Some attorney, actually; it was one William R. Della Croce, Jr. of Boston, an attorney who decided that trademark driving trollies would be a nice way to make some side money. The dispute was settled out of court. The whole story:
Sure, no argument here, but in the 20th century people began to copyright those traditional folk melodies, thus the issue with Woody’s song.
One thing to consider is that while Woody wrote a lot of songs and is very well known for the past sixty years, he probably had little income in his life. It was a different record business. He had a radio show early on which likely didn’t pay much, and he probably threw that away because he didn’t like the rules.
He spent his last ten years in a hospital, and by that point he couodn’t perform much, or record. Ironically that’s when he really started getting attention as the folk boom picked up.
Woody was never in it for the money, other than basic income. He did do things like that copyright notice, kind of careless given his children
When he died, there were two memorial concerts, and if I recall properly they were also fundraisers for the children. He had eight kids, only Arlo, Joady and Nora remain, There was concern at the time that there’d not be enough money for those kids. It turned out okay.
Arlo was a musician when Woody died, just barely, but Nora seems to have become visible in the last twenty years or so for being in charge of the legacy (including getting his songs recorded for the first time, see Billy Bragg and Wilco) and the last time I saw mention of Joady, it was 1976 and the movie “Bound for Glory” was being finished.
When Woody died it was uncertain whether Marjorie’s children would get Huntington’s disease. It would only appear when someone got older.
The foundation for the kids may have morphed into a fundraiser for Huntington’s Disease. I’m not sure but I thought Marjorie had started a foundation for the disease.
Feb 29 was Rare Disease Day, diseases few people have but collectively I guess a lot of people have them, split over many diseases. I’ve got one, but I was surprised to read that some very well known diseases are actually rare. Sickle Cell Anemia, I remember when black kids in school were tested for it, I assumed it was common. And Huntington’s disease is rare too. Which probably means we know about it because Woody had it, and then the family caused awareness. Inititially people tbought Woody was drunk, it took time to figure out he had Huntington’, even though his mother and others in his family had died from it.
Rare Diseases are a problem because their rarity may cause doctors to not notice them. I was amazed that they found mine within two weeks.
And that’s Woody’s legacy too. A rare disease that people know a lot more about.
Given all this, keeping the copyrights are not the evil that some might suggest. Besides, Arlo and Nora won’t bust you for singing one of Woody’s songs at your home.
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They weren’t the first people to set political songs to familiar tunes.
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