"Jim you are always complaining about people kicking Ewans Corpse "

Of all the strange things in this thread, this strikes me as the strangest. Let's just grant for the sake of discussion that every criticism of MacColl in this thread is spiteful and inaccurate. Still, why does the fact that MacColl is dead make it especially heinous?

MacColl was born in 1915. If he was alive, he'd be 102. He's SUPPOSED to be dead: To use a frame of reference I'm familiar with, he's as old as Brownie McGhee. He's 3 years younger than Lightning Hopkins and Woodie Guthrie. He's the same age as Bob Dylan's MOTHER, and Dylan is 77 this May.

Moreover, his corpse is not still warm: He's been dead for nigh unto 30 years. He's been dead longer than Amy Winehouse lived. He is long gone where he need no longer bear

. . . the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes.

He is beyond the reach of his detractors as much as, I don't know, Churchill or George Bernard Shaw, are beyond theirs.

He belongs to the ages. He can take it.