the same as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi's Nabucco? (And when playing Scotland v Italy the Italian national anthem is like a Verdi aria!)
Even closer to Pachelbel's Canon is the intro to Ivan Drever's "Long December Night".
Another one to the same tune as Star of the County Down is Van Diemen's Land.
Several songs to same tune: Puir Roving Lassie/Kind Hearts and Companions/Green Grow the Laurels (the latter being sung to a variety of different tunes)
"Groovy Kind of Love": straight from a Clementi sonatina.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Stringsinger
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 05:44 PM

"And of course there's always "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes"/"Great Speckled Bird"/"Wild Side of Life"/"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels", and whatever else uses that approximate tune."

The Prisoner's Song: If I Had The Wings of an Angel, oe'r these prison bars I would fly..."
Probably the first recorded of that tune.

The reasonable answer is pretty simple. Tunes are recycled all the time. Even lyric themes in different forms. When a song is folk-like, by definition it is familiar. When it is sophisticated like as in a show song, then it isn't automatically familiar and takes some getting used to as an entity. For example, Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are". One would be hard put to find an antecedent of this tune. The same can be said for Cole Porter's songs or Stephen Sondheim's or George Gershwin's. In the arena of popular music from the 60's on, folk melodies found their way into the radio songs. This means that their popularity was based on their familiarity which came about because those tunes had been heard before in other songs. A lot of this was the result of BMI (Bad Music Incorporated) which came about as a broadcasters rebellion against ASCAP wanting to raise their rates for airplay. Folk-like tunes which didn't come under ASCAP jurisdiction were used freely. (BMI actually means Broadcast Music Incorporated as contrasted from
ASCAP (American Society ofComposers, Authors, Publishers).

A song as an entity requires a uniqueness that transcends lyrics and melodies. Even though Woody probably recycled the tune for "Ludlow Massacre", that song remains unique enough to have motivated Howard Zinn to activism

In short, when it comes to tunes, who cares? Lyrics define the mood and feeling of a unique song which is amplified by an appropriate tune. An original folk tune is a red-herring.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 03:58 PM

..even more.....this is really something....

........looks like somebody's workin' too hard!

I've often heard that 'Coldplay' was notorious for this, but 'Avril LaViegne' and 'Green Day' are even worse!

There's More!!!

GfS

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 03:43 PM

astonishing!

More.......this is amazing!


More to come!

GfS

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Can o' Worms
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 09:54 AM

Samuel, oh how you've changed....

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 07:51 AM

When I hear 'Streets of London' - I think 'Streets of London'.....

Blessed are the simple, for they shall be simplified....

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Acorn4
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 05:00 AM

"Roseville" Fair and "Good to See You" by Allan Taylor seem to be remarkably similar.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 31 Oct 10 - 04:06 AM

Now pay attention!....

This one first...


..and then go here!

Just thought I'd turn you on to that.

Regards,
GfS

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,JB
Date: 30 Oct 10 - 05:27 AM

Has anyone mentioned The Recruited Collier / Sweet Thames Flow Softly - both great songs with pretty similar melodies (as someone pointed out on another thread, - sorry can't remember which)

I sometimes think that what makes a lot of folk songs so great is that they are almost like musical archetypes in a way - I believe that's why they resonate so deeply within (some of) us & hence often get knowingly or unknowingly copied from time to time.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: LadyJean
Date: 30 Oct 10 - 12:19 AM

I refer people to Kipling's poem, "When 'Omer Smote 'Is Bloomin' Lyre"

I will likewise mention that Alan Sherman was regularly sued by singers whose best known songs he had parodied. Harry Bellefonte, was, apparently, one of the first. Sherman parodied his song "Matilda" as "My Zelda". Afterwards, whenever Bellefonte sang "Matilda", someone in the audience would shout "Zelda". I can see why he wouldn't be happy about that.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 09:21 PM

We had a 'local' PRS person turn up at Tudor Folk some years back so we religiously filled in his form - Lyrics/music by Performer , or Trad arr performer - Never saw him again !

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: JohnH
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 05:39 PM

About 100 years ago I helped to run a Trad. English club. I got a letter from the PRS requesting a rake-off. I wrote back that all the songs were of "Ancient or Anonymous authorship so go away..". They suggested that the people who collected should benefit. When I asked "Why..." they stopped writing.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 10:39 AM

The Patriot Game, as Dominic Behan never denied, used one of the better-known tunes of The Bold Grenadier.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Taconicus
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 09:58 AM

Bob Dylan's Dream / Lord Franklin (I believe the melody is older than both of them.)
With God on Our Side / The Patriot Game

No stealing there; Dylan generally gave credit for the melodies he lifted (which practice, as others have noted, is as old as folk music).

