"On a thread not so long ago, I've seen you Jim C. condemning a series of submitted musical links to widely varying interpretations of traditional songs, as *all* akin to utterly crappy 'pop' music!"
The links that were put up struck me, at the time as having more to do with not particularly inspiring pop music than with folk song. Sure, they were all traditional songs, but they were performed in such a way as to make the drawing of any interpretation from them virtually impossible, to my aging ears, at least. The 'folk' form had been totally abandoned and the narrative relegated into the far distant background.
Nothing 'wrong' or 'unprincipled' about this; but by shedding their form they had become something else. I'm more than happy to sit with my feet up and listen to Butterworth's 'Banks of Green Willow' till I've worn the disc paper-thin, but as beautiful as it is, it has nothing whatever to do with a woman and her illegitimate child being cast adrift in an open boat.
The problem with a pop song is that, unless it is particularly spectacular it has a very short shelf life. The 'Electric Folk' fad might have caused a bit of a ripple outside the folk scene at the time, but who listens to it now?
Our folk songs have lasted for centuries because down the generations people have been able to identify with them and adapt them to their own particular lives, emotions and experiences - for me, there was simply nothing to identify with.
Abandoning the basic function of the songs isn't saving them, it's just prolonging the agony of their demise - sorry!!!.
Bryan:
"No, Jim, you are not mistaken..."
I which case I don't feel the need to apologise for my remarks about promoting crap standard.
Pip:
"Don't forget the diver, sir!"
I'd pictured you as being much younger than that - ah well...
ITMA - Irish Traditional Music Archive, which is housed in a beautiful six story Georgian building in Merrion Square in the centre of Dublin - reckoned to be the finest archive of traditional music in Europe, if not the world - amazing what you can achieve when you apply standards - people actually begin to take you as seriously as you take yourself!
Jim Carroll