bothie songs originated with the Aberdeenshire farm-workers, that the forbitters came from the experiences of sailors who sailed before the mast, that the songs of the cotton industry came from mill workers…… etc. The fact that the songs reflect the lives and experiences of the people who sang them as accurately as they do pretty well confirms this – for me anyway. The clincher is the fact that the folk repertoire is almost entirely anonymous and the product of many rather than single composers, therefore, if Bert Lloyd was right, too poor to be acknowleged.

Jim,
Do you still really believe this stuff? Yes, I'll grant the Bothy songs, some of them at least, but the vast majority of what we call folk songs were at the outset commercial products made up by beoadside hacks, song writers in the theatres, supper rooms, pleasure gardens, music halls. Give me an example of a forebitter made up by a sailor!