Me thinks that you are exaggerating somewhat..

Lucy Wan is one of those songs that takes no effort to learn; hear it once and it's in your head, tune and all. I first heard it when I was fifteen, circa 1976, and sang it to a bunch of mates at school by way of exemplifying that folk could be just as dark & subversive as anything else, punk especially. This was proved when one of said mates, a somewhat nervous fourth year, got so freaked out by the nature of the song she told her class tutor who reported it to the head who called on me to give account. The head took serious exception to the nature of the song, despite me sourcing it to The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, a copy of which I had about my person, thereafter confiscated , necessitating I acquire another. I admit this wasn't an isolated incident - theft, smoking, truancy, wilful vandalism... it all adds up, but for one moment back there it seemed that I was to be the first person suspended for singing a Traditional English Folk Song.