David Buchan in his 'The Ballad And The Folk' suggested that the ballads never had fixed texts but were remade on the spot by the singers, using the plot and established commonplaces.

That's rather exaggerated. Buchan was bright and imaginative but died too young to grow any common sense. He'd have fitted in fine here. (How old would he be now? - younger than me, I think).


At some point they required a founding author, even if that writer's efforts have become debased (dressed up as popularised) by repetition.

Seen the original version of Ye Jacobites by Name? Would you rather hear or sing that than the folk-processed one Burns popularized? Same goes for the majority of broadside songs - they are nearly always improved by a few decades of editing by oral tradition. Try The Wild Rover for another one.


The 1954 Definition and related Doctrines (such as The Holy Folk Process) has become a Question-it-at-your-peril Theological Absolute which sits as a headstone on the grave of a Folk Revival which has not only failed Traditional Folk Song

Big words and flashy rhetoric don't make gratuitous insults true and don't make the imaginary enemies they're aimed at real.