"Most people do not know the background of a song unless they have heard it on the TV or radio"
No-no-no
The songs that launched the revival were accessible on neither to a great extent
The mainstays were 'Lloyd/Vaughan Williams's 'Penguin Book of Folk Songs and MacColl and Seeger's 'Singing Island
Peoplew ere looking for an alternative to what was being pumped out by the media
The best of folk song was to be found on The Third Programme, which nobody but the toffs listened to
As Ewan and Peg entitled their four part article for Folk Review "And So We sang"
And yes - one of the side efects of the clubs was that people began to care where the songs came from - you need to dig out some of the magnificent articles from the time - Roy Palmer, Ian Campbell, Karl Dallas, Roy Harris.... a steady stream, sorely missed
You onle have to read the sleeve notes of the Topic or Folkways albums to see how deeply some people became - booklets in themselves, some of them (particularly Folkways)
Jim