That bloke meant what he put. Jim Carroll just has to disagree with anything anyone who can occasionally be critical of MacColl puts out, even if said critic is pointing out an actual positive.

I say it again. His voice exuded the emotion of the sentence he was phrasing in song. He learned it as a playwright for voicing his actors and put it in his songs, even when he tried to be deadpan in delivery, his crafting of the words betrayed the emotion.

It's one of the nice things about his singing. He wasn't ever pitch perfect and could never have been a classical singer. His vocal range was limited. He was louder when singing low and quieter when singing high. (and yes, I have been sound engineer at two concerts of theirs,) but and this is a big but. I admire the passion and display of emotion in his voice.

It's a pity that Jim Carroll can't hear music. Saying it's just about the words is like admiring Constable for the grade of sable in his brushes.