I'm sorry, I'll post that again...

What is a "proper" folk song anyway? (Hahahahahahahahaha....)

Well, one that hasn't been to written to comply with the patronising polemic of the 1954 Definition for a start, Ruth; one that isn't passed of as being genuinely of the tradition and sung in good faith thereafter. At least we know Bert wrote the truly awful Jack Orion and might embrace or avoid it according to what it is. Whilst I'm wary of throwing out the babies with the bathwater, I feel the entire Lloyd canon is somehow tainted - and my folk-faith accordingly. But what else should we expect from the man who implied that a search for the roots of jazz would lead to English folksong!

I've just read an account of how an unemployed weaver in 1920s Lancashire was mistaken for a strike breaker and got beaten up so badly that he nearly died.

I knew a man who came over from Ireland as part of the scab labour force assembled tio break the Miners' Strike in the 'twenties. His tale was a curious one - having been hosptalised, he was visited by a delegation who explained to him their cause, after which he hung around and even married into the community, though not without a certain ongoing hostility which existed even 60 years later when I knew him. A fine singer too, but he didn't know any folk songs as such.

I say again, the only reason the nationalists are so enamoured of Folk is that they've swallowed the myths of the revival hook, line and sinker. The Blackleg Miner is part of that myth, and a shameful one at that.