Jack et al,
I was devastated when I read Fakesong for the first time. My initial excitement at finding someone who agreed with me over the manufacture of 'folk' quickly turned to dismay when I saw that Dave had put such a strong personal political twist on it, thus masking and devaluing what is I believe an accurate representation of what happened. Luckily at least the period upto 1800 was much more carefully covered by the likes of David C Fowler (Thanks, Jim!)

In his talks Steve Roud was referring specifically to that body of folk song collected and published in England c1890-1920 by the likes of Sharp, Baring Gould etc. It does not necessarily apply to material collected elsewhere at different periods.

Incidentally in the latest book published by Steve on the relationship between print and oral tradition which I reviewed, Steve places himself somewhere in the middle of the debate, whereas his co-editor, David Atkinson, appears to place himself much closer towards the 90% end.