Found this on the alt.music.canada site: ****************************************
From: JaneDoh38 (janedoh38@aol.com)
Subject: Re: Gordon Lightfoot
View: Complete Thread (12 articles)
Original Format
Newsgroups: alt.music.canada
Date: 1999/05/09
>There are many contemporary artists who have "meaning" and will
>be remembered. Some are quite Canadian in fact (thinking about the
>Rheos here, who do a phenomenal version of Ed Fitz)
I had said my piece, made my point and was prepared to move on, but you had to
go and mention the Rheos.
If they aren't a perfect example of disrespect of a legend, I don't know what
is. They did something so disgusting and repugnant, that I don't know how the
hell they weren't sued for it.
They took Gord's great song about the Edmund Fitz, recorded it, used it for
their own profit and gain, and then had the nerve to accuse Mr. Lightfoot of
stealing the melody!
It seems that some hitchhikers from Ireland once told them that it the melody
was from an old Irish folk song from the town of Derry. It turns out an Irish
folk singer named Christy Moore, had recorded a protest song called "Back Home
in Derry" and used the melody from "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." But
somehow the hitchhikers and the Rheos thought that the song preceded
Lightfoot's. In reality, Moore's tune came out in 1984, a full six years after
Lightfoot's song was released and Mr. Moore credits Gordon Lightfoot as the
author of the melody.
I understand that we are all human and people are allowed to make mistakes. It
is quite possible that the Rheos really did think that the Irish tune was older
than the song about the Fitzgerald, but they certainly have been given the
correct info since then, yet their website still has the erroneous and
inflammatory statements about Gordon lifting the melody. They have never
apologized or admitted they were wrong. In my opinion, this makes them the scum
of the earth. Harsh words, I know, but to accuse a songwriter of stealing a
song is reprehensible. To then actually record that person's song and call him
a thief while doing it, is an act so foul and despicable that they have earned
my utmost contempt. I'm sorry, that I'm giving them more attention then they
deserve, but the fact that someone would use them in a thread about Gordon
Lightfoot, in order to make a point about what great contemporary Canadian
groups there are, is an irony so massive that it could not stand uncommented
on.
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See also a discussion on this site at
http://www.corfid.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000023.html