I see that Goldstein and Lloyd are mentioned here.

In 1956 Goldstein released a Lloyd version of 'The Unfortunate Rake', a version I believe to have been one of Lloyd's tinkered versions. This was on the Folkways label.

Goldstein was submitting articles to the folkloric press as early as 1959, because in that year he published a piece on a group of songs which had come to be referred to as 'The Unfortunate Rake'. I listed his sources on the thread headed H M Belden Ballads and Songs.

Some of these are now to some degree discredited, eg Lomax on Cowboy songs. On the other thread, it was pointed out that the first words of this song cannot be checked from the recording of Ironhead as they are missing. Lomax admitted to tinkering with his cowboy songs.


Goldstein did not go back to the early sources referred to in the articles he drew upon, and repeated a false assertion that a version of the song had been published in Dublin in 1790. He had also referred to some of the early English Folk Song Society journals. So Goldstein had done some book research on the song, but seems at this time to have had no training in folklore or music or history or any other relevant discipline.

In 1960 Goldstein released an LP called "The Unfortunate Rake", also with Lloyd's version on. That LP referred to Lloyd's version as a 19th century broadside text, which it was not. It also referred to an article by Lloyd in the list of 'references'. The Lloyd article had been published in an English magazine called 'Sing', and was a rehash of an earlier Lloyd article on the same topic. This article was long on conjecture and short on information, omitting reference to what is now the earliest known version of the song, (which was not set in any sort of hospital), and setting out a trajectory for the history and travels of song which appears to be largely conjectural. However Goldstein was relatively 'open' in saying that these link were in his opinion not coincidental.


I assume that it was Lloyd himself who supplied Goldstein with his article, and since Goldstein cited it in the liner notes, it would appear that Goldstein never thought to question Lloyd's credentials or to request evidence that the lyrics sung by Lloyd were genuinely those of a 19th century broadside. Not only were they not the words of a 19th century broadside there is no direct evidence that the words St James Hospital were ever sung in 19th century England.

Bizarrely the liner notes comment on St James' Palace which has little to do with anything, and The Mall, which though it does permit some digs at George III and his court at St James, including an assertion to the effect that 'houses of amusement abounded' in it that appears to be completely false .

The notes assert that various songs have 'borrowed' the funeral request from The Rake, but this seems to be a case of opinion presented as fact. These included 'In Newry Town' and 'The Tarpaulin Jacket'.

Should Goldstein have known that Lloyd's version wasn't a 19th century broadside? Neither Lloyd not Goldstein emerge well from this.

If we are asked to read these flawed liner notes as a work of a folkloric expert, questions have to be asked about the quality of folkloric 'expertise'.

Moreover, the liner notes suggest that the LP and the somewhat 'shoddy' notes could be used in educational settings, and recommend the works of a number of record labels with which Goldstein was involved for that purpose.

Goldstein invites the reader to follow up the references listed. I did precisely this and came to the conclusion that the liner notes are flawed and overstate what is 'known' about the song.

However, presumably on the basis that Goldstein later achieved academic qualifications, and on the basis of a related topic, song collection, his word on this song and its history and relationship to other songs seems to be taken as gospel and the liner notes are quoted word for word as authorititive sources of information on it.