When the World's on Fire
"In 1930 the Carters had begun to put African-American sacred songs on record....Maybe the best was 'When the World's on Fire," which had been recorded as "Rock of Ages" by Blind Willie Davis, a black singer-guitarist from McComb, Mississippi. On the Carter record, Maybelle played in Davis's bottleneck-guitar style. Woody Guthrie would be so taken with that melody that he'd make it the basis for his American anthem to inclusion, "This Land is Your Land" -- from Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone by Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg
Yesterday I wrote about the parody of "This Land" from JibJab. Today I read on BoingBoing that the copyright holders to said song have complained the parody copied "the entire melody, harmony, rhythm and structure of the [sic] Mr. Guthrie's song."
The link above is to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has agreed to help JibJab fight off the copyright lawyers. They noted the melody was used on "When the World's on Fire" by the Carter Family. I thought the song was a bit older. It only took a little bit of research to find the earlier example of the song.
Little things like that are peas under my mattress.
(Note: You'll find a snippet of the Blind Willie Davis song at Amazon . Various versions of the song (by the Carter Family and others) can be found at Artist Direct. You can also hear a ghost of the melody on the Carter Family penned song "Little Darlin' Pal of Mine" found here.)
