Dylan joined the pantheon of successful Jewish songwriters and musicians (most of whom also changed their names):
Jewish Songwriters
Dylan toured extensively sought fame and achieved it. McColl preferred the parochial folky way.
To this day I hear more covers of 'To Make You Feel My Love' rather than McColl's 'First Time'.
Wasn't it a little bearded Scottish guy that shouted 'Judas!' when Dylan went electric? Dylan was heard to mumble 'Oh Ewan give us break'.
In the September 1965 issue of Sing Out!, singer Ewan MacColl wrote: "Our traditional songs and ballads are the creations of extraordinarily talented artists working inside disciplines formulated over time... 'But what of Bobby Dylan?' scream the outraged teenagers... Only a completely non-critical audience, nourished on the watery pap of pop music, could have fallen for such tenth-rate drivel."
Says it all about 'extraordinarily talented' McColl doesn't it?