Can I just take up the cudgels of Lloyd while I'm in the mood?
I knew Bert slightly (I think everybody who knew him did so slightly)
While I often found him infuriating, I had the greatest respect for him as a researher
In response to n enquiry he once told be on a car journey that he was a messy keeper of notes and relied as much on his memory as he did those
As a short-lived editor of a club magazine, I shipped off a friend to interview Bert for our club - he spent a pleasurable few hours doing so and the following day received a phone call asking that several things he said be omitted as he wasn't sure of them.
In those days, Bert, like the rest of us, was operating without the benefit of computers and the net.
One of Bert's main problems seem to have been that he never really decided whether he was a singer or an academic.
"Ever since I learned that Lloyd wasn't always singing authentic versions straight from the 19th century, listening to him leaves me with mixed feelings."
There was nevar an obligation that any singer should sing "authentic versions" - if there had been there would be no such thing as "versions"
Bert was often obscure about his sources, but that's another matter.
JIm Carroll