by Charles Consaul
(El Paso Texas)
The second verse goes:
2. Kookabura sits in the old gum tree
Eating all the gum drops he can see
Please - Kookabura, Please Kookabura
Save a few for me
Kookabura may also still be under copyright. I know that in Australia, the group "Men At Work" lost a case from a quote they used during the Introduction to "Land Down Under." In America, that quote would have been covered under fair use since it was less than eight measures, but in Australia, the judge ruled that it constituted copyright infringement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra_(song)
If you use the original Welsh Title and lyrics, "Wele ti'n eistedd aderyn du?" or "Dacw ti yn eistedd, y 'deryn du" (Rough English translation "See you there, that black bird sitting?"), you should be able to to use the song, since the tune by that name would be in public domain. You could also make up your own words, or a free translation of the welsh lyrics:
The lyrics of the Welsh folk song:
Dyna ti yn Eistedd y Deryn du
Brenin y goedwig fawr wyt ti
Can dere deryn can dere deryn
Dyna un hardd wyt ti
The English translation of this Welsh poem:
There you are sitting blackbird
You are the king of the forest
Sing bird, come sing bird, come
What a beauty you are
The above information all comes from the Wikipedia article I cited. Hope this helps.
I will probably be working on this myself, now that I have found out about the Welsh connection. I would be happy to share what I come up with if you are interested.
Dana:
Hi, Charles,
This is very interesting! I hope you are wrong about the copyright issue, but for now I will leave the current page up unless asked to take it down. In which case, I will remove the music and the page.