Joe,

I do wish I could ascribe some scholarly motive for how the verses in the version of "Lady Elgin" that I saved line up, but, alas, I think it's simply the way I liked it best. I'm not even certain I know where that varient came from. As a performer, unless I was doing some kind of comparative paper, I'd tend to pick MY FAVORITE VERSION of the song to learn and hold onto. Assured that this was the best of all possible versions, it would be the one to keep. Lots of times, to save space in my notebooks and on my shelves, I'd just do a potlatch thing and rip out the songs by the handfuls and hit the garbage with 'em. I was never a collector in the neurotic way so many of my friends were/are. One miraculous day I realized that if I was unsure whether or not to keep something, I'd just send it to one of my friends who were compulsive overcollectors. (There's even a 12-step group for that.) The, ten years down the road, I'd know where to borrow it back for a week or two. And I to this day only keep the books I feel I'll use (read) again. Only had 2 guitars and 2 banjos too----one to play when the other was in the shop getting an oil change. In this way I saved tons of money (moola) and strove to one day make my way into the Guinness Book Of World Records for, as Woody Allen once said, extending adolescence past all imaginable limits. Next birthday I'll be 59 and I am still going through puberty.

Art