"Why not come out, say who you are and say what you really mean?"
"Sharp eye for bullshit(whoever is hiding here)...."

Dear me, the plods are on the trail; can my ID remain secret for much longer?

Sorry, Les, if you can't understand what I'm "struggling to say". If it helps you, I could explain that I sang Hard Times of Old England countless times during the Thatcher era, combed 'A Touch on the Times' (see above) and loads of other traditional sources for songs of industrial and other protest that might be relevant to the 1980s / 90s, but ended up unconvinced that the English singing tradition was actually the hotbed of subversion that I'd hoped for and that Lloyd's 'Folksong in England' had led me to expect.

Also, that I've long been transfixed by old ballads, but have nevertheless been forced to concede that the English singing tradition is perhaps not as thick with ancient and romantic tales of faeries, werewolves and elves as some of us were persuaded of. Doesn't mean they're bad songs, though.

Tom: I stand by the claim that the Farmer's Boy is a shameless tearjerker - just sit down and read the lyrics. What the song might become in the mouth of someone (Fred Jordan, perhaps) able easily to identify with it is of course a different matter. But (with all due respect, genuinely) the fact that the old men cried into their beer might be evidence of what an effective tear-jerker the song is.

Countrylife: my apologies for expressing opinion. I must be the first contributor ever to do that on Mudcat.

What really pisses me off is that someone can make a ludicrous statement to the effect that C# ignored the plethora of songs about 'fornication with faeries', and that I am the only poster to take issue with it.

Night night.