The Warners collected original songs from Frank Proffitt and other singers, as did Sandy Paton; Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin collected original songs from Okies in Southern California; Alan Lomax collected original songs from bluesmen in the American South; Mark Wilson collected original songs, ballads and fiddle tunes from traditional artists in the Midwest and Southern highlands; Max Hunter collected what in many cases likely were original compositions from singers and musicians in the Ozarks; John Cohen collected original songs from Roscoe Holcomb; Mike Seeger collected original songs from Nimrod Workman. Quite a few folklorists have collected self-composed songs from traditional musicians. Maybe American folklorists have been more willing to do so, but I don't believe Jim Carroll is the only one in the UK to value original material.

Bert Lloyd passed off his own songs as folk songs because he had an agenda. If he had been able to collect more real industrial songs from traditional singers perhaps he wouldn't have needed to lie about his own songs.

A folklorist choosing not to record a book-learned song from a revivalist reflects an entirely different reality: limited resources and a limited number of living singers who learned their repertoire in a time and place where music could not be gotten from the store or the radio or downloaded. Suppose you were collecting wild medicinal plants - would you buy camomile from a local herbalist because it was of 'better quality' than something lurking undiscovered in a nearby field?