Nothing to do with origins, but at a session I recently attended, there was a long catalogue of songs involving the killing of faithless girlfriends (Delia's Gone, For the Love of a Portugee, etc). Someone asked, "Can we have a song where the bird doesn't die?" From somewhere on the floor came, "There was an old woman and she lived in the woods, weile, weile, waile..."

Not quite what was requested, but it brought the house down.