On my drive into work this morning I heard Radio 4 doing an interview with Pete Waterman (SAW fame, Kylie and all that). It was a good fun interview in which Mr Waterman made the remark that the music industry is the greatest recycling industry of all. His argument was that the classical musicians wrote all the good tunes and people like him have been nicking them, giving them to Kylie to sing, and then making a million for years!

I guess it got me thinking. One of the things that first excited me about folk music was the way that some one might take an old tune and put their own new words to it as part of an "evolving tradition". So, are we simply totting away at the great bin of used tunes, looking to recycle and sustain the original materials in new ways? And if so, does that make us all environmentally friendly?

Paul