He direly mistakes if he finds anything ill-natured in Jim's cogent, intelligent & well-argued posts: where these are contentious it is invariably in reply to provocative obloquy on others' parts.

I know I bowed out but as it's mostly myself that gets it in the neck from Jim Carroll I feel obliged to point out that nothing I have written here has been intended as provocative obloquy, but only wilfully perceived as such by JC who, on the evidence of these & other posts, is a very nasty piece of work indeed. He has consistently (and deliberately) misunderstood & misrepresented the intention of this thread which, far from defaming the infallible reputation of MacColl, was to explore the Legend, Mythology & Folklore, both positive and negative, that has grown up around the man. Perhaps, albeit unwittingly, in his cloyingly mawkish testimonies to the divine nature of his Guru JC has provided us with an essential balance to the real white-feather merchants & real corpse-kickers out there.

Ultimately though, I'm pissed because when I tried to play some of my favourite EM recordings the other week I couldn't get passed the anger that JC had blackened my heart with and so effectively ruined the pleasure I've always taken from EM's superlative ballad singing. Happily, I'm passed that now, but it took a real effort.

Here's another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A6I2pKWa1E

Does it get any better than that? As I say - enjoy!