Just ignore Nula, if u check his channel he goes from video to video flameing people, trash talking, and being an extreme hypocrite. Check for yourself.
Your lack of music....is your own. You said..."no idea what this song's about. a horse drinking wine? Oy Vey! But I always liked this ditty." As though your frame of reference about "music" is important, matters. Does not, on any level. You said you don't know of what you speak, no clue about the song...yet, you still yammer?
People,people, people.Just enjoy the song and the memories! This was the first song I learned on the guitar. I'm 58 now and I don't think I was more than 6 or so when my brother and I used to sing this. Great song!
So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Or, Come back to Jamaica, what's old is what's new...(ad campaign from the 80s) They all use the same melody.
@samdunaway0496 Are you kidding? Didn't you read the whole comment? The last sentence is "THEY ALL USE THE SAME MELODY". That's all. Stewball is an old traditional folk song and the same melody is used in the other two songs as well. That's the only point I was making. And I'm repeating myself so that my message is clear. Look at some of the other comments. Other people are making the same point.
This song is forever ... my older sister taught it to me as it had been taught to her from my Grandparents and them before ... I still hear it with an Irish brogue. This song is beautiful ... and always will be. I put it in with bagpipes and other folk music that is instilled by the fog and the hills and the love of those that came before us to give us love of family, food, life ... and sometimes death.
Sorry @moulinproductionstm: I guess what I meant is, that in listening to this, as a woman mezzo-sometimes-alto, I'm most prone to pick up Mary's line and it isn't at all hard for me personally. Nor is the melody line either, but the hardest is the second man (Paul?). I CAN find it if I listen carefully enough; but it also involves dropping my voice a couple octaves which again, for me personally, isn't "natural".
@moulinproductionstm: interesting comment. But I've always found that if one can sing harmony, one will find one's own relative pitch and position within the harmonic structure. If one has to resort to sheet music then one may not necessarily have the inate ability to sing harmony - just sayin'...
The melody for PPM's version came from the Greenbriar Boys, who recorded the song a year or so before PPM. PPM had claimed copyright credit, and I understand that the matter was settled out of court. There's a clip of the Greenbriar Boys' original version on YouTube.
This reminds me of my college days. Drinking beer & singing along with Peter, Paul & Mary. By the way, it was legal in those days for 18 year olds to drink. It was a long time ago. But I hear this now and find myself smiling ear to ear. Great memories, great friends & great beer.
@satandeej - I sang this to my son many nights back in the 80's. He still loves the song to this day at age 30. He says "Who wouldn't love a song about a drinking horse?" Nice you have that childhood memory.
I was told in the sixties by a busker in London that Stewball is about a young lad at a fairground who lets his imagination run away with him whilst watching the fairground galloper horses on the carousel.
So Lennon used a traditional melody for his song - what's wrong with that? There are hundreds of popular songs that do the same. He never claimed the melody was his own, people only think that because his song is better known.
When Mine That Bird was running the Kentucky Derby all I could think was how life imitates art. As he was pulling away winning I kept thinking and singing Stewball.
In America, the Stewball ballad was "...most popular in the Negro south, where the winning horse is known variously as 'Stewball' or 'Kimball," and was apparently one of the chain-gang songs. The song was recorded by Leadbelly in 1940 (cd available via the Smithsonian Museum), by Joan Baez (album title Joan Baez/5), by Peter Paul and Mary, and a number of successive artists.
Well, The Chiffons sued George Harrison, not the Beatles, when Harrison recorder My Sweet Lord, Beatles had splited a couple years earlier.
Also this song es about race horse foaled in 1741, and early version of the song were recorded bt Woody Guthrie about 1930-1940. John Lennon wasn't the only one to write songs over this tune. ther are other songs by other groups. Lennon song has similar meter and tune.
Several sources cite variations on this melody and lyric going back to 18th century England. This is folk music, and melodies and lyrics are borrowed, rearranged and generally fiddled with. Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and even John Lennon are doing what others have done for centuries before them.
