mg, my comments were in the context of a discussion about whether it's "permissible" to change words in songs. My comment in full reflects my point. Here it is, again (12XU!) . . . "Everyone changes songs, and there's no point in singing folk songs if you're not trying to make them your own. Why slavishly recreate someone else's work? They have paint-by-numbers if you like that sort of thing." My friend sings The Galway Shawl, which he learned from his mother. He does NOT sing it precisely as his mother sang it. He has learned more verses, smoothed out the diction, substituted some awkward bits, etc. That is an example of what I mean.