"Perhaps we should both append all postings with (IMHO)"
Perhaps we should just admit that nobody has a clue and leave it there
If the foplk were able to make songs they have asmuch claim to any folk songs as any hack writer
If you don't believe they could you should say so and be done with it
I don't base my view on anything but the fact that ordinary working people were making songs from the time of the Venerable Bede and were still doing so up to and beyond the middle of the twentieth century
Nonbody even knows who "probably" made our folk songs and all the paper-chases in the world won't change that one iots until known authors are established beyond any doubt
"it is surely not necessary to know the details of its ancient origins?"
Speak for yourself Jim
If I started telling you what is important and what is not, you'd be soon up on your "folk police" cair.
Why should I not feel the same?
For singers like Walter Pardon, dates were an important thing and he displayed that importance each time he talked about them - nobody would edescribe him as an "academic"
Doesn't come more authoritative than that for me
"ps please don't let us get into a definitions swamp!
ps - please doint tell me what I can discuss and what I can't
If we can't discuss the definition of folk song on a forum that styles itself "a community of musicians, historians and enthusiasts that collect and discuss traditional folk and blues songs, folklore, lyrics, instruments, music, kid stuff and more where the hell can we discuss it ?
Folk police indeed!!
Jim Carroll