I agree, Stilly River Sage.

On the matter of lyrics being messed about with - as discussed, in a folk idiom, there is seldom - if ever - an authentic version of a song. They are living fragments of a collective culture, and are constantly in gentle - or radical! - flux under the pull and pressure of Sharp's continuity, variation and selection. They're not suddenly *fixed* and immutable at the moment that an 'educated' Victorian or Edwardian scribbled them down in a paddock (indeed, these collectors wrought some of the biggest changes on both tunes and lyrics). In this context, it makes no sense to object to contemporary alterations, especially if they 'keep the song alive.'

On 'My Curly Headed Baby' - it's obviously not a 'folk' song so I'm not really sure why we're now discussing it at length, but... I've done a bit of casual research. Firstly, one of Clutsam's lines of work was for minstrel ensembles, so the song was probably written for that purpose - ie, a white person's mocking caricature of black existence. Presumably not many of us are in the habit of trying to keep the minstrel torch burning in general?

In any case, since we're invoking Robeson, none of the first 3 versions of his that I found on YouTube - seeming to span his whole career - feature the n- or c- words that have been defended on his behalf. They don't feature 'd*rkie', either. So, is Robeson also a transgressor in the face of that preference not to see 'old songs messed with'? Perhaps for those who really like the song, and since such alterations were good enough for Robeson himself, the version without racially offensive words is the one to champion, sing in public or even as a lullaby?