7. Henry Thomas. Bull Doze Blues
Canned Heat had stolen this one.
Not exactly stolen, but, "Going Up The Country", by Alan Wilson (Canned Heat) was certainly based on "Bulldoze Blues", recorded by Henry Thomas in 1928. That's common knowledge. It's normal for blues musicians to rework old blues songs. Just think about how many versions of Robert Johnson's, "Dust My Broom", have been recorded since he wrote it back in the twenties.
Here's what Rebecca Davis Winters has to say about "Bulldoze Blues" and "Going Up The Country" in her book, "Blind Owl Blues" (2007):
"Both songs sound very similar for a cursory listen, but are really quite distinct from one another. Their lyrics share the theme of travel but use completely different words. They also diverge in that a great deal of Thomas' song is taken up with the panpipes (a total of eight panpipe choruses are played; one as an introduction and one after each verse), while Wilson's use of the flute is much more sparing, including only four solos."
- So, the words are different, and where Thomas use eight panpipe choruses, Wilson uses four flute solos (instead of panpipes).
Of course, one can always discuss how much a song needs to be reworked before one can claim credit for it. I guess there must be some sorta rules for that.
As an aside, Canned Heat made a point of only reworking/re-record old blues songs when they knew the original song writers had died long ago and therefore would'nt receive any royalty money anyway. The royalties for those old songs would usually go to the diseased song writers record company, so there wasn't anything wrong in reworking them and claiming credits for them, although those record companies might disagree, but they had only payed the original song writers a small one time fee for recording the songs, and afterward made a bundle, so why care about them? The black blues song writers back then did'nt exactly get a fair deal when they recorded their songs for a record company.
When the song writer was still alive, Canned Heat split the money with him. For example, when they recorded, "Let's Work Together", by Wilbert Harrison, which became a big hit, the writer's royalties went to Wilbert Harrison and his publisher, while the Artist royalties went to Canned Heat.