I find John's remark about folk music becoming middle class, interesting. I think he has a point, I attended a concert lately....a pretty well known folk singer of whom I had been a friend for quite a few years. The audience was sparse and consisted mainly of a pseudo artistic elite who obviously knew nothing about the music but wished to socialise in an "artistic/cultural" atmosphere. These people are everywhere, middle class liberals, most from an educational or social work background, but with no understanding of life as portrayed by traditional music.   My memories of the revival include groups of young working class kids singing, joking and drinking with their old neighbours and family. Very few of the audience were middle or upper class but strangely quite a few of the performers were.....no matter how hard they tried to hide it.

and just for the record, there is no "working class" anymore, or at least no organised working class.....the political war these days is all about social issues and social views.