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Originally Posted by mr dave
yes some of it was called 'traditional', although a lot of that is due to contentious claims by various people claiming to be the original authors. 'hey joe' and 'house of the rising sun' are other clear examples of 'traditional' songs with claims of ownership.
but i was thinking more in terms of them having to attach the name 'killing floor' to 'the lemon song' and adding credit to Memphis Minnie for 'when the levee breaks'. plus how can one call an uncredited addition to a song a 'tribute' to the original artist? if you don't name drop the artist or list them in the credits how are people who only know the details of the music from the liner notes of the album supposed to find out?
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There are cases where the origin of a song is known, but the blues has so much history that unless the actual source of a song is known, it is probably better to term it a "traditional" song. I have been reading "The Land Where Blues Began" by Alan Lomax, and can see how many people sang and played this music, most of them not really concerned about "who wrote it". This music came from people who (sadly) "owned" very little.