Here is the note from Lisa Null that got me started on thinking about the non-simple transmission of these lyrics--

[begin quote from Lisa Null, with her permission]


Is anyone saving several dated versions of the Bush Song as they move around the internet?

I have seen may versions of this song since it began making the rounds about three months ago and never have I seen the folk transmission work more quickly or effectively through transmission.....even without the orality so often assumed to do the polishing (though perhaps, as I did, people tried to sing the earlier versions and found they couldn't fit the words to tune very well so changed them orally and simply transcribed an oral act)....any way selectivity is at mercifully at work here( fewer choicer verses), the symbolic language pithier, the scansion better, the topicality at once more focused and more universal.....and this does seem to be an incremental job (unless some sage is responsible for all the significant updates)---- Perhaps an example that the screaming, dancing throngs are indeed alive and doing their thing.

[end quote]

--Charlie Baum