"elitist snobbery is a reality,"
Elitist snobbery is the domain of those who believe that you have to be educated to think about art
I'm not over-defensive about anything - I just get bored with hearing this 'instinctive as birdsong' approach to folksong
You really need to listen to what some of the old singers had to say about folksong sometime
Try this from a non-literate Irish traveller talking about how he understands 'What Put the Blood'

"“I’d say the song, myself, goes back to.... depicts Cain and Abel in the Bible and where Our Lord said to Cain.... I think this is where the Travellers Curse come from too, because Our Lord says to Cain, “Cain”, says Our Lord, “you have slain your brother, and for this”, says Our Lord, says he, “and for this, be a wanderer and a fugitive on the earth”.
“Not so Lord” says he, “this punishment is too severe, and whoever finds me”, says he, “will slay me, “says he “or harass me”.
“Not so”, says Our Lord, says he, “whoever finds Cain and punishes or slains (sic) Cain, I will punish them sevenfold”.
And I think this is where the Travellers curse come from.
Anyway, the song depicts this, this er....
1 call it Cain and Abel anyway; there never was a name for the song, but that what I call it, you know, the depiction of Cain and Abel.”

Wexford Traveller, 'Pop's' Johnny Connors,
Reccordded on a field next to Heathrow Airport
July, 1973


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