The idea of giving the man a break is silly. We are adult enough to realise not everyone has the same likes and dislikes and I wasn't talking about his music in general just this one recording. And even at that I am not talking about the song itself - just the fact it takes so long to get to the song. I realise the recording means a lot to folk, especially of a certain age, but for me it would have had a better chance of resonating down the generations had it not had the intro.

He's British so what do I expect? Well what I didn't expect the first time I heard it was someone imitating an American spoken accent for almost half the recording. We are kind of used to people singing in American accents or mid-Atlantic accents so it doesn't normally bother me unless it is way over the top and for me talking that way kind of crossed the line.

But more than that I find the intro more than a tad boring. The Johnny Cash version has the long intro too and I am not keen on that either. As far as Donegan recordings go I much prefer things like "Cumberland Gap" which is straight no nonsense into the song.