G'day all,

Nearly forty years of interest in, and study of, Australian folk song suggests that the origin of most good song has involved something between inspiration and straightforward parody. A tradition passes on workable models which are reshaped to current needs ... is this parody or a tradition?

There are a lot of flimsy parodies, worth a laugh at the time and forgotten a day later but, as others point out above, sometimes the parody lives on as something greater than the original. The folk process will winnow the chaff away and what is still sung a generation later will be good songs - whether they are totally original or firmly based in earlier models.

Regards,

Bob Bolton