"it is the idea that folk song was written by the lowest class that I cannot agree with. "
Then the English were far less creatively cultural than the Scots who were noted for their masses of bothy and improvised waulking songs, milking and churning chants, not to mention the beautiful folk prayers and hymns found in Carmichael's 'Carmina Gadelica'
The 'tic Paddies' across the Irish pond left them standing by creating many thousands of local songs covering every aspect of existence from shipwrecks, national independence songs - right though to to murder ballads and on the-spot pieces about farting in church
Bernard Manning sure goth things the wrong way round big time
Even the non-literate Travellers were streets ahead of the English as song-makers
Do you think it was an inferior education system or were the English naturally backward ?
Jim Carroll