Atta Baby, Ron!!
It's true...and that being said, you CAN remember the reason it hit you, the way it did....and you can't get it again, by just repeating different versions of the same song..or stay exclusively in the same genre...but YOU CAN, grab stuff from one genre and incorporate something that caught your ear, from something entirely different, and combine it with you already got..and make it work!
AND in that case, I point your attention to SOUND..and PRECISION!
After Barry McGuire did 'Eve of Destruction' out of nowhere, that, by the way, was MASSIVELY politically and socially INCORRECT..so much so, that you nearly had to 'duck' to admit there was SOMETHING about that song, you just sorta liked...IT was all alone, in every thing....THEN, came this beauty, with a compassion, clarity, and CARE, for your fellow human.....in a time when people sang about cars, surf, proms, doo-wop, and generally shallow stuff...while the early 'Beatles' were narrating their/our journey through puberty..and of course, we ALL perked up our ears..then came THIS song, out of NOWHERE sung by someone nobody ever heard of, ....and you couldn't hear it played enough....:

Remember the clarity, precision and spirit of compassion?????

It virtually switched the train tracks, in our ears!

"What was she saying?" "What was that lyric?"..."Wow, what a clear voice!".."Have you heard this song?..what was her name?", God! She's my favorite singer!".........ALL COMMENTS WE ALL heard....and it put her on the map!..So much, even Dylan went for it...and along with the masterful lyrics of Phil Ochs, Who really had a lot to say, in a LOT of his stuff, it became one of the building blocks of a style, or form of music, that we've played for years after!!..though it has evolved, and sometimes not for the better!

I have a hope, and an optimism, that someone out there 'gets' what I'm talking about, and starts thinking, and disciplining, and innovating something so damn likable, with something REAL to say, that there is NO holding it back!! WE can, and could be, and should be hip to that, and pull it off!

A lot of the 'folk' market is nostalgia based....somebody fresh, will blow the lid off it...and it might not be folk!..but it can be..and probably SHOULD be..though not so much 'traditional' but may have traditional roots.

Its open game.
I'd love to share what's been going on here, with it, and how it came to be...and has roots in guitar..but it's on keyboard.
So, in closing, take it seriously on a new level. Harness creating. Get outside your 'finger tendencies' and figure out new stuff. Remember precision!!!...and say something DIALED IN to more than extending a 'political overtone'.

Humanity, is in huge demand of understanding, nurturing, and having their hearts touch with compassion..without an ideology attached to it!! IT WILL GET AIRPLAY, if the demand dictates it. Hell, if the stuff is hot enough, maybe it could change what the radio stations play!!!!

Make sense???

GfS