@mszen8 - My son recently taught me to play guitar, and "Stewball" was the first song I wanted to learn, and it was the first of three songs I did learn and can now play. If you do learn to play it, it will make you really happy. Good luck with your dreams.
True. Lennon "borrowed" the melody from Stewball tune written by the Greenbriar Boys in the 60's and preformed and recorded by Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary and others.
@oldfart269 I believe that I've read somewhere this song dates back to the 1760's or so, in Britain. Not entirely sure how acurate the information was, but thats what someone else had posted awhile ago.
The tune to "Happy Christmas/War is Over" sounds suspiciously close to this tune. Oh, well, it wouldn't be the first tune John Lennon pirated. Anyone remember the "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" controversy? The Chiffons sued the Beatles because the tune in "My Sweet Lord" sounded too close to the tune in "He's So Fine."
@oldfart269 - this draws on such an ancient, common chord progression and melodic pattern there are probably thousands of songs out there that sound a lot like this one - some older things that PP&M (or whoever wrote this) never heard, and some newer things by people who have never heard this. Same with "My Sweet Lord" (which was actually George Harrison's compositional/legal headache). Music theory allows for a limited number of possible basic songs, and they have surely all been used by now.
@LanakilaIesu So, I think the real opportunity for originality in musical composition today probably lies more in lyric writing, harmony, form, and other "big picture" aspects of a composition.
@LanakilaIesu I'm not talking about common chord progressions, I'm talking about MELODY. You can have the same chord progression between two (or more) songs, and the melodies would be completely different. Using "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" as the example, the melody stands out in both songs. The problem is, the Chiffons had it first. It's the same with "Stewball"/"Happy Christmas." The melody stands out between both songs. The problem is, Peter, Paul and Mary had it first.
@oldfart269 I responded to your other comment with some of my own that I think should clarify what I was talking about. (And naturally, if anybody deliberately had plagiarized in either case, it would be an unfortunate and unnecessary choice for a talented person to make.)
@LanakilaIesu Music theory allows for a limited number of basic songs? By whose count? We have 13 major keys, 13 minor keys, the church modes, pentatonic scales, twelve tone rows, and atonal music. Each domain, as it were, allows for variance. That is what makes modulation within a key, as well as to another key, possible. It is still much easier to not plagiarize a song than it is to do it.
@oldfart269 I never said it was a small number, but it's a finite one, and the number of possibilities that most people would find agreeable enough to enjoy is significantly smaller. (Most people don't care for 12-tone music, for example.) Moreover, there are an awful lot of musicians out there and there have been for a long time. Any melody that any of us thinks up has probably been used somewhere already, even if it hasn't been used in a popular work or one known to us personally.
@oldfart269 As for plagiarism, I don't know who "lifted" what, consciously or unconsciously, or who just happened to have the same melodic idea as someone else whose use of it was unknown to them, so it's not a discussion I really get into myself.
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord was not written by John Lennon, it was done by George Harrison after the Beatles break up. Also it wasn't the chiffons who sued Harrison it was Allen Klein the copyright holder for "He's so fine" and Ironically the former manager of the Beatles. As per the melody of Merry Christmas Lennon very well could have intentionally lifted it from this song, its not unheard of for folk songs (public domain) to be rewritten, for example Bob Dylans "Dont Think Twice" is a rewrite
@oldfart269 And whoever wrote "Stewball" probably borrowed the tune from something else. You could just as easily say that what John did, if he DID consciously do that, was just parf of the "folk process".
And, at the same time that "Stewball" was popular, Dylan had just written "With God On Our SIde", which had a tune borrowed from Dominic Behan's "The Patriot Game", which Dominic Behan borrowed from probably half-a-dozen earlier songs.
and perhaps it's time for you to get over yourself. You are not saying anything new, just yapping. Just let it be what it is, Stewball was a race horse. And I do wish he were mine. Don't make everything about you.
@oldfart269 my sweet lord was the problem of George Harrison and had nothing to do with John Lennon. Esp. as it came out only after the Beatles' disbanding. And George Harrison even admitted, that he might have taken a tune, inconciously. so first do your research, then bash.
