"Actually, it feels like we are getting a rounded view of the strengths and weaknesses of Ewan's personality;"
Wouldn't it be a refreshing change if we discused his work and ideas rather than his personality.
I can't think of one other singer on the folk scene, (or any other artistic field, for that matter) who has had his/her 'personality' dragged through the mire more than MacColl has - and it's still happening twenty-two years after his death.
For instance, What do people think of his work in relating Laben's work on movement to singing efforts?
or
Did the relaxation and voice exercised work for anybody who became familiar with them.
Was his work using Stanislavski's 'application of the idea of 'if'' or 'emotion memory' valid for the singing of folk songs?
Or how about his approach to ballads - as outlined in articles he wrote on The Bonny Earl of Moray or Edom O' Gordon.
Or his suggestion that, when writing songs, the secret in getting them to work for audiences was that the writer should start "from the specific and move ro the general" so that everybody is given the opportunity to identify with the song..... MacColl did far more work on the singing of folk songs than anybody else in the revival; he was always ready to discuss that work with anybody who showed an interest. Despite this, we still don't appear to have moved beyond facile questions like 'why did he change his name' (never asked of Dylan/Zimmerman, or ' what did he sing with one hand cupped over his ear (never mentioned in relation to Bert Lloyd or The Watersons - the latter sang with both hands over their ears).
I'm quite convinced that, where MacColl is concerned, most of the revival is constantly acting out the Monty Python 'Arthur 'Two Sheds' Jackson sketch (the one where a composer can't get his work taken seriously because of his nickname.
Maybe it's time we started discussing other singers by their personality traits or problems - "did you hear the one about Alex Campbell chucking up on stage......?"
MacColl was a complex individual, often dificult to fathom by those who knew him, and pretty obviously impossible by those who didn't , but he was a creative artist who did far more to encourage creativity in others than anybody else on the scene - by miles.
Jim Carroll