okay, you're right Greg. Stalin and his regime were unpleasant. However Ewan MacColl was a decent guy and if you study the general themes through his songs you will find that he had a very humanitarian attitude and really was against the bosses getting away with acting like thugs. and moreover he was just the guy who would have told Stalin that face to face.

he had a lot of bottle, a lot of integrity and you want to hear my music.... I am a million miles away in my ideas of what constitutes folk music. the wide acceptance of his ideas has made it really difficult for people with divergent views to get a hearing in folk clubs. I disagreed with him on a million subjects, but just cos he wasn't as politically astute as you think you are, you shouldn't disrespect him. That's one thing in a very hardworking life.

Perhaps he got some ideas wrong, but he did his best. I remember martin Carthy talking about working with him not too long before he died, and poor old Ewan was suffering with angina onstage - but still doing his damndest to finish a song. Measure yourself by that kind of committment not just cos you were lucky enough to be born at the cushy end of a bloody rough century.