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord is a George Harrison solo song. As for the rest, I don't see any similarities to Happy Christmas/War Is Over, but whatever floats your boat! :)
@oldfart269 - First, it's a 4 chord song, just about as basic as you can get. Second, the original song is from the mid 1700's, so it was over 200 years old when Lennon wrote "War is Over". I'd hardly call John Lennon, one of the greatest composers in history, a "pirate" because he wrote a song with a similar tune...
@oldfart269 the song my sweet lord was owned by Bright Tunes Incorporated.....the Chifons did not own it. As far as happy Christmas by john lennon and this song...yeah....of course he took it from stewball but at least this was a public domain song which nobody had owned the rights to in at least 100 years. Another one is Elvis Presley "love me tender".....it was taken from an old public domain song "Auora Lee" (or aura lee)
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord wasn't a Beatles song, it was one of George Harrison's songs from after the Beatles broke up. There's little evidence of plagiarism other than the Em A, Em A D Bm chord progression, which only describes about half of the rock 'n roll songs ever written.
@Pudentame - Just for general interest: Musical similarities between "My Sweet Lord" and The Chiffons' hit "He's So Fine" led to a copyright infringement suit. In 1976, a U.S. district court decision found that Harrison had "subconsciously" copied the earlier song. Damages paid by Harrison to the copyright holder of "He's So Fine" were $587,000. "Stewball" is a traditional song, so if Lennon did borrow from it for "War is Over," there may be no copyright holder to bring suit.
@oldfart269 George Harrison wrote my sweet lord ,not Lennon. Lennon was probably influced by this song, but War Is Over is a completely different tune. He took a melody, changed it and adapted it to his own style. Thats what composition is; drawing from ones artistic influences and creating something new. It is not piracy.
@oldfart269 It was George Harrison that made the song "My Sweet Lord". And, even if I love John Lennon, Happy Xmas/War is Over"seems pretty close to this song.
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord was written by George Harrison, and he was the one who was sued. The Beatle's performed it, but Harrison as the writer had the Rights, and was thus the one the Chiffons went after.
@oldfart269 Peter Paul and Mary took lots of credit for writing old folk ballads, this included. I have to admit I wondered why it sounded so familiar, and you answered that question for me.
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord is a George Harrison Song - Not John Lennon. Also, I think Lennon/Oko acknowledged that the melody for "Happy X-mas" is a modification of "Stewball"
Stop, seriously. There are many stand-alone tunes out there that are just fine with many. For me, this is one. You keep on with your music conspiracy take; none of what you are saying is news, well-documented information. You don't like, ignore. Doesn't get any simpler.
I pray to God, if there is one, that there will always be men that will fight for what they believe is good and right.......and worth putting their lives at stake to defend what they value.........and to kill those that want to kill those of us that value those freedoms that we have in this country..........I vomited for two weeks after getting 'in country'......but I went.......
@AZMusicMan923 ok do support them, I just hope you don't think they really have something to do in Afghanistan, do you? It's pretty far from your country and unless you buy the humanitarian anti-totalitarian LIE, you know it's INVADING TROOPS you're supporting.
@AZMusicMan923 We have no choice when they hold a fanatic idiology of killing American (and sometimes videotaping them cutting their throats and putting their heads on top of dismembered bodies) and fly planes into our ships and buildings. Although everyone loves peace, unfortunately there are times we unfortunately have to fight wars so people like us can write on You-Tube. Join a veteran support group or donate to the same if you mean what you say. Then will these songs have real meaning.
@5inthehole Fortunately for you, I have donated to a veterans organization for wounded troops. But to tell you the truth, I had to mention the Afghan war or they wouldn`t let me put this song in.
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Just ignore Nula, if u check his channel he goes from video to video flameing people, trash talking, and being an extreme hypocrite. Check for yourself.
WellingtonOwndU 1 week ago
...no idea what this song's about. a horse drinking wine? Oy Vey! But I always liked this ditty.
