It seemed hardly worth responding to a silly and inflammatory remark of that sort, but, since I have obviously touched a raw nerve here, I thought I'd better do a spot of research on Mr. Cockburn.  I hadn't realised that there was a religious issue -and possible attendant sensitivities- involved, or that a performer of whom I've never heard had so many loyal fans (not loyal enough, it appears, to keep the links on their websites about him up to date, though; at least half of those I trawled through are no longer current).  Quite a few of them carry transcriptions of songs from his many recordings, however, and, interestingly, every single one that I've seen quotes the line that Alex and I have had particular differences over not, as Alex gave it, "His wounds are sick and sith", but rather "His wounds are sick and sick".

Upon "sith", Alex seems to have constructed a fanciful theory which I disputed, and may have wrongly ascribed to the performer; if the correct reading is "sick", then I have no quarrel at all with Mr. Cockburn, but rather with Alex for getting it wrong and reacting intemperately when I challenged him.  Perhaps Mr. Cockburn just cocked the words up instead of changing them on purpose; if that is the case, then Alex's original remarks are irrelevant, and I needn't have bothered to make any comment beyond questioning the worth of re-posting a song to the Forum which is already available both here and in the DT.

If Alex is right and Mr. Cockburn's other fans are wrong, then my original comments stand.

Malcolm