Some of my songs are quite thoroughly researched, although I would have to say that very little of it actually comes out in the songs.

It's interesting and useful to have as full a mental picture of the subject before starting to set pen to paper. It's also useful to be able to give a short introduction quoting sources.

However, once all the writing, editing and revision is done to craft an interesting song from the historical tale - all the rest is discarded and the piece has to stand by itself as a finished work.

I know that I have sometimes combined tales of one incident with colourful characters of the same period but different locations in order to give a well-rounded picture of a particular historical period.

Some may consider this to be wrong and reprehensible, but that's how traditional tales evolve.

Not sure if this advances the discussion much, but that's real life!

Regards
silverfish