GerryLincoln 3 weeks ago
@GerryLincoln
Peter, Paul & Mary. It's a song they sang, your "no idea what this song's about", is that relevant, anywhere? Why the "OyVey"? Do tell.
nula07 2 weeks ago
@nula07 Nula, just pour yourself a glass of green tea and relax. Wine may just set you off my dear, so leave the wine to Stewball. :)
GerryLincoln 2 weeks ago
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@GerryLincoln
Your lack of music....is your own. You said..."no idea what this song's about. a horse drinking wine? Oy Vey! But I always liked this ditty." As though your frame of reference about "music" is important, matters. Does not, on any level. You said you don't know of what you speak, no clue about the song...yet, you still yammer?
nula07 2 weeks ago
@GerryLincoln
yeah, attack, great way to go. Carry on, just let people know.
nula07 4 days ago
@GerryLincoln
Assault away.....you said you don't know of what you speak; and yet you did. Why does a person do that?
nula07 3 days ago
People,people, people.Just enjoy the song and the memories! This was the first song I learned on the guitar. I'm 58 now and I don't think I was more than 6 or so when my brother and I used to sing this. Great song!
pasnthru1954 1 month ago
; The actual source for the tune to 'War is Over/Happy Christmas'.
12Zwolf 2 months ago
Happy Christmas to everybody !
COGENTCOG 2 months ago
So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Or, Come back to Jamaica, what's old is what's new...(ad campaign from the 80s) They all use the same melody.
Beatleboy1964 2 months ago 2
@Beatleboy1964 what does that have to do with this song ?
samdunaway0496 2 months ago
@samdunaway0496 Are you kidding? Didn't you read the whole comment? The last sentence is "THEY ALL USE THE SAME MELODY". That's all. Stewball is an old traditional folk song and the same melody is used in the other two songs as well. That's the only point I was making. And I'm repeating myself so that my message is clear. Look at some of the other comments. Other people are making the same point.
Beatleboy1964 2 months ago
and so this is xmas,..
stoobee09 2 months ago
lol my grandmother luvs this song im actually at my grandmothers house right now!!!!
mkmarion 2 months ago
This song is forever ... my older sister taught it to me as it had been taught to her from my Grandparents and them before ... I still hear it with an Irish brogue. This song is beautiful ... and always will be. I put it in with bagpipes and other folk music that is instilled by the fog and the hills and the love of those that came before us to give us love of family, food, life ... and sometimes death.
sherrb1158 2 months ago
My mom used to sing this song to me. It always makes me think of her.
p00kietanuki 2 months ago
Sorry @moulinproductionstm: I guess what I meant is, that in listening to this, as a woman mezzo-sometimes-alto, I'm most prone to pick up Mary's line and it isn't at all hard for me personally. Nor is the melody line either, but the hardest is the second man (Paul?). I CAN find it if I listen carefully enough; but it also involves dropping my voice a couple octaves which again, for me personally, isn't "natural".
ZeldaGlitterKitty 2 months ago
@moulinproductionstm: interesting comment. But I've always found that if one can sing harmony, one will find one's own relative pitch and position within the harmonic structure. If one has to resort to sheet music then one may not necessarily have the inate ability to sing harmony - just sayin'...
ZeldaGlitterKitty 2 months ago
The melody for PPM's version came from the Greenbriar Boys, who recorded the song a year or so before PPM. PPM had claimed copyright credit, and I understand that the matter was settled out of court. There's a clip of the Greenbriar Boys' original version on YouTube.
prof5string 2 months ago
Paticamente uguale a "Happy Xmas - War is Over" di Lennon
bomberino76 2 months ago
Anybody know where I could find the vocal music for this song so that we can try to mimic PP&M's harmonies?
