The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #125951 Message #2805211
Posted By: Steve Gardham
06-Jan-10 - 04:58 PM
Thread Name: Taking on the Big Boys? - classic big long ballads
Subject: RE: Taking on the Big Boys? - classic big long ballads
Jim,
I'm sorry. The 'opinion' bit was a slip. With the possible exception of 'Farmer's Curst Wife' I can prove that the earliest KNOWN/EXTANT form of all of these was in print. Of course I can't prove that this WAS their earliest form. Ironically your title 'Devil and Farmer's Wife' is the 16th century possible broadside precurser of 'The Farmer's Curst Wife'.
I am not and have never questioned the ability of the rural classes to produce folksong. I have simply said that in my opinion having spent a lifetime studying both folk song and the broadside ballad and 'popular' music, that the ballads by and large were the product of commercial enterprise in some form or other.
And I hope I am not the END of a long line of people who believe this.
Goose, I apologise humbly for the thread-drift. I see nothing to disagree with in what you say. In fact I have said similar in other threads.