Good point here. Gene--We sort of take for granted that, even though the "Folk songs" we know may have many variations in melody and verse, that there is a definitive version of every "composed" song--

I have spent a lot of time lately studying Ira Gershwin's lyrics lately, and many of the songs had additional lyrics written for different shows, lyrics changed for recordings, and lyrics deleted for television-- and in a number of cases, the origninal lyrics that he wrote were never used intact any where--

In today's "Music Market" most people are exposed to only one recording of a song, and it leads people to assume that that "popular" version is the only version, that it was written by the performer, and that it is recent in origin--

My sixteen year old daughter was stunned beyond words when I played her an old recording of "I'll Fly Away", because she thought that it was just part of a Rap record--