Thanks!
moulinproductionstm 3 months ago
My mother loved Peter Paul and Mary, and I come here every now and then when I think of her. Thank You for posting this over a year ago...
osuperu321 4 months ago
My father sang this to me as i fell asleep now i sing it to my Daughter as she falls to sleep. such a wonderful song.
ppittman84 4 months ago
This reminds me of my college days. Drinking beer & singing along with Peter, Paul & Mary. By the way, it was legal in those days for 18 year olds to drink. It was a long time ago. But I hear this now and find myself smiling ear to ear. Great memories, great friends & great beer.
09mskitty 4 months ago
@09mskitty
It was a time; had nothing to do with your beer-drinking. PP&M. you can't even try? It's 2012! Yikes.
nula07 2 weeks ago
This was my dad's favorite song...
1951savage 5 months ago
WISTFUL , TEAR DROP........
airfanteddy 5 months ago
I always loved Mary's "came a prancin' and a dancin'".
fgonzalez43 5 months ago
@fgonzalez43 me to she was so cool... beautiful sexy lady...with a voice of an angel...
jjs499 4 months ago
"Happy Christmas" (John Lennon) ?!?
senbrito 5 months ago in playlist Vídeos de senbrito adicionados aos favoritos
In 61 i wrote a short story about Stewball and had it published WOW 50 years have passed Great song super great trio, none better period!
Kitandroxandbec 5 months ago
my parents used to sing me to sleep with this song every night
satandeej 6 months ago
@satandeej - I sang this to my son many nights back in the 80's. He still loves the song to this day at age 30. He says "Who wouldn't love a song about a drinking horse?" Nice you have that childhood memory.
violetjm 2 months ago
I was told in the sixties by a busker in London that Stewball is about a young lad at a fairground who lets his imagination run away with him whilst watching the fairground galloper horses on the carousel.
mockerlancs 6 months ago
we sang this at girl scout camp
emmabugsmama 6 months ago
PPM, gehört zu dem Besten, was USA-Musik zu bieten hat! (Haben ja sonst nur Schrott im Repertoire)
KaisaLisa 6 months ago
I want to know who the 2 "dislikes" were on this one? What???
stefshorses 6 months ago
a song i sung to my little boy when i put him to bed every night for years. thats 40 years ago and it brings a tear to my eye.
that little boy can be seen here on youtube as stewart silver ,comedian
his dad.
snpsea 6 months ago
WHAT A CLASSIC. LOVE YOU STEWBALL
MrVampiredog 6 months ago
So Lennon used a traditional melody for his song - what's wrong with that? There are hundreds of popular songs that do the same. He never claimed the melody was his own, people only think that because his song is better known.
favorsham 6 months ago
When Mine That Bird was running the Kentucky Derby all I could think was how life imitates art. As he was pulling away winning I kept thinking and singing Stewball.
msparrowtduck 7 months ago
In America, the Stewball ballad was "...most popular in the Negro south, where the winning horse is known variously as 'Stewball' or 'Kimball," and was apparently one of the chain-gang songs. The song was recorded by Leadbelly in 1940 (cd available via the Smithsonian Museum), by Joan Baez (album title Joan Baez/5), by Peter Paul and Mary, and a number of successive artists.
ImNoDylan 7 months ago
Well, The Chiffons sued George Harrison, not the Beatles, when Harrison recorder My Sweet Lord, Beatles had splited a couple years earlier.
Also this song es about race horse foaled in 1741, and early version of the song were recorded bt Woody Guthrie about 1930-1940. John Lennon wasn't the only one to write songs over this tune. ther are other songs by other groups. Lennon song has similar meter and tune.
rocioaragon 8 months ago
I thought of this song while watching the Kentucky Derby :P
chocolatecoffee13 9 months ago 3
Several sources cite variations on this melody and lyric going back to 18th century England. This is folk music, and melodies and lyrics are borrowed, rearranged and generally fiddled with. Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and even John Lennon are doing what others have done for centuries before them.
bargemule 10 months ago
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justplayfm 10 months ago
I just want to learn how to play guitar to sing/play this song.
mszen8 10 months ago
@mszen8 - My son recently taught me to play guitar, and "Stewball" was the first song I wanted to learn, and it was the first of three songs I did learn and can now play. If you do learn to play it, it will make you really happy. Good luck with your dreams.
