So who was the ur-Ewan MacColl?

That Singers' Club policy should of course have meant that American songs would have been perfectly kosher: "Guest singers and those who sang from the floor should limit themselves to songs which were in a language the singer spoke or understood".

That doesn't mean Ewan would have approved. Though I remember that, at Ballads and Blues, he never showed any objections to Jack Elliott singing "I belong tae Glesca".