Although my first reaction upon seeing this subject-title was "THIS again!!?!?!?!", I see nothing wrong with rehashing this never-ending discussion, with or without reference to earlier iterations. If you don't like it, don't read it!

As always, some interesting things are being said that some of us may never have considered before ~ as well as a few angles that NONE of us ever had a chance to consider previously.

Of course, the most interesting contributions seem always to come from those with the least restrictive definitions. (Note that I'm not saying that these are the moist valid or true contributions ~ just the most interesting. Of course, I'm prejudiced because that's the camp to which I belong.)

Another thought, for consideration only by those open to the idea that amateur rock'n'roll ("garage rock") might, just conceivably, be considered as a "folk" form:

A few years ago, some forum open to discussions of blues/rock/pop music presented a question, "What are the greatest 'cover' versions of all time?" (Maybe it was here, maybe elsewhere.)

Someone quickly mentioned what would have been my own nomination, Jimi Hendrix's reinterpretation of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower," a performance so definitive that The Bob himself has had no alternative but to "cover" Jimi's version ever since. (IMHO)

Jimi Hendrix having been mentioned, I immediately thought of "Hey Joe." As anyone as old as I am knew at the time, this song was pretty widely performed live, by amateur bands at high-school dances all over the US, for several years before Jimi recorded his version. Even though it was NEVER a hit record, and no one seems to remember the name of the writer or of the band/artist who released the original recording, it achieved great popularity among semi-skilled young electric guitar players because it had a cool sound, a slightly unusual but very easily played chord progression, and (most importantly) a catchy bass run.

Some bossy individual ~ a forum moderator, or maybe the person who had started the thread ~ responded to me in a huff: Jimi's "Hey Joe" could not be considered a "cover" song, because the originator was not readily identifiable and no earlier commercial recording had been a widely known "hit." This blowhard expert concluded that he was forced to rule, by fiat, that "Hey Joe" be credited to Jimi Himself.

I'm sure that Jimi himself, were he still with us, would readily admit that it's a song he learned . . . somewhere, somehow. He probably didn't know who actually wrote it until he was ready to record, and someone had to look up where the royalties were to be directed.

I'm sure that there is, somewhere, a record of who gets credit and earns money from "Hey Joe," but for the millions of guitar (and air-guitar) players who knew it quite well, even before the Hendrix performance filmed at Monterey and his subsequent recording, it might just as well be "anon" or "trad," and that's why I offer it as an example of the type of piece that might be considered as a 20th century, electronic-age, "folksong."