Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'

Subject: Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 04:51 PM

I have today written the following letter to the UK newspaper, the Guardian.

Sir

Today the 19th October Mr Alan Williams writes in your letters page of Ry Cooder's "How can a poor man stand such times as these".   It is a sin of our times to credit performers rather than writers and composers of songs. That song was written and composed by Alfred Reed and first recorded as performed by him on December 4, 1929 in New York City in the United States of America. The Ry Cooder performed version has a different arrangement and re-orders the words. Credit where credit is due, please.

Yours etc

Richard MacDonald Bridge

Subject: RE: Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'
From: pdq
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 05:08 PM

Nice job.

Many people who have little to remember them by, perhaps a song or two.

Subject: RE: Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 05:22 PM

Good on you, Richard.

Subject: RE: Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 08:23 PM

macdonald , that is an interesting middle name,i hope you dont mind me asking, were you named after ramsay macdonald

Subject: RE: Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 09:34 PM

No. My father's best friend killed in the war.

Subject: RE: Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'
From: Stewie
Date: 19 Oct 12 - 09:48 PM

Well done.

There's a beaut tribute to the man from the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on which Tim O'Brien performs 'How Can a Poor Man...': Always Lift Him Up.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Alfred Reed 'How can a poor man...'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 20 Oct 12 - 01:50 AM

I OP'd a thread 3 years ago called Forgotten Writers of Well-Remembered Songs, which attracted several posts like the following, which bear on topic of this thread.

From: Azizi - PM
Date: 07 Sep 09 - 09:18 AM

While I can't think of the names of any specific composers for this thread (which is kinda the point), one of my pet peeves is that on the Internet, the name of a recording artist is often given with the lyrics of a song instead of the song composer's name. That leads some people to believe that the vocalist named is the actual composer of that song.

I have refreshed the thread, as it covered some of same ground as this one as above example will show.

~Michael~