I think the big division is between songs from the time itself, and songs written long after - "antiquarian songs" I've heard them called. The latter are sometimes good songs, and they are often more historically accurate - but they don't have the authority a song froom the time does, in relation to the events they are dealing with. But what can happen is that a song that is ostensibly about a historical event is really using that event as a symbol for something that is happening at the time the song is written.

So, for example, when Bobby Sands wrote "I wish I was back home in Derry" he wasn't just talking about events in 1804, he was linking them to modern parallels; and when Leon Rosselson wrote about the Diggers of 1649, he was writing directly for our situation in the late 20th century.

www.bigfoot.com/~kevin.mcgrath