Paul Simon also visited/studied with Martin Carthy.

The Pachelbel's Canon melody has been used as the melodic basis for many subsequent songs.

When performers copyright songs that use melodies and/or lyrics from older songs, what's copyrighted is their performance and their arrangement (if there is any difference from the earlier). In such cases, the earlier song is not removed from the public domain. The original song, lyrics, and melody are still in the public domain and may be performed freely. It's only the new arrangement that's protected.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: BobKnight
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 07:05 AM

Tramps and Hawkers/Hatton Woods/I Pity The Poor Immigrant(Dylan)
Scots Wha Hae/Land O' The leal
Goodnight Irene/Ramblin Round

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 06:11 AM

Ralph McTell's "Streets Of London" is Pachelbel's Canon.
Strange, when I hear 'Streets of London' I thing of Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy'

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 06:04 AM

and 100

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 06:01 AM

Some years ago a friend of mine did a gig , and had a Local Singer
do THREE of my mates songs as his own ! Turns out my mate had been bootlegged and a copy passed to the pillock who then moved to a new area and claimed to be a Songwriter using my mates songs ! Dim or What ?? If I ever hear any one claim a song as 'His' when I know it isnt , I would NOT be polite in my comments !

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 05:46 AM

...& talking of Onward Christian Soldiers: when Sullivan wrote his tune for Baring-Gould's words, surely he must have had See The Conquering Hero Comes, from Handel's Judas Maccabæus, ticking round his head somewhere?

~M~

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 05:05 AM

"Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance march used for Land of Hope & Glory, itself sung best (IMO) with the words "Lloyd George knew my father".
Cheers, Rowan <<<<

But that goes even better to Onward Xtn Soldiers by Sullivan!
---
The Act III entracte in Bizet's Carmen begins with what sounds like a steal from Moore's The Minstrel Boy To The War Is Gone.
---
Peter Bellamy used to assert that, tho the linking narrative of The Transports was set to traditional tunes, all others were his own composition. I pointed out to him the strong similarity of I Once Lived In Service to Fair Maid On The Shore. he said I wasn't the first to have made the point, but he claimed he didn't know, had never heard, FMOTS, & asked me to sing him a verse; after which he admitted he must have heard it somewhere once and retained it in his subconscious, the derivation being so manifest.
---
I have remarked elsewhere, on a thread devoted to Tomorrow Belongs To Me in Cabaret & its similarity to The Lorelei, that it is even more like The Rout Of The Blues.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Genie
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 03:44 AM

FWIW, I don't find the tunes to "Blowin' In The Wind" and "No More Auction Block" very similar except for the first half of the first two lines of each verse, and even there the tunes are not really the same.

"Riders In The Sky" does have a melody pretty much an identical to "Johnny Comes Marching Home" - much to my surprise, because the meter/syncopation is so different - but that's only true of the first two lines of the verse.   The second half of the verse is quite different in the two songs.

Which brings me to the question of how similar two tunes have to be before the later work is considered to be "stolen" or "copied," as opposed to merely being "derivative." Lots of music, as well as works in other art forms, is derivative of earlier works.   It's kind of hard for a melody not to have segments that are similar to or even identical to others.
The first 4 bars of "Joy To The World" (not the Hoyt Axton one) are just a backwards scale; it's only the timing that makes that not obvious. But does that mean any piece that incorporates a straightforward octave sequence is copying Lowell Mason?

And if two songs use the same chord pattern and have similar phrasing, I don't think that necessarily makes the tunes "the same." E.g., it's often said that Woody Guthrie "stole" (or borrowed) Leadbelly's tune to "Goodnight, Irene" for "Roll On, Columbia," but I don't hear the two tunes as the same, even though they can be (but aren't always) played with the same chord patterns) and they share some melodic phrases.   

I say if you hear two songs played instrumentally only, and you can tell which is which, then the tunes aren't the same.   "Great Speckled Bird" really IS the same tune as "I Am Dreaming Tonight Of My Blue Eyes," which is the same tune as "The Wild Side Of Life" and the reply "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels."    "Love Me Tender" really is the same tune as "Aura Lee." But many of the other "examples" I hear are really better described as "derivative" rather than "copied."