violetjm 7 months ago
True. Lennon "borrowed" the melody from Stewball tune written by the Greenbriar Boys in the 60's and preformed and recorded by Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary and others.
hackathonbeitjala 11 months ago
@oldfart269 I believe that I've read somewhere this song dates back to the 1760's or so, in Britain. Not entirely sure how acurate the information was, but thats what someone else had posted awhile ago.
sugarpowered 11 months ago
Still a great song. I wish he were mine.
jennifershmennifer 11 months ago
Oh you are all silly.. Woddy Guthrie recorded this song in 1944... pre dating Peter Paul and Mary by quite some bit, don't ya think??
quaddawg 1 year ago
@quaddawg ooops... typo Woody Guthrie of course..
quaddawg 1 year ago
Stewball was written in the 40s? by Woody Guthrie. Recorded by the likes of Baez, PPMary, Buddy Holly, Muddy Waters . . .
universalradio 1 year ago
The tune to "Happy Christmas/War is Over" sounds suspiciously close to this tune. Oh, well, it wouldn't be the first tune John Lennon pirated. Anyone remember the "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" controversy? The Chiffons sued the Beatles because the tune in "My Sweet Lord" sounded too close to the tune in "He's So Fine."
oldfart269 1 year ago
@oldfart269 I think I know the song you are talking about, but "Stewball" I think was written much earlier.
Scout4Me1 1 year ago 7
@Scout4Me1 exactly what oldf stated,and you said 'earlier'..besides lennon admitted this song inspired "Happy Christmas" when he wrote it..
mactaylorable 3 months ago
@oldfart269 - this draws on such an ancient, common chord progression and melodic pattern there are probably thousands of songs out there that sound a lot like this one - some older things that PP&M (or whoever wrote this) never heard, and some newer things by people who have never heard this. Same with "My Sweet Lord" (which was actually George Harrison's compositional/legal headache). Music theory allows for a limited number of possible basic songs, and they have surely all been used by now.
LanakilaIesu 1 year ago
@LanakilaIesu So, I think the real opportunity for originality in musical composition today probably lies more in lyric writing, harmony, form, and other "big picture" aspects of a composition.
LanakilaIesu 1 year ago
@LanakilaIesu I'm not talking about common chord progressions, I'm talking about MELODY. You can have the same chord progression between two (or more) songs, and the melodies would be completely different. Using "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" as the example, the melody stands out in both songs. The problem is, the Chiffons had it first. It's the same with "Stewball"/"Happy Christmas." The melody stands out between both songs. The problem is, Peter, Paul and Mary had it first.
oldfart269 1 year ago
@oldfart269 I responded to your other comment with some of my own that I think should clarify what I was talking about. (And naturally, if anybody deliberately had plagiarized in either case, it would be an unfortunate and unnecessary choice for a talented person to make.)
LanakilaIesu 1 year ago
@oldfart269 thats right.....it's the melody that will get you sued......not the chords
inkey2 8 months ago
@LanakilaIesu Music theory allows for a limited number of basic songs? By whose count? We have 13 major keys, 13 minor keys, the church modes, pentatonic scales, twelve tone rows, and atonal music. Each domain, as it were, allows for variance. That is what makes modulation within a key, as well as to another key, possible. It is still much easier to not plagiarize a song than it is to do it.
oldfart269 1 year ago
@oldfart269 I never said it was a small number, but it's a finite one, and the number of possibilities that most people would find agreeable enough to enjoy is significantly smaller. (Most people don't care for 12-tone music, for example.) Moreover, there are an awful lot of musicians out there and there have been for a long time. Any melody that any of us thinks up has probably been used somewhere already, even if it hasn't been used in a popular work or one known to us personally.
LanakilaIesu 1 year ago
@oldfart269 As for plagiarism, I don't know who "lifted" what, consciously or unconsciously, or who just happened to have the same melodic idea as someone else whose use of it was unknown to them, so it's not a discussion I really get into myself.
