Here's a different angle: maybe that performance Dick heard wasn't so good after all.

Explanation: sometimes you can listen to a recorded performance again and again and discover new things in it each time, even though it's the identical sounds. Other times a perhaps rather mannered performance can seem really effective the first time you hear it but quickly wears thin on repeated hearing.

Jim Caroll said "you will find something fresh to hold your attention every time you perform it" which sort of echoed my remark about random variations - speaking as mostly an instrumental accompanist, I'm often experimenting (even on stage), and the reason for that is because I feel there's always room for improvement, and you should (oops) be sufficiently on top of things to be able to take risks that way.

But unless you have a major re-think, as in the story about MacColl, the basic "feel" and approach to a song isn't likely to change. For instance we always do Hangman/Prickle-eye Bush as a jolly romp, never as a long-faced dirge, and that's policy!

Anahata