“Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” is an American folk song, ragtime, and popular song written by Lewis F. Muir and L. Wolfe Gilbert in 1912. Music by the Stardust Voices
@@HawaiianBall Oh Susanna does sound like a folk song, but you're right, by the usual definition it isn't one. (I'll copy wikipedia here and ask: widely accepted *by whom*?) And Waiting for the Robert E Lee sounds no more like a folk song than Alexander's Ragtime Band or Carolina in the Morning or the Oceana Roll--by a looser definition, all the pop songs of yesterday will be "folk songs" tomorrow.
@@Christopher-hb1wxAccording to Wikipedia, many minstrel songs (“Oh! Susanna” was one) have become folk songs, most having removed the original minstrel dialect. Other well known folk songs are Camptown Races, Old Folks at Home, and Old Kentucky Home. Note: I acknowledge my mistake for mislabeling “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” as a folk song
@@HawaiianBall Great, but what makes these Stephen Foster songs "folk" songs? Why not just call them what the are, Stephen Foster songs? "Folk" makes them sound anonymous.