">>One even wonders what the state of English folk culture would be today without "folk police" like Cecil Sharp and his ilk.<<


I don't think Cecil was in the folk police. He was just a collecter, albeit an avid one."

Lizzie, you need to brush up on your folk history. Sharp had very prescriptive ideas about folk music and dance. I don't know where you got this idea that he's have been "thrilled to bits" with the like of Fairport and SoH - his approach was all about preserving the tradition in an untainted form. If that ain't folk police, what is? Look at his fall-out with Mary Neal. She had a relaxed approiach to her Esperance girls developing the morris dances they'd learned, while Sharp's approach was all about tradition, discipline and uniformity. He thought that the dances should remain exactly as he collected them, without development.

So let's hear it for Cecil Sharp: the first chief of the folk police. On the other hand, of course, we wouldn't have many of the songs and the dances without him.