'It's not even a proper folk song'. Even if it's roots lie in America and it has been Anglicised it relates back to historical events relayed above by Dave Bridge. Just because it is, in the grand scale of things a relatively modern song doesn't mean it is not a proper folk song.

Whatever the historical events, this Piltdown Song is a contrived piece of fakery dressed up to fit the remit of the 1954 definition with a provenance purporting to be authentic. It was not passed off as a modern song about historical events - rather it was passed off as a Proper Bona Fide Folk Song which met all the necessary criteria of the 1954 Definition. Worse, it has been sang in good faith as a Proper Folk Song by countless revival singers, especially by those (such as myself) who are from mining backgrounds, Northumbrian or otherwise. It was here on Mudcat that the true provenance of The Blackleg Miner (&c.) was revealed - see Bertsongs - which certainly dinted my folk faith because in Bert I did trust!

We had fragmants of The Colliers Rant in my family, though for my version I initially used Crawhall's Beuk o' Newcassel Sangs (1888) which uses an identical set of words to that found in Rhymes of the Northern Bards (1812) though I'm still not too clear on the ultimate source! Not Bert Lloyd anyway, or even the Folk Revival...

There are 'proper' folk songs being written today!

Amen to that, given that the 1954 Definition remains one of the central shibboleths of the Revival Myth and that all songs are the consequence of idiomatic traditional process - and that there wherever there are folk there will be folk songs. And whilst I dare say the saintly Dizzee Rascal wouldn't thank you if you called Shout a folk song, it is very much popular in precisely the same way the ballads collected by Francis J Child were popular. This isn't to include The Blackleg Miner however, which remains, most assuredly, a forgery.