Nice one, Matt. I agree, broadly, with what you're saying here although remain wary of the class-consciousness of of Lloyd, MacColl et al, as much as I would of (say) Henry Cow claiming to be a Peoples' Band. But hey, that's just me... I do have the book you speak of, but as with Fakesong and a dozen others, it awaits my attentions - largely on account of a recent obsession with Graves's Claudius books, though once I'm done with Claudius the God I'll be going back to The Broons for a while to clear my head.

I wonder, would any folklorist or Ballad Fan see the parallels between the old songs and the celebrity worship of today, or even see that as being in any way folkloric, much less significant or directly analagous on more than the one level? It also exists at the trashier end of fiction, as do the Ballads themselves in a way, though their evident appeal was evidently widespread and fluid with respect of things which later became extraneous thus reducing them to their consummate essence.