I think he was writing for young people who went to folk clubs rather than scholars. you see most people were young in those days. It must have hurt him considerably to see this great wave of youth and enthusiasm slowed down to a trickle by the 1970's.

showbiz versus the crusties - must have broken his heart.

And I think therein probably lies your answer. to understand all is to forgive all.

Theres this beautiful little story in Denis Healey's autobiography where he describes the idealism of socialists after ww2:-

Denis is the prospective MP for somewhere or other, straight out of uniform and not one practical idea in his head.

This poor bloke stands up in the Labour Party meeting. he's got a shoe factory and financially its in the shit because of shortages and with rationing - no one can buy any shoes anyway. What am I going to do? the guy asks.

Denis gets up to speak, and says very grandiosely - as long as there is one barefoot child in this country - your factory will not be idle - your workers will not be unemployed under Labour.

Uproarious applause, but of course it wasn't answering the poor sod's question, as Denis realised when he came to write his biography fifty years later.

We say the things we say and we do the things we do - and it will seem strange and wrong to those who come after us. I really can't see as cribe any evil intent in this case we are discussing though.