Are we going to have a Bash Ewan MacColl thread now? I think he did FAR more good than harm (if there was any lasting harm). He could be difficult but NO, of course his attitude didn't "damage folk music forever". Lizzie will probably protest that she's just asking an objective question but the wording is hardly unbiased -

>Did he help enormously by being so dictatorial about 'folk' music?

>Or has his attitude 'damaged' folk music forever?

>I'm just asking if Ewan's obsessive rules damaged the music as well, in the sense of seeming to make it become elitist and at times very overly intellectualised?