No it isn't back of the bus stuff. I doubt you could get the bus singing The Dowie Dens of Yarrow. But at sometime the proletariat must have related to this song. That's why its survived.

Fpok is another thing though. Its meaning has changed somce 1954. Like Gay and mand many other words. Prior to that it was mainly the stuff of a few earnest traditionalists. before that decade was out - contemporary musicians had borrowed the sound of various folk forms and folksounds and were using them in contemporary creations. it was and is an artistic movement popularly called folk. And all users of the English language know exactly what it means - even if they pretend they don't.

Doubtless there are still people who insist that Gay still only means joyful and carefree.The 1954 definition - no doubt.