Talk:Mother's Children Have a Hard Time

Covering artists
added an unsourced list of "Covering Artists" with a link to secondhandsongs.com for "others". This was reverted with the edit summary "rv unsourced laundry list of covers with no indication that they are noteworthy (see WP:SONGCOVER; also secondhandsongs.com is user-generated & therefore not considered reliable, see entry on WP:NOTRSMUSIC))". SONGCOVER includes: "Only cover versions/renditions important enough to have gained attention in their own right should be added to song articles [as] discussed by a reliable source, showing that it is noteworthy in its own right. Merely appearing in an album track listing, a discography, etc., is not sufficient to show that a cover version is noteworthy; cover songs with only these types of sources should not be added to song articles, either as prose or in a list." However, they restored the list, but removed secondhandsongs and made minor changes to the section intro. Since they did not provide an edit summary, it's unclear why this was done.

Another problem is their statement "a number of respected gospel, blues, folk, and rock singers have covered this song down through the decades under the titles, Motherless Children Has a Hard Time, Motherless Children Have a Hard Time, and Motherless Children" [bold added]. Since they supplied no sources, there is no way to know that all of these artists in fact covered Blind Willie Johnson's song. As they have noted, several similar titles have been used by different artists (WP has separate articles for "Motherless Child Blues" and "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child"). A sampling of the list entries (neither the artists nor albums are WP linked) does not show that Johnson is the songwriter; they are usually shown as "Traditional" or "trad, arranged by".

Subsequent recordings of Johnson's songs should be included only if reliable sources confirm that the artists recorded his song (as opposed to "Traditional") and actually discuss that the artists' rendition is somehow noteworthy. Otherwise, the list is just a random selection of artists who have recorded songs with similar titles.

—Ojorojo (talk) 14:49, 11 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Indeed, I landed here while searching some information about Eric Clapton's "Motherless Children" Actually, the present article is linked incidently from Motherless Child Blues, in a short paragraph that I paste below
 * A song with a similar title, "Motherless Children" (also covered by Clapton), is a blues standard, versions of which have been recorded by Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk and Lucinda Williams.
 * Said paragraph is also devoid of citation, nevertheless. Clapton's version is the only one that I was hitherto aware of, so maybe it's just me, but I'd say that this one is noteworthy, if that's any hint for eventual scholars of blues who'd feel inclined to expand on the history of this moving song. In the article 461 Ocean Boulevard, it is credited as "traditional".
 * Noliscient (talk) 23:17, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
 * I've now re-added Clapton's version, with some sources. Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 23:34, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

Copyright
Is the original 1927 recording now free of copyright? Or if not yet, when will that happen? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 23:33, 9 December 2023 (UTC)