Hard as it may be to agree on a definition for "folk music," it may be even more problematic to list the defining characteristics of "contemporary folk," for those who even admit that such a thing might exist. We customarily recognize some works of some contemporary songwriters as "folk," but not others. I think that in many cases, the distnction is not based on any musical and/lyrical aspects of the songs themselves, but on the reputations and customary stylistic approaches of the creators (i.e., whether they are established "folk" personalities or not).

Apparently, to some writers, some Beatles tunes (e.g., "Norwegian Wood," "Yesterday," etc.) qualify as "folksongs." Presumably, for some if not all of these "authorities," others ~ the hardest-rocking numbers, I suppose ~ do not.

I remember hearing some semi-pro local performers who were considered "folksingers" starting to add Beatles songs to their repertoires around the time that the "Rubber Soul" album came out. In retrospect, it's hard to say whether the songs themselves were more folk-like than earlier Beatles material, or if the phenomenon was just a sign of the times, when the dividing line between the "folk" and "rock" genres was fading.

If the criterion that distinguishes the "folk" songs as a subset of the Beatles entire ouvre is, as Sidewinder suggests, nothing more than easy playbility, the distinction is not very meaningful.

Mike, thanks for the heads-up about Davy Graham. I had some vague awareness that "Angie" was not originally Jansch's, although his version may be the best known, at least in the US. I had not encountered the spelling "Anji" until recently, here at Mudcat, and got the impression that it was correct (in contract to the more customary "Angie"). Are there perhaps recordings by different artists using the two different spellings?