John Mehlberg is picking up exactly where the late Gershon Legman left off in documenting and clarifying anonymous songs that have circulated almost entirely by word of mouth. (That makes them more-or-less traditional, as others have observed, and therefore fit for discussion on Mudcat.)

Based on his own work as well as Vance Randolph's song collecting in the Ozarks, Legman estimated that roughly 15% of all folk songs were overtly concerned with "taboo" subjects.

How do you study a subject honestly while ignoring and suppressing roughly one out of every six or seven instances of it ?

What is more disturbing than Mehlberg's rowdy material is that we now have a Mudcat thread devoted specifically to the abuse of a serious researcher and song collector. That's quite a precedent. Along with what appears to be the majority of Mudcat posters, Joe has decided that Mehlberg's posts have not been inappropriate for this forum - except perhaps in the number of essentially useless asterisks that might or might not be used. So why the need for personal abuse ?

Regardless of the asterisk question, Mehlberg's only sin has been in trying to extend our knowledge of rebellious "folk tastes" in directions that make some 'Catters feel uncomfortable. Those who think his energies are misplaced may register their honest opinion and then look for more comforting Web sites if they wish.