Black Eyed Susie

The connection could simply be the flower!  

What if it’s literally about the flower called Black Eyed Susie……

No. That rally wouldn't make sense to me.  Songs were handed down mainly orally, though some have a written tradition too, and like the game where you whisper a story into the next person's ear on down the line, the story comes out different but not totally so, songs change with each locale and generation, but not unrecognizably so and a common thread almost always remains. If anything, it's names that usually change, not the story so much. 
Here's are 3 examples showing typical transitions on old songs: Three Old Songs

Have you seen Get Back, the new Beatles films. Shows a lot of their influences. Fascinating watching

The Beatles: Get Back is the 3-part Peter Jackson documentary about the ill-fated January 1969 project which ultimately resulted in the Let It Be album and fillm (1970).

It streams on Disney Plus, and runs for about 8 hours in total.

And is unmissable if you love the beatles

A few months ago, I created a thread called The Birth of Rock & Roll

Perhaps there should be a follow-up call "Rock and Roll Grows Up!"  where, let's say, transitional (who look both behind and ahead) influential artists (like the Fab Four) can be explored? 

All music is transitional. Ken Colyer didn't come up with skiffle from no where but without him there'd be no transition. It has evolved by artists looking forward and back

You missed the point.

:) probably... I'm good at that

You know, Sarah, your music blogs are really fun to read and informative.  Keep up the good work!

I agree. I enjoy them. Well researched and eloquent

Appalachian, and Folk in general, are not my musical strong points but I do enjoy exploring and learning more about them. Thanks for the threads.

The fundamental influence for the Beatles was indeed rock & roll, for the Stones, Delta Blues, r&b and country r&b, for the Animals, a harder form of American r&b and for Manfred Mann, probably 1950s jazz. They were the top four UK bands in 1964, when the British musical influence round the World was at its peak. Other important groups, such as the Hollies and the Searchers, were only pop groups. The group Manfred Mann was easily the most musically accomplished and jazz-based of the four. The Beatles were just superb and extremely innovative, The Animals were really authentic and Burdon was called the "best black blues singer (in the World!)" As for the Stones, they produced some superb stuff early on but went downhill very fast when Brian Jones became dysfunctional and then died. He was their major, creative influence. Bill Wyman became increasingly fed up with them being centred round a non-musician, Jagger and left, while Charlie Watts, Wyman's friend, stuck it out as a professional musician who was probably emotionally separated from it all.

Thanks.  I only hope people who read and contribute to them realize I'm not pretending to be an expert, an historian or a musicologist.  I do a lot of homework though and listen to and play (on acoustical guitar) tons of music and try to take what I learn or sort out as a springboard for dialogue.  So many people have deep, varied and extensive experiences, tastes and even personal knowledge that it's a wide-open field as far as I'm concerned.  My real interests are in traditional and rival Folk music.  But all music, even classical, is intricately interwoven, so discussing bluegrass in the 1950s is only small leap from discussing the 1969 Rooftop or Altamont concerts (talk about contrasts! Jan.-Dec./celebration-tragedy).   

I was reading this little article: https://cincyblues.org/education/kurt-cobains-blues-influence-lead-belly/ 

...as if Cobain's "discovery" of Leadbelly is something so amazing.  I would find it more amazing to learn about a credible musician who didn't at some point look for his roots.   Music is one long river and it's up to the musician/music lover where he or she chooses to wade.

You might like this simply great 1965 concert if you've never watched it. I think it might exemplify the British popular music scene at that point in time.  It features, in order (many with multiple songs, the Moody Blues, Freddie and the Dreamers, Georgie Fame, the Seekers, Herman's Hermits, the Ivy League, Sounds Incorporated, Wayne Fontana, the Rolling Stones, Cilla Black, Donovan, Them, the Searchers, Dusty Springfield, the Animals, the Beatles and the Kinks.

Sounds very interesting although the bias is middle of the road pop and easy listening, with the Animals and the Stones thrown in. I think the Animals have stood the test of time but it might not suit you. Manfred Mann were a bit too nasty and politically incorrect for nowadays, except for their pop numbers. Anyhow, they aren't there.

I'll have to listen to some more Manfred Mann. About all I know about them is that Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light" doesn't hold a candle against their remake. (Apologies to the Springsteen fans)