IT WAS an upbeat, sunny riff, but the legacy of the flute solo in Men At Work's mega-hit single Down Under had long soured for Greg Ham.

''I'm terribly disappointed that that's the way I'm going to be remembered - for copying something, '' the musician said two years ago when the recording of one of Australia's iconic pop hits, Down Under, was found by a court to have reproduced ''a substantial part'' of the folk song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.

Ham, who was found dead in his Melbourne home yesterday, had said his reputation had been tarnished. ''It will be the way the song is remembered and I hate that,'' he said in 2010.

The 58-year-old's body was discovered by friends at the modest house he recently moved into after being forced to sell a grand property nearby that he had bought at the height of Men At Work's success.