Yes, a copyright exists as soon as a work is created. Registering the copyright is only a formality which protects the copyright owner from the possibility that someone else will claim to have created that work.
The copyright dates in my lyrics files are intended to protect the copyright holder, and are not always 100% accurate simply because that information is not always easy to come by.
When I didn't know anything more, I used the album release year because no professional release would be made until the copyright paperwork had at least been submitted. For some songs, I knew that Lightfoot had performed them earlier, and he usually copyrights songs before performing them (although he made a comment after one of his radio appearances that a song he performed hadn't been copyrighted yet). By "not copyrighted yet", he meant the paperwork hadn't be filed; again, he had a copyright simply because he created it.
In the case of the songs on DSMMN, I really don't know when the actual copyright filing occurred, so I just used 1968. The filing could have been made in the weeks just before the record was released. We just don't know.
Finally, in the case of Hamilton Camp's Pride of Man, I had no information at all to go on. I knew only that Lightfoot! was recorded in 1964, and the other early recordings of that song were recorded no earlier than that. So I used 1964 and eventually asked Hamilton, who said he had no idea but 1964 sounded good to him!
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