Thursday, February 4, 2021

Eternal Ballads


Post a comment on your chosen "enduring" ballad. What theme or themes does the ballad address? What makes it American? Why does it endure?

22 comments:

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L14UKBjC5Is

    The song, “The Streets of Laredo,” sung by Marty Robbins embodies the story of the old west with the addition of some Americanization. According the the pbs article, the song was adapted from an old Irish song called “The Unfortunate Rake.” Although there are a few Irish roots, it was transplanted to America because of the strong ideas about the old west. The fact that it takes place in a Texan town also makes it American. The song is played with the strums of a guitar. The slow tempo along with the use of a softer voice allows for the audience to see that the song has a sad meaning to it. This balled also mainly revolves around the idea of death. It is about the story of a young cowboy who lays on the ground of a Texan town, wrapped in white linen. He sees a cowboy passing by and tells his life story to the fellow cowboy. His last request was for cold water and ideas for his funeral. This balled has endured throughout the years because it embodies the life of a young cowboy in the old west. When people think of the old west, they mainly think about the cowboys and gun showdowns they had, and this song clearly explains this idea. Overall, I enjoyed the story of the song and the slow tempo.

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  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd0EmkQUGqY

    I chose the ballad called “Casey Jones” sung by Johnny Cash. This was a very catchy ballad to listen to. It had an upbeat tone despite covering the topic of death. At first the thought of having a cheery tone confused me because I thought it wouldn’t match the overarching theme, but I now think that the tempo matched the story. This ballad may sound upbeat, but it could just be going at a fast pace. This has the effect of getting a listener to feel the tension and adrenaline of the song (it’s building up suspense). One characteristic of a ballad is the use of simple language. After looking at the lyrics of this song it was easy to tell that all of the lines probably had 5 words or less. The word choice was very simple, but the storyline was still easy to follow. Another characteristic of a ballad is the type of story being told. This somewhat narrative poem describes the death of railroad engineer Casey Jones at the controls of the train he was driving. This ballad made use of another characteristic that is repetition. The ballad’s refrain was repeated 7 times throughout the song. The ballad did rhyme at some parts, but I don’t think that it perfectly followed the stereotypical rhyme scheme of abcb.

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  3. Jase

    Teenage Queen by Johnny Cash
    In a ballad, there is a strong repetition of words or lyrics. Ballads have a strong rhythm to it. But
    the overall idea of a ballad is to remind the audience of oral poetry. In Teenage Queen, this oral
    poetry is about a girl who is growing up, who is very attractive. The tragedy of this song is about
    that same girl giving everything up in life. All her wealth, cars, and house, was given up. In a
    ballad, there is always a tragic theme, or either death, murder, or something negative that
    happens. There is a fast rhythm to this song/ poem, and rhyme is almost every line. The reason
    for this girl leaving the town, and her boyfriend who just saved enough money to buy her a ring,
    was because Hollywood had more to offer.

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  4. https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000041/

    This ballad called “Pearl Bryant” is about one of America’s famous murder cases of Pearl Bryan. It has a very creepy tone to it which is appropriate for the topic of murder. The murder of Pearl Bryan was a famous case during the late 1800s. At just 22 years old, her head was severed by Scott Jackson who she was in a relationship with at the time. Because of how gruesome this death was, it is still talked about today. This song also seemed like it had a country tone and many people who are familiar with this ballad are from Kentucky which is where Pearl Bryan lived. While the ballad has the theme of murder, in a way it also shows the theme of love. One of the verses states, “She died not broken-hearted / Nor by disease she fell, / But in a moment’s parting / From the one she loved so well.” Even though her death was horrible, she died having loved someone. The last verse states, “Dear Jackson, I’ll forgive you, / Though this be my last breath;” which shows how she still loved him and forgives him after the horrible things he’s done to her. This ballad has endured throughout the years because it was such a significant death to Americans back then. It shows how horrible a person can be and it shocked everyone. The ballad has four lines in each verse with a rhyming pattern of ABAB. Overall, I thought that this ballad was very different and much darker from other songs that I’ve heard.

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  5. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mZxtLcYESzQ

    This ballad named “Gypsy Davy”, by Pete Seeger is a nice smooth song. It was nice to listen to the instruments in the background, and it was nice that they were not overpowering the vocals. It is a story of a man who comes home only to find out that his wife has left him for the gypsy Davy. He goes to try and get his lady back, but she refuses to leave with her husband and insists on staying with the gypsy Davy. At first she thinks it is all fine, but they mention her kid and she does start to get a little emotional, but at the end of the day she still ends up leaving him. It was another one of those ballads that had that kind of upbeat feeling, not too much in this one, but still a little bit present, but had a more realistic and sad story behind it.

