Some pretty important things have been said in parables, so don't knock them.

Maybe it's cultural or because I've met Shambles, but it never occurred to me reading this that it was other than a parable about the Mudcat. I thouight, that's a good way of helping us see this situation from a different viewpoint.

Maybe there is a real session Shambles is talking about as well. It sounds quite a familiar situation.

Maybe there was a real boat called the Mary Ellen Carter. But the reason that's such a powerful song doesn't depend on that, it's about how the story relates to the way we deal with the setbacks in our own lives.

I suppose I can imagine someone saying "That song's no good - there never was such a boat..." But they'd be missing the point. However I don't think people who took Shambles session-gone-wrong at face value should in any way feel they've been cheated. In fact they were better-off, because they were in a position to explore tha analogy better, and help identify some of the ways in which our situation here is similar and is different.

For myself, I think I am squarely on both sides of this argument. I just don't see this distinction between music/song and non-music/song as being a clearcut one.

I can't go very long talking about other issues without some reference to a song creeping into the conversation (like it did just now), so long as I'm talking with people with whom I share that kind of common language ; and I can't go through an evening of songs without some of them turning to the kind of issues that are claimed to be non-music related. There are no issues that are non-music related. If you need convincing of that, just have a browse through the Digital Tradition.