I am the first to joke about finding the 3rd word in the 5th line of the 93rd verse of "Diddle My Fiddle" and at the same time, the first to applaud efforts like these.

Whether a word is thee or the or whatever can get a bit silly, but here is an example of a song sung in numerous ways and in many cases very little of it makes sense. Plus, it's been recorded in so many ways that we can only guess at it's origins and who did what to whom and when.

Getting close to the roots and finding better info is one of the most enjoyable things about Mudcat and Folk Music in general. At times I draw the line over some of the stuff that's a bit irrelevant (the, thou) but when it affects the meaning or lack of it........that's a different story. We ahve a lot of songs that through the years owing to one thing or another are now almost utter nonsense with the original song lost in the shuffle.

Spaw