The names of Peter Coe ('Joseph Baker'), Bob Pegg ('Rise Up Jock'), Peter Bellamy ('The Transports'), Eric Bogle ('The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'), Cyril Tawney ('Sally Free & Easy'), Ewan MacColl ('Ballad Of Derek Bentley'), come much to mind in context of this thread.

I once asked A L Lloyd [see my interview with him, "The Donkey & the Zebra" in Folk Review Sept 1974], whether Liverpool FC crowds had not turned the song You'll Never Walk Alone from Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical Carousel,[adduced above by Steve Gardham, who however surprisingly attributes it to singer Gerry Marsden rather than to its composer & lyricist!] into a folk song. "Folk in function but not in form'" Bert said. I asked whether, in folksong, the function did not define the form to some extent. "To some extent," he repeated firmly; and the subject dropped.

~Michael~