Much as I love narrative songs, I've always had a soft spot for 'The Streams of Lovely Nancy', as random a collection of floating verses as you could wish for. I'm sure you could mess with the order of those without causing undue damage"
I agree, most of the verses can be exchanged around with the exception of possibly the verse that is usually sung last.
Jim, it is not of importance to me when i make a decision about how I perform, what some long dead traditional singer thought about singing the last verse of a song again, neither am i interested in your activities as a researcher ,when it comes to making a decision about performing.
I certainly do not think would Walter Pardon have approved of me singing the last verse of The Candlelight Fisherman again, I base my decisions on analysis of the lyrics and what works performance wise, and that is how it should be if you are a performer.
JIM CAROLL, said"I stopped visiting most clubs when folk clubs turned themselves into musical versions of Woolworths, and confined myself to venues that went in for what it said on the label"
Typical, sweeping generalisation about folk clubs.
nobody is able to define folk music we all have different varying ideas, but what you say is just another of your ill thought statements, no one on this forum has yet been able to define successfully, that which is folk music.
Have you thought about taking up collecting butterflies, they are dead, and they can be carefully labelled, when it says red admiral on the label it is a red admiral, evrything is ordered and labelled ,unlike folk songs they do not attempt to evolve, your collected red admiral will always be in its case for you to look at, just like your collection of long gone traditional singersand songs, preserved, unchanging, labelled, here is what Walter Pardon said in 1975,it must be gospel, very different from tradtional folk songs, which by their nature evolve.