Matt, your post tends to echo what I've said at the beginning about the "generation" thing. E Mac was a near contemporary of Woody Guthrie ( whom BD of coures originally modelled himself partly on)- during the thirties they were both doing the same thing of irritating and generally getting up the noses of the "establishment".

For EMac the folk singing/writing seemed to be a mid life career change having been basically involved in theatre when he was young.

If he'd have been a generation later, might he have gone in the same direction as Bob? Could he not recognise someone who had a lot in commmon with himself when he was younger?