LanakilaIesu 1 year ago
@oldfart269 Why would they sue the Beatles? "My Sweet Lord" was a solo George Harrison song..
greenisforganja 1 year ago
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord was not written by John Lennon, it was done by George Harrison after the Beatles break up. Also it wasn't the chiffons who sued Harrison it was Allen Klein the copyright holder for "He's so fine" and Ironically the former manager of the Beatles. As per the melody of Merry Christmas Lennon very well could have intentionally lifted it from this song, its not unheard of for folk songs (public domain) to be rewritten, for example Bob Dylans "Dont Think Twice" is a rewrite
ThexParanoidxAndroid 1 year ago
@oldfart269 "My Sweet Lord" was a solo effort by George Harrison, composed and released shortly after the Beatles split up in 1970.
ya2daup 1 year ago
@oldfart269 And whoever wrote "Stewball" probably borrowed the tune from something else. You could just as easily say that what John did, if he DID consciously do that, was just parf of the "folk process".
And, at the same time that "Stewball" was popular, Dylan had just written "With God On Our SIde", which had a tune borrowed from Dominic Behan's "The Patriot Game", which Dominic Behan borrowed from probably half-a-dozen earlier songs.
It's not really THAT big of a deal.
KennBurch 1 year ago
@oldfart269
and perhaps it's time for you to get over yourself. You are not saying anything new, just yapping. Just let it be what it is, Stewball was a race horse. And I do wish he were mine. Don't make everything about you.
nula07 1 year ago
@oldfart269 "The melody and chord structure are from the folk standard "Stewball", about a race-horse."- Wikipedia on "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
SaenWyrWulf 1 year ago
@oldfart269 the orinal is from 1940 a song by Lead Belly
pollegazon1 11 months ago
@oldfart269 my sweet lord was the problem of George Harrison and had nothing to do with John Lennon. Esp. as it came out only after the Beatles' disbanding. And George Harrison even admitted, that he might have taken a tune, inconciously. so first do your research, then bash.
stoffls 10 months ago
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord is a George Harrison solo song. As for the rest, I don't see any similarities to Happy Christmas/War Is Over, but whatever floats your boat! :)
babygirltessa 9 months ago
@oldfart269 - First, it's a 4 chord song, just about as basic as you can get. Second, the original song is from the mid 1700's, so it was over 200 years old when Lennon wrote "War is Over". I'd hardly call John Lennon, one of the greatest composers in history, a "pirate" because he wrote a song with a similar tune...
Supermax1777 9 months ago
@oldfart269 the song my sweet lord was owned by Bright Tunes Incorporated.....the Chifons did not own it. As far as happy Christmas by john lennon and this song...yeah....of course he took it from stewball but at least this was a public domain song which nobody had owned the rights to in at least 100 years. Another one is Elvis Presley "love me tender".....it was taken from an old public domain song "Auora Lee" (or aura lee)
inkey2 8 months ago
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beatles4ever4 8 months ago
@beatles4ever4 actualy i just looked it up and john lennon used the coard structure and melody from this song. My mistake.
beatles4ever4 8 months ago
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord wasn't a Beatles song, it was one of George Harrison's songs from after the Beatles broke up. There's little evidence of plagiarism other than the Em A, Em A D Bm chord progression, which only describes about half of the rock 'n roll songs ever written.
Pudentame 8 months ago
@Pudentame - Just for general interest: Musical similarities between "My Sweet Lord" and The Chiffons' hit "He's So Fine" led to a copyright infringement suit. In 1976, a U.S. district court decision found that Harrison had "subconsciously" copied the earlier song. Damages paid by Harrison to the copyright holder of "He's So Fine" were $587,000. "Stewball" is a traditional song, so if Lennon did borrow from it for "War is Over," there may be no copyright holder to bring suit.
violetjm 7 months ago
@oldfart269 "My Sweet Lord" was a solo George Harrison song and had nothing to do with Lennon ..
skinman1967 7 months ago
@oldfart269 George Harrison wrote my sweet lord ,not Lennon. Lennon was probably influced by this song, but War Is Over is a completely different tune. He took a melody, changed it and adapted it to his own style. Thats what composition is; drawing from ones artistic influences and creating something new. It is not piracy.
bogmantim 7 months ago
@oldfart269 It was George Harrison that made the song "My Sweet Lord". And, even if I love John Lennon, Happy Xmas/War is Over"seems pretty close to this song.
robinjeanfrederic 7 months ago
@oldfart269 This is an ancient folk song, with roots back to 18th century England.
