MacColl had made up his mind about Bob Dylan long before he ever plugged in an electric guitar as between 1963 and 65 there were a whole raft of articles and interviews where he continually dismissed Dylan. "A youth of mediocre talent", "his poetry is punk, re-hashed Ginsberg, terribly old hat", "he has muddied the pool where folk song is concerned" were among his descriptions of Dylan and in a memorable interview with Karl Dallas in Melody Maker around 1965 he launched a scathing attack on Dylan in particular and the American singer/songwriters in general (Paxton, Baez, Ochs etc) "Are they the voice of young America? Yes, and that's more the pity; they are not saying anything with which Lyndon Johnson could disagree" He went on to declare if they wanted to hear protest singers then they should listen to Aunt Molly Jackson.
Maybe it was because the works of the young Americans was reaching an audience far wider than the folk scene? I don't know.
What I did know was at the time, as an impressionable teenager, it put me in an awkward position as they were then, and remain so to this day, my two favourite songwriters