G'day,

I think that Shambles' suggestion that a song is 'pickled and preserved' once it is written down doesn't survive beyond the boundaries of this forum. I have a few files tucked away at home were I have retrieved different versions from a thread concerning a song - often one written within the last few decades - and that song keeps turning up in variations as it skitters across the globe, by, songbook, recording or performance.

A song can be on the other side of the world and almost unrecognisable in a few years ... just for one instance, I am thinking of an Australian poem The Sailor Home from the Sea by Dorothy Hewett. Martyn Wyndhan Read sang it and various others learnt it. Progressively, the Australian local references turned into other things and it grew off to the far side.

Here in Australia, it is still sung, but with more understanding of the local points and places ... but to a wide range of (mostly recent) tunes. This is only a random sample, but it certainly suggests that the 'folk process' is alive and well.

Regards,

Bob Bolton