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Janemick
Date: 29 Oct 10 - 02:40 AM

To bring this thread up to date, John Tams used the tune of Dives & Lazarus for the song 'The Year Turns Round Again'
it is credited as: 'J. Tams, arr. A.Sutton & T. van Eyken'

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 02:04 PM

Ralph McTell's "Streets Of London" is Pachelbel's Canon.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 01:37 PM

Parody is not a defence to copyright infringement in the UK. If it's a substantial reproduction, it's a substantial reproduction.

Now that the USA has joined Berne, I wonder if Sharmagne's grandfather can claim his "droit de paternite". In the UK it is waivable (or, rather, maybe agreed not to be asserted) but I'm not so sure about continental europe.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Jim Lad
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 03:12 PM

Oh, I've seen worse. Much, much worse!

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Sharmagne
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 03:08 PM

>>>>We are an Island...a song about Cape Breton, sounds very much like the Richard Farina tune for Birmingham Sunday. I forget who wrote the CB song or what the actual title is but for   years I kept wondering where I had heard the tune before. Am I right or is it just my imagination ? Both great songs by the way.<<<<

I was wondering if anyone here was familiar with Dickie Fariña!

Raven Girl was one of my favourites.

My grandfather wrote some very well known songs during the depression and he sold them for $25.00 a piece (a lot of money in those days) to people like Bob Nolan, Gene and Roy and Tex Ritter. They had no problem putitng their name on as "author" Even though all they did was cover them and collect the royalties!

To me that is the height of audacity.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Jim Lad
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 03:02 PM

"I once sent Peter Yarrow the lyrics to this poem I found, called "The Lover's Task"," ..........
You probably meant well but you may have all-be-it, unwittingly assaulted Peter Yarrow by sending them your lyrics, uninvited.
(if that's the way it happened)
By even acknowledging that he has received them, Peter opens himself up to all sorts of criticisms and law suits, down the road.
I would strongly advise any songwriter to exercise extreme caution in the way that they choose to pass their work around, no matter how well intentioned.
Not saying that's how it happened, Sharmagne. Just taking this opportunity to make an important point.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: SharonA
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 02:34 PM

Did I miss something here, or has no one yet mentioned the infamous case of the George Harrison song "My Sweet Lord", with tune lifted wholesale from "He's So Fine"?

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Sharmagne
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 02:08 PM

re: Scarbourough Fair.

I once sent Peter Yarrow the lyrics to this poem I found, called "The Lover's Task", Sugesting that he and the trio (Peter Paul and Mary) should record it. His reply was: "Riddle songs are out." A few years later these two kids who called themselves Tom and Jerry, changed their name to Simon and Garfunkle and recorded the song as Scarborough Fair. And yes PS takes credit for it.

At least P,P,&M would publish as "adapted and arranged by"

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 03:23 PM

Sorry Alec, I see my question was ambiguous. Here's a little clarification:
   Lead Belly sings:"Good Night Irene, Good night Irene,
                     I'll get you in my dreams."

   These days most people sing:"I'll see you in my dreams."

   I think I've heard Dr. John and Ry Cooder sing "get you", but most singers say "see you".

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Alec
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 12:02 PM

"I'll see you in my dreams" is attributed to Gus Kahn & Isham Jones.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Jim Lad
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:30 AM

I almost recorded and paid royalties to a "Lady" who claimed she wrote "The Evening Bells". Did a little digging and discovered it was written by Thomas Moore. I cancelled the recording. She and her band haven't spoken to me since.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 10:53 AM

Azizi - Do you (or anyone else) know if it was the Weavers who changed "I'll get you in my dreams" to "I'll see you in my dreams"?

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Jim McLean
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 09:27 AM

No, Jim Lad, no web site. I enjoy researching old Scottish tunes and I used to write and produce, but not any more. Cheers,

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Jim Lad
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 07:08 PM

Jim, you amaze me. Do you have a web-site?

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Jim McLean
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 04:30 PM

I was listening to Maddy Prior singing 'Hush, hush, time to be sleeping' (written by Maddy Prior according to sleeve notes)when I realised that I wrote that!

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Alec
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 03:55 PM

Earlier this evening I was listening to Maddy Prior singing "This is the Truth".I thought the melodic line was very similar to "Marco Polo" in places.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Rowan
Date: 04 Feb 07 - 03:50 PM

Amanda Vanstone was, until recently the Minister for Immigration in OZ, and has just released her bid for a republican Australian national anthem. To my mind the opening lines are a direct pinch from Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance march used for Land of Hope & Glory, itself sung best (IMO) with the words "Lloyd George knew my father".

