Subject: publication does a doubtful service to
From: Captain Birdseye - PM
Date: 09 Jul 07 - 01:33 PM

Publication does a doubtful service to folk songs .it preservesthem;
but it preserves them dead,like stuffed animals in a museum.It brings them to awide audience;but this includes so many of thewrong people,from school teachers,to hill billy addicts.The wrong people are those who are bent on taking folksong out of its natural surroundings.Folksongs belong in the home,in the pub,in the focsle,in the back of a truck or a friendly verandah;not in the list of set peices at an Eisteddfod,not in the schoolroom unless as a rare
treat,not between toothpaste advertisements on radio or television.In the alien atmosphereof the concert hall it takes agreat artist to preserve the life and spirit even of his own folksongs let alone those of other people.
J. S.Manifold,Queensland 1962[compiler of Penguin Australian folk songs]
I have now corrected the punctuation and idiosyncratic spelling mistakes that so upset a couple of Earlier contributors[Folkie Dave.
[It was also selective and incomplete, and therefore seriously misleading; it misrepresented Manifold in a quite inexcusable fashion. Whether this was deliberate or the result of incompetence is hard to tell.

Rowan has provided the proper context, so I'd suggest that anyone wishing to make informed comment reads Dick's barely legible original post in the light of the rest of what Manifold wrote.]