'insider knowledge'

I was thinking just the other day about 'The Farmer's Boy'. As far as I know the origins of this one are still obscure but, to look at the lyrics, you'd assume it was a slightly mawkish piece of Victorian sentimentality. I'd certainly not have believed it was composed by an actual farm labourer. Actually, checking back over this thread, Jim reported many posts ago that Walter Pardon found it inauthentic.

Yet by all accounts it was very popular in the rural community, and to hear Fred Jordan sing it you'd think he'd written it himself, so obviously close to his heart as it was. Insider knowledge is clearly not essential to a song hitting the spot.