The Broadside tradition is clearly interrelated to the cannon of songs collected from source singers

A nice image, Les, much more evocative than using "canon".

Dave Arthur, quoted by Steve Winick in his important discussion of "Reynardine":

"One finds in [Lloyd's] manuscripts informants' names crossed out and changed,...and in the case of 'One of the Has Beens,' a very specific note, 'I heard this from a Vaudeville actor in hospital at Cowra, NSW, on New Year's Day,' was changed on publication to 'a teamster from Grenfell sang the song.'"

Arthur adds, somewhat acidly, that a teamster "sounds more 'authentic' than a 'vaudeville actor.'"

Thanks, Lighter. This was the Australian component of Bert's scholarship that I was trying to recall.

While the English tradition is one I can trace my ancestry to (thus allowing me some "right" to shove my oar in, so to speak) I thought I'd leave most of the debate about his effects on scholarship to those who figured their connection to the tradition was closer and allowing more pungent comment. Where Bert's scholarship can be described as "dodgy" and is applicable to my current context I feel justified in saying that, while it's a great song and I'm pleased Bert made it available to us all I'm peeved, as a performer, educator and scholar, that he fudged its provenance, no matter what his motives.

I'll leave my comments about how such behaviour allowed others to engage in unwarranted arrogation of "authenticity" for their own purposes for another time.

Cheers, Rowan