Talk:We Shall Overcome

message: An infobox was requested for the 1963 Joan Baez recording of "We Shall Overcome" at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Missing_encyclopedic_articles/List_of_notable_songs/14.
:Added infobox as requested. Bonnie (talk) 18:06, 9 November 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: I edited the page to give a bit more attribution to Guy Carowan.  I base this on words I heard myself from Pete Seeger at a People's Music Network event in the 1980s, when he introduced Guy saying something like "...and he wrote a little song that became rather well known..." or something like that.  I heard this from Pete's own mouth, though it was twenty years ago and my memory may be a bit distorted.  If this is controversial, I can ask some of those still involved with PMN to cross-check what Pete's said.
Russell 15:45, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Guy Carawan attributed as author by Pete Seeger 

message: It should probably be noted that this song has spread around so as to have significance outside of any civil rights movements, and even translated to other languages. There seems to be no other way how in India both this song (or probably some variant) and the Hindi version "Hum honge kaamyaab" could be taught to me in the Kindergarten (oh! old memories...) in 1985-86.
Proof: Google:"hum honge kaamyaab", Google:"we shall overcome one day" (the first match  as of now is about a Kerala finance minister singing the song)
BTW after all that (I was actually searching google for lyrics before I tried wikipedia) it is surprising to know that the song is not public domain. Is the Hindi variant, etc. illegal (I couldn't find the author of the Hindi variant, though)? Is singing the song (or variants) also illegal? Then should the verses be removed from the article? -- Paddu 25 Dec 2004
: The article explains the copyright situation: Seeger took a "defensive" copyright, to prevent inappropriate commercialization of the song. -- Jmabel | Talk 00:55, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)
: The artists donate their half (1/6th each) of the royalties to the Highlander Research Center, but does the publisher donate its half? Just asking. 96.250.132.201 (talk) 17:11, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: This song is popular elsewhere too!

message: "…the song was associated with Joan Baez…". Really? Particularly? I suspect this was only true of people who either particularly liked Joan Baez's singing style, or (conversely) particularly disliked both her and her politics. I don't think many people actively involved in the civil rights movement ever associated the song with Joan Baez. Is there some citable basis for this statement? -- Jmabel | Talk July 3, 2005 23:53 (UTC)
I think she did lead the singing at the March on Washington. I changed the article to reflect that fact. At the time, it may have been associated with her. Bob Dylan and various others, including Harry Belafonte, were up there with her and Dr. King, but at the time she was the star and undeniably got a lot of mileage from the event.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.250.24.191 (talk) 22:46, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Joan Baez 

message: Few (not me) have this book by Seegar handy, but what does he actually claim?  Outside of the copyright section the article seems to express the idea that the lyrics and music both date back for a much longer time.  I think that aside from a one-sentence claim that Seegar's particular arrangement is copyrighted by him and goes to support the listed fund, the rest is probably just speculation, especially the stuff about the possible court case based on some other precedent (there's no policy that Wikipedia is NOT a circuit court of appeals but maybe we need one ;) )  Being unsure of the situation though, I'll leave it to a second opinion to actually delete it down. Wnt (talk) 19:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree, and will remove the following final two sentences: "However, in a similar legal case involving the Kingston Trio or similar group in the case of "Tom Dooley---Hang your Head down Tom Dooley," the court ruled that they had infringed upon the ownership rights of a man from North Carolina. It is likely that a court would rule the same in the case of the Seeger case outside any arrangements that he has made."  Wikipedia is not a court of speculation, and the cases seem quite distinct to me.  "Hang down your head, Tom Dula" was sung by Frank Profitt of North Carolina, collected in 1938 by Frank Warner, who introduced it to Alan Lomax, who printed it in Folk Song USA in 1947 and subsequent editions.  A legal settlement divided future royalties among the Kingston Trio, Profitt, Warner, and Lomax.  This time period clearly fell within the scope of copyright law, apparently unlike "We Shall Overcome."  Dwalls (talk) 02:12, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

text: Note, the "Tom Dooley" settlement divided the Artist's Rights amongst the Kingston Trio, Profitt, Warner, and Lomax (1/8 each); however, the publisher gets half the profits, so half the money, i.e., the Publishers' Rights, went to Howie Richmond's organization, TRO. There was probably plenty to divide, though 96.250.132.201 (talk) 17:35, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyright section - how much is actually sourced? 

message: Can someone put the lyrics on Wikisource or something and link to it? -- Frap (talk) 19:23, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lyrics 

message: “Sheffield then commissioned a musicological report and involved the NAACP in the effort to seek truth, justice and recognition for Louise Shropshire's role in the history and creation of "We Shall Overcome".[13]”
That is not an appropriate style for an encyclopedia article. It’s fine, however, for an op-ed.
There’s a communist back story to this song that is missing: Monteagle, Seeger, et al., were Reds, which is not a secret, outside of Wikipedia. I wonder how many times this information has been censored.24.90.190.96 (talk) 20:56, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I've added a tag to that statement as it doesn't appear to be in the cited source.  If a better source cannot be found, I suggest the paragraph be deleted.  But your opinions as to a "communist back story" or to censorship are even less relevant, unless you can back them up from reliable sources.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:10, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  A thick red line 

message: It's great that Cincinnati has recognised Shropshire's creation of the song, and this should certainly be added to the page. The page is a bit of a mess really, and it doesn't need a long quote from the Council's minutes. I applaud the editors who have been trying to find this information, but it needs organising in a proper fashion.
What it does need is a proper addressing of the authorship, quite separate from the fact that it became used in the Civil Rights movement and became associated with the artists that it did. The page itself is contradictory. I'd be tempted to put the authorship stuff later on, and start with the Civil Rights movement to explain it's significance.
Are there more sources around which support the Gamboa book? Although the action by Cincinnati is certainly notable, I don't think it can be used as a "source" as such.Ben (Major Bloodnok) (talk) 20:37, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Louise Shropshire authorship 

message: The page has been hijacked by one Isaias Gamboa, a "licensed Christian minister" on a self-promotion crusade.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.251.87.204 (talk) 16:44, 9 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I revamped much of the page. Given that a reliable source has discussed Gamboa's claims, they do get a small mention because he's involved in the lawsuit, but I reverted the remainder back to a more neutral version. ViperSnake151  Talk   15:27, 18 July 2016 (UTC)
replies: text:  Excellent work!  It's certainly worth a mention but had totally distorted the article.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.12.35.82 (talk) 15:57, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: A microcosm of all that's wrong with Wiki