[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by johnfowles

A slightly different comment here:-
"I heard about it on the television 3 1/2 hours after it happened and got to work using an old Irish dirge as the base" or words to that effect

As confirmed in another interview at:-
http://www.louisville.com/content/go...ife-song-music
"It came into play when I heard about it on the television set about three and a half hours after it happened. At about 11 o'clock in the evening when I was working at my house, and I was on a roll, and I was working on three or four songs, it just dropped in there...and it got done quickly.” He said that the tune he had in mind was similar to an old Irish dirge, a melody from somewhere in his past and the maritime tradition in Canada of the old Irish and Scottish songs that his ancestors had brought over with them.