[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by charlene

http://www.sungazette.com/page/conte....html?nav=5016
(Part of that long and interesting article)
"Lightfoot said he may have borrowed the song’s hook from an Irish folk song he heard in the early 1960s. He credits his band with creating the seafaring theme that cradles his desperate lyrics."

I don't know about anybody else but I found that to be a stunning admission hitherto I thought it was agreed that the similar sounding song "I Wish I Were Back Home in Derry" which was recorded by Christy Moore using lyrics penned by the Irish martyr Bobby Sands was a crib of Gord's TWOTEF

YouTube - back home in derry christy moore

That's a very unimaginative and exceedingly boring "video" but nevertheless it is fascinating I had never heard that before, makes you think donnit??
this might entail the editing the Fitz wiki at:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wre...und_Fitzgerald
which currently confidently states:-
"The tune and rhyming structure were borrowed in 1984 byChristy Moore for his song, "I Wish I Were Back Home in Derry," which is itself an adaptation of Bobby Sands's poem, "The Voyage."
The song in fact seems to be about an 1803 voyage down under by Irish involuntary "immigrants"
but on:-
http://edit.mp3lyrics.org/s/seven-nations/back/
it doth say
"Back Home In Derry
(Traditional melody; lyrics by B Sands)"
perhaps the last words should be as stated by the aforementioned Christy Moore as pasted in as a comment on that youtube video and originally on his own web site at:-
http://www.christymoore.com/lyrics_t...tail.php?id=74
"CHRISTY’S COMMENT
I was playing in Derry and staying with The Barrett Family. After my gig we were gathered in Chamberlain St having a banter and drinking tea when a bit of singing broke out. A lad, just home from The Blocks, sang these verses and subsequently wrote out the words for me. At the time the name Bobby Sands was not known to the world as it is today. The following night I played in Bellaghy where the same process took place when I stayed with Scullion. Later on he "sang" McIlhatton for me and told me it had been written by Bobby Sands with whom he had shared a cell while "On the Blanket". The name was becoming known to me.
He used the air of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald from Gordon Lightfoot, an air which I suspect has earlier origins. My version of Bobby's song is shorter than the original.
"