It perhaps is a measure of his greatness that so many people seem to feed off attacking him. It also seems that when a subject gets thoroughly exhausted on Usenet, people who still want to keep going come to Mudcat to start things all over again. Tiny, toothless Lilliputian rats, trying to gum to death a huge, respected reptutation.

I don't care if he deserted, because he was conscripted. Some people can handle being put in a situation where they're forced to kill others, and some can't. I don't care. I don't care if he was putting on the Scots accent - he did it superbly. These repeated 'Attack MacColl' threads say more about the egos of those who use them to launch post mortem attacks than on MacColl.

This is a thread in uk.music.folk, and a post by Dick Gaughan which talks about his life a bit. If you scroll two down in that thread, there's another post by Gaughan quoting Peggy Seeger saying it was SHE who started the whole 'sing from your own tradition' thing, and why, and where (it was only ONE folk club).

I shouldn't complain about the toothless McColl attackers. All of the attacks lead to more truth coming out and do not one whit to diminish his legacy.