How do you exegete a song? 1)know how old it is 2)know what part of the world it came from 3)learn the meaning of unusual or obsolete words 4)remember background facts that apply to it, things from history, religion, superstions - whatever. 5)use common sense.

An example of using common sense: I heard Martin Carthy start "The two sisters" with "Here's two little sisters walking along..." Now the sisters were princesses and adults, so probably it was once "two royal sisters". So that's how I sing it. This is an example of folk process. I'm a folk too, aren't I?