Broadsides are a totally different though parallel issue. And I certainly don't despise great singers or great songs - and I never said I did. I absolutely agree that many must have made huge improvements to material that came to them, and that's exactly my point. Those that did are in the same category as the contemporary names I mentioned (and I'd include you there), as re-writers and re-deliverers.

I'm talking about stuff that's revered only because it was collected by one of the Great Collectors. A lot of mediocre material got caught in the net, yet some grant the same value to this (by reason only of it's provenance) as they do to those great singers and songs, thus devaluing both. And they place it above good modern works purely because of its age, not it's quality. That's the rub.