The Carter Family Bob Dylan Songwriting Credits and Homemade Pie

All songs come from somewhere. Quite a few of them passed through the Carter Family on the way to others, but even the songs A. P Carter found in the hills came from somewhere before he learned them. This previously unpublished photograph of Mother Maybelle Carter and her sweet angels gives me opportunity to discuss only one notable song and where it came from. I guess credit COULD go to the first family of country music shown here...but who really cares other than the lawyers? Songs float around, get grabbed by some kid's fingers and learned again. We all benefit.

Dylan's "The Times They are a Changin'" (One of his earliest, if not THE earliest version which was finally released on The Witmark Demos 1962-1964) was actually, some say "Paths of Victory" which was based on the Carter Family song "Wayworn Traveler" which sounds more like "One Too Many Mornings" to me, but then "Paths of Victory" actually came from "PALMS of Victory" which was also recorded by (guess who) the Carter Family way back in the 1920s. Except that it may have been first recorded by Uncle Dave Macon...I didn't check the dates. It was also apparently known as "Deliverance Will Come" which was written by a minister in 1836. I'm not sure where he got it from. In a Wiki article, scholars seem to have given up. "It is clear that "Palms of Victory" had to be written by someone in particular..." an anonymous and frustrated scholar writes. I suspect it came from either Clinch Mountain or Africa...and probably the latter.

My point is, I guess...that George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" was NOT based on Phil Spector's "She's So Fine." except that it was.

In January 1949 Victor Records signed the Carter Family, then known as "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" actually, to a record deal.1949 was also the year the Carter Family hooked up with Chet Atkins and they all moved to Springfield, Missouri. At the time A.P. Carter was running a general store in Maces Spring, Virginia, having left the group he founded years earlier. (What records he had on his Victrola has not been reported). In June of that year, they found time to dress up and go to a picnic...I'm glad someone was there with a Brownie. (Click to Enlarge...someone was selling Pies) Original Snapshot of the Carter Family June 1949 (Anonymous Photographer) Collection Jim Linderman