Jim: I don't want to get into an impasse over the football chant thing, since we don't disagree on the substance, but regarding the Bert Lloyd quote (well put though it is), I would say that football songs are traditional in a way that 'Little Boxes' never was and never will be, simply because of their context and transmission. Although some of them are tuneless and banal to the point of deliberate self-parody - ten thousand soaked United fans on the Gallowgate End at Newcastle once set up a chant of 'WE HATE WATER!' - some of them run to several verses and have good tunes, albeit stolen from elsewhere.

"I wonder if kids are still re-making songs as they once did with The Cruel Mother and Lord Randal - anybody know?"

I doubt if they're still remaking Child ballads, but when my son (now 17) was in primary school, the playground tradition was still going strong. The 'Teletubbies' song - to the tune of 'Nick Nack Paddy Whack' - still makes me laugh.