Errr!!! Yes!!!! So what??? Everybody re-interprets according to their own lights. Lloyd? - yes - the classic examample of Lloyd re-write is probably The Collier Laddie - try looking at the original from which Lloyd worked (not a collier in sight - we must re-write the ploughboy as an industrial folk-song: it's all the rage in this new revival, you know). A good starting point for what was going on in revival re-writes is 'Singer, Song & Scholar' (Russell (ed.) Sheffield Academic Press 1986) then follow it up with various articles in Folklore. The post-Lloyd amermath is gathering speed. But don't be downhearted, a quick read of Harker (Fakesong, OUP 1985)will help show that it's been going on for collector after collector (even if Harper's text is something of a polemic - Babies & Bathwater come to mind again). Slight problem in that some singers regarded as 'trad', or 'source' or 'the real thing' have, from time to time, adopted the re-writes. Oh! dear, you can't even rely on the real thing any more!

Yes! Eye for Bullshit is quite right - for God sake try to know what you're talking about before you open your mouths - but remember that applies TO US ALL!!!

But I'll still stand by The Farmer's Boy.

OK - enough - fade away (I must remember to avoid irony!)

Tom Brown