I find Dylan's singing painful to listen to but I love his Theme Time Radio Hour where he sounds like Zappa's Central Scrutiniser somehow crossed with Vic Reeves's Crazy John / Inspector Fowler... and he plays some very fine music on there too, unlike his own turgid mush, (although I've always like XTC's cover of All Along the Watchtower). In fact I don't like the whole protest song thing as a whole, songs with earnest & purposeful messages (political or otherwise) usually have me heading for the bar. Generally speaking, I like my music unsullied by sentiment...

English Folk Rock isn't something I've ever enjoyed much, though I've recently been trying to get the measure of it. I'm glad Richard Thompson et al contributed to Bright Phoebus though - Danny Rose especially, which brings me back to the promise of the first Fairport LP with Judy Dyble before the Folk Rot set in. Liege and Lief I've likened elsewhere to a sequence of tasteless, bland modernisations of some nice old characterful properties; the wattle & daub of the originals ripped out and replaced with mass produced breeze block and plaster board; sash windows replaced with UPVC and the open fires with flame-effect gas fires.

How long will it be before someone does an album called Anachie Gordon in the UK? One for a future Woodbine & Ivy Project perhaps?? Nice one, Pip!