yeh I'm willing to own up to living in a bizarre world.

I still think if you went out on the streets asking the public to name a singer of ballads - you'd be more likely to get Matt Monro mentioned than Ewan MacColl.

Like I say the blokes compiling The Oxford Companion to Music don't make the rules. the Joe Blogg's out there in the world we inhabit make the rules of common usage. Oxford dons are just crapping themselves trying to keep up.


I seem to remember both Burl Ives and Joan Baez referring to Greensleeves and Plaisir D'Amour as a ballads.

And some people used to talk abot 'ballades' - with an 'e' - is that something different?