"Have you been following my recent postings about what's going on at the Lewes Saturday Folk Club?"
I saw it and consider it irrelevant Bryan - the world does not start and end in Sussex
You once suggested that if we wanted to hear good folk song we should come to your club, even more impractical than the philosophy adopted in Britain that if we want good theatres and museums we can always go to London - at least those in Newcastle can do that on one train.
It was a crass suggestion when you first made it and it remains just as crass
Of course you can't book MacColl, Bogle and Pickford, but those of you with any nouse can learn by example, by listening to what they said and did instead of relying on the crap some of you appear to have replaced folk song with.
MacColl died nearly thirty years ago yet he is still dug up regularly to be given a ritual kicking
A serious discussion on his contribution and ideas has always been a no-go area on forums such as this, almost as taboo as a serious discussion on folk song
Of all the pioneers, MacColl was the most successful in using traditional song to deal with contemporary subjects and create new songs using contemporary forms.
His, Seeger's and Parker's groundbreaking Radio Ballads stand unchallenged, as social history documents, as introducing the working man and woman's voice to the nation, as a serious commentary on working lives, and as a possible future use for our song traditions
They stand as monuments to some of our finest singers - Sam Larner being the foremost.
"Jim has rather excelled himself with -"
My unpleasant comments were made in anger, your ongoing nastiness seems a built in part of your character - you seem incapable of addressing any comment I make, reasonably or otherwise, without snide and abuse - that has been your attitude of several years, yet, as now, you are up on your chair screaming "insult" when your own behaviour is thrown back at you.
I sincerely apologise for sinking to your level - it's one of my weaknesses.
Back to the argument (nope - I haven't given up yet and don't intend to).
There are never winners and losers in these arguments - that's not the point of them anyway, though a number of cocks here have climbed onto their dunghills and crowed that I have lost and they have won.
I set out to find if my suspicions on what has happened on the folk scene was accurate - sadly I got my answer in spades.
The revival I was part of was an attempt to escape from the crap of yesterday's pop scene and create a situation where those of us who had no interest in seeking fame and fortune could make our own music
Now we have a club scene that is being used by people who regard it as a pathway to the bright lights and who judge their sucess in how many albums they sell and how many bookings they get rather than presenting a recognisable form of folk song
There's actually a thread going at present discussing what rates should be charged at gigs.
By adopting the "anything I say is folk music, is folk music" attitude, which seems to be the only definition anybody has come up with so far, the door has been opened wide to the PRS and IMRO jackals that take out money and give it to the superstars first leaving the folkies with only the small change - our folk music has been handed over to the predatory music industry on a platter.
Many of our traditional songs have been "arranged" and copyrighted
One of the great finds over the last forty odd years was from impoverished Traveller John Reilly with his 'Well Below the Valley"
John died of malnutrition after being found in e derelict house, his song was arranged and copyrighted by a well heeled musician and entrepreneur.   
At one time our folk scene was based on real folk music; seek out the Topic/Caedmon Folk Songs of Britain series, or the magnificent Tangent School of Scottish Studies series, or Mike Yates's beautiful examples of the remainder of our song Traditions, or more recently, the wonderful 'Voice of the People' series' again by Topic.
If you have any doubt as to what constitute folk song - you'll find your answer there.
Our revival was floated on the mopping-up campaign embarked on by the Beeb in the 1950s, despite the dishonest misuse and of that collection, it gave us our raw material and inspired us to seek out our own native traditions.
In today's revival you can't give it away, as has been proved by the somewhat cowardly response to my offer
One of the series I put up for grabs is the finest analysis of British Folk song ever made - our folk song repertoire was summed up beautifully by the presenter;
"Well, there they are, the songs of our people. Some of them have been centuries in the making, some of them undoubtedly were born on the broadside presses. Some have the marvellous perfection of stones shaped by the sea's movement. Others are as brash as a cup-final crowd. They were made by professional bards and by unknown poets at the plough-stilts and the handloom. They are tender, harsh,, passionate, ironical, simple, profound.... as varied, indeed, as the landscape of this island.
We are indebted to the Harry Coxes and Phil Tanners, to Colm Keane and Maggie MaccDonagh, to Belle Stewart and Jessie Murray and to all the sweet and raucous unknown singers who have helped to carry our people's songs across the centuries."
That's my definition of folk song - I still have to be given another - certainly not by anybody here.
Vic Smith, who I once respected as an advocate for folk song proper, accuses me of ignoring the arguments here
There have been no arguments - plenty of abuse, plenty of denials, but the only thing that has come out of it is "we have your clubs and we'll use them for whatever music we choose"
He quotes Shakespeare to claim I am ignoring what has been said
When I ask him to tell me what I have ignored, his non-response brings to mind something else Shakespeare wrote
                                                                     
       "And the rest is silence"
Jim Carroll