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Alec
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 10:03 AM

Thanks for those characteristically well researched contributions Azizi.As always you have given us some interesting things to consider.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Azizi
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 09:35 AM

Here's another note I found that mentions the Weavers and another song that it seems this group didn't attribute correctly:

"Goodnight Irene
Along with Woody Guthrie, Huddie Ledbetter is regarded as one of the great American folk song composers and performers. Born near Shreveport, LA in the late 1800s, Huddie's young life was filled with music, traveling, carousing and violence. He did three different stretches in prison in his lifetime, and at the age of 48 was discovered in Angola State Penitentiary by folk song collector John Lomax. Huddie was called "Lead Belly" and played a big twelve string guitar, which he tuned unusually low to imitate the sounds of a barrel-house piano.

Lead Belly was a song collector and an animated entertainer. He was a story teller and a raconteur and a crack musician. He was an improviser who sang blues and work songs, spirituals and pop numbers. Lead Belly was also a skilled composer. Like Guthrie, he had the ability to take old and familiar songs and rework them into fresh material.

Although Lead Belly never achieved great success as performer or recording artist in his lifetime, his songs and legend are inherently woven into the fabric of American folklore and folk music. His impact on American music is so widely acknowledged and strongly felt that Lead Belly was honored as the first inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

"Irene" is Lead Belly's signature piece and he sang it his entire life. He composed it at age twenty-three when his heart was broken by a sophisticated young lady from Shreveport. In 1949 a record of "Irene" was released by a group of folk singers who called themselves The Weavers and the song went to number one. It sold a then unheard of two million copies but sadly, Huddie passed away only six months earlier and never saw the fame or fortune that the success of "Irene" would have brought him.

Source: The Folk Songs of North America, Alan Lomax, Doubleday.
Recordings on file by: Lead Belly, The Weavers.

https://www.oldtownschool.org/resources/songnotes/songnotes_G.html

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Azizi
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 09:26 AM

For those who may be interested, I found this Mudcat thread.cfm?threadid=66111 because someone posted a link to it in the "Lion Sleeps Tonight" thread.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Azizi
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 09:04 AM

And there's discussion on this Mudcat thread thread.cfm?threadid=23813#267105 about the problems that the Weavers and Pete Seeger had with the Solomon Lindo song "Mbube" {"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"; "Wimoweh"}

**

Also, there's the song "Rum & Coca-Cola"

See this excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rum_and_Coca-Cola :

"Rum and Coca-Cola is the title of a popular calypso. Originally composed by Lord Invader and Lionel Belasco, it was copyrighted in the United States by entertainer Morey Amsterdam and became a huge hit, selling some four million singles when a version was released in 1945 by the Andrews Sisters.

Although the song was published in the United States with Amsterdam listed as the lyricist and Jeri Sullavan and Paul Baron as musical composers, the melody had been previously published as the work of Trinidadian calypso composer Lionel Belasco on a song titled "L'Année Passée," which was in turn based on a folksong from Martinique. The original lyrics to "Rum and Coca-Cola" were written by Rupert Grant, another calypso musician from Trinidad who went by the stage name of Lord Invader."...

-snip-

I know there's at least one Mudcat thread about this song, but for some reason, I can't find it by using the Mudcat search engine.

Subject: RE: 'Are you SURE you wrote that?'
From: Azizi
Date: 03 Feb 07 - 08:53 AM

While looking for some other information online:

Done Laid Around
In 1961, Pete Seeger reported that he "...first learned 'Done Laid Around' from Larry Ehrlich of Chicago, who learned it from Paul Clayton, who learned it from Arthur Kyle Davis of the University of Virginia, who got it from a small booklet, published by a now deceased French professor. His original sources, African American folk singers of Virginia, were not listed."

Seeger recorded "Done Laid Around" as "Gotta Travel On" in the 1950s with the popular folk-singing quartet, The Weavers. It was a hit record for them and became one of their many signature pieces.

Source: "Sing Out!" Magazine.

-snip-

I suppose this only applies to this thread if Seeger did not acknowledge his sources for this song.

https://www.oldtownschool.org/resources/songnotes/songnotes_D.html

Recordings on file by: Cisco Houston, The Weavers