Confirmation that Child didn't know what he was talking about then Vic
Why am I not surprised?
Research based on the denigration of the work of others such as those we are talking about here is beyond acceptance s far as I'm concerned
We mays as well all fold our tents and go home as whatever conclusion we come to here, like the 25 bus, there's bound to be another aspiring scholar along in a minute.
"Doesn't tradition imply some degree of popularity?"
Not really
"If the song never entered "tradition" before it was unearthed in 1951, was it a folk song? Is it now? "
"Seemingly it was made at the time of the 1844 Durham strike by a collier, William Hornsby of Shotton Moor"
We have unearthed several hundred songs, among Travellers and from West of Ireland singers, that bear all the hallmarks of tradition'
Serious work on collecting did not really get undeerway till the beginning of the 20th century, and collecting from miners half a century later when the NCB commissioned Lloyd and others to undertake the task
If you only collect one version you've more than likely missed any others
If you examine Roud's numbering system you fill find many which have appeared as single versions - including many of ours
The Travelling community was making songs like mad right up to the point their tradition disappeared in the mid seventies.
"Acceptence" rather than "popularity" is probably a safer term to use
Jim Carroll