TheJeffMiller 6 months ago
@oldfart269 sweet lord was by harrrison, not the beatles
pikiwiki 5 months ago
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord was written by George Harrison, and he was the one who was sued. The Beatle's performed it, but Harrison as the writer had the Rights, and was thus the one the Chiffons went after.
WarKingRoy 5 months ago
@oldfart269 Peter Paul and Mary took lots of credit for writing old folk ballads, this included. I have to admit I wondered why it sounded so familiar, and you answered that question for me.
rpashoukos 4 months ago
@oldfart269 Lennon didn't write "My Sweet Lord" and The Beatles were not sued for it. It was a George Harrison solo work.
nephilim2038 4 months ago
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord has nothing to do with Lennon. Harrison wrote that song and recorded it AFTER leaving the Beatles.
hornosu 4 months ago
@oldfart269 All wrong. This song is an old traditional, so it has no author.
And "My sweet lord" is not Beatles's song, but it was recorded by Harrison - later after the split ...
carculca 3 months ago
@oldfart269 My Sweet Lord is a George Harrison Song - Not John Lennon. Also, I think Lennon/Oko acknowledged that the melody for "Happy X-mas" is a modification of "Stewball"
markioliver 3 months ago
@oldfart269
Stop, seriously. There are many stand-alone tunes out there that are just fine with many. For me, this is one. You keep on with your music conspiracy take; none of what you are saying is news, well-documented information. You don't like, ignore. Doesn't get any simpler.
nula07 2 months ago
I pray to God, if there is one, that there will always be men that will fight for what they believe is good and right.......and worth putting their lives at stake to defend what they value.........and to kill those that want to kill those of us that value those freedoms that we have in this country..........I vomited for two weeks after getting 'in country'......but I went.......
bruceapardue 1 year ago
WE MISS YOU MARY
MrVampiredog 1 year ago
MARY REST IN PEACE
MrVampiredog 1 year ago
To MY father... I love and miss you daddy
CORKE39 1 year ago
@CORKE39 Yes and also to my father, my mother, my brother and my whole family who disappeared into eternity.
dunbunter 1 year ago
Thanks for posting...may your cousin and all troops return home safely.
MikeInStartup 1 year ago
Thank you for posting the original.
Maybe if we started a Folk Music movement again we might not have to send men & Women to foreign countries to fight their battles...
But make no mistake...I SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!
AZMusicMan923 1 year ago
@AZMusicMan923 But, what about just any troops from anywhere?
dunbunter 1 year ago
@AZMusicMan923 ok do support them, I just hope you don't think they really have something to do in Afghanistan, do you? It's pretty far from your country and unless you buy the humanitarian anti-totalitarian LIE, you know it's INVADING TROOPS you're supporting.
DiegoElArbol 1 year ago
@AZMusicMan923 We have no choice when they hold a fanatic idiology of killing American (and sometimes videotaping them cutting their throats and putting their heads on top of dismembered bodies) and fly planes into our ships and buildings. Although everyone loves peace, unfortunately there are times we unfortunately have to fight wars so people like us can write on You-Tube. Join a veteran support group or donate to the same if you mean what you say. Then will these songs have real meaning.
5inthehole 1 year ago
@5inthehole Fortunately for you, I have donated to a veterans organization for wounded troops. But to tell you the truth, I had to mention the Afghan war or they wouldn`t let me put this song in.
Scout4Me1 1 year ago