I grew up with my grandfather reciting everything from Kipling's Barrack Room Ballads he learned in the army in India to Tommy Armstrong songs & Geordie Broon of Backworth. Not sure if he ever changed a word, so maybe the Folk Process doesn't apply here?

Somethings never change; they are proudly part of the heritage of a community and simply held in trust as comfort in the face of an ever-changing world beset by death, decay, disease and general entropy, which to many is what Tradition is I suppose, i.e. an affirmation of permanance & continuity. Records are part of this in that they set the definitive and at least give the illusion of permanance. Frank Zappa notes that it was very much part of the tradition of bands in the late 50's / early 60s to stick as close as possible to the recorded arrangements. Those who did it best got the gigs.