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  6. https://www.loc.gov/audio/

    “Custer’s Last Charge” sung by Warde Ford is a ballad composed of a historical event. I could not find a video of this particular song, so I listened to the audio of it. It contained no instruments and had the voice of Warde Ford only. There are many types of ballads such as Traditional ballads, European ballads, French- American ballads, Spanish- American ballads, and many more. However, this song was a Native- American ballad which was about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This battle was a conflict between the US and the confederation of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho. This song conveys Custer and the 267 men who died during the battle. This song also depicts a scene of the conflict with lyrics that contains actions. This particular song had a calm but intense melody and was constant throughout the song. However, through the lyrics being delivered, the amount of tension is brought to the audience. Ballads provide a story and a tale and delivers that to the audience through the words in a historical event. Not only is the melody and the rhythm crucial, the story being delivered is what really makes the song in the category of ballad. This ballad focuses on the point of the view of an exact historical event that occurred in the past. In the United States passed many different types of ballads and one famous ballads were historical and Native- American ballads.

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  7. https://youtu.be/cv_THWZ8-T8 “Stagolee” by Mississippi John Hurt tells the story of a cruel man named Stagolee, who kills another man named Billy Lion because he mistakenly took his hat. It had a steady rhythm and a consistent melody, with the tell-tale ballad rhyme scheme of abcb. I wouldn’t expect a medium-paced rhythm and upbeat melody like that of “Stagolee” to be accompanied with the telling of a cruel man’s story, but it also interestingly fits the story quite well. The song’s history is rich in folklore; one of the character’s names is “Jim Stack Lee”, the black son of a Confederate soldier named “Stack Lee’, and there was a steamboat that was popular in Memphis during the 1800’s where the name of both the boat and the owner was “Stacker Lee”. Although this ballad was a song of ill-intent and violence, I liked its melody and it’s definitely something I would enjoy listening to.

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  8. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017700924?

    “The Last Fierce Charge” sung by Ward H Ford is a ballad about two soldiers who perished during the civil war, their death a call for peace and an end to the killing. I actually very much enjoyed this ballad even though it’s exceedingly simple. The main theme of the song was about how each soldier has a life and when they die fighting they leave behind their loved ones. It emphasizes the tragedy of these men fighting in a war they never wanted and their loved ones who have no solace in their grief. I think that the ballad endures because the tragic nature of war persists through to today. No soldier wants to die in battle, no one wants the think of their family at home who will miss them, and no one wants to think that their brothers in arms will die with no one to tell their story. The song is sad but the message is one worth being told then and even now.

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  9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwPRm5UMe1A

    “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” sung by Jim Croce is an interesting ballad telling of the life of a man named Leroy Brown. The character of Leroy Brown was actually inspired by a sergeant that Jim Croce had met. This ballad had not a lot of repetition but “bad, bad Leroy Brown” and “baddest man” were emphasized a lot in the song. Jim Croce is known for his folk rock music style. By combining these two styles to make one song worked perfectly. The song is introduced with an upbeat piano solo which got the song going. Drums start to slowly add in, making it more upbeat. This song talks about Leroy Brown being “the baddest man in the whole damn town.” There is rhyming in the chorus with an ABAB rhyme scheme. The song mainly talks about Chicago and what Leroy Brown does and what he looks like. From reading the lyrics, it seems that Leroy Brown was a ladies man who had a good sense of style. It also seems that he has money since he can afford fancy clothing. Funny thing, I heard about this song from “Friends,” the TV series. I had no idea that this song was a ballad and now that I’ve listened to it, I really enjoyed the song and musicality to it. “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” has a catchy tune and something that I would possibly be singing for quite sometime.

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  10. https://youtu.be/IVGpNRAErlc

    “Billy The Kid” by Woody Guthrie informs the listeners about the true story of Billy The Kid in ballad form. The ballad’s murder-ful story intrigued me and moved me to analyze it. Like many eternal ballads, “Billy The Kid” closes with a death scene. As for the instruments, I can only hear a banjo/guitar and Woody Guthrie’s twangy voice. This is also a commonality with various ballads; the ballad is composed to force the reader to focus on the lyrics. A theme that “Billy The Kid” addresses is death and, possibly, manhood. Billy The Kid was a murderer who killed at least 20 men starting at the age of 12. Billy dies at the hands of his friend, Pat Garrett, from a gunshot. Both the murders that Billy The Kid performed and the death of himself are things that are everlasting and cannot be taken back; they are enduring until the end. Manhood is a possible theme because Billy The Kid, according to the ballad, did not live to grow old. Thus, Billy lacked the experience of being able to be a true man. Since being a true man/manhood lasts and eternity for men, manhood should be considered as a theme for this ballad. The ballad is American since Billy The Kid, in reality, was born and raised in America. His actions made him an icon for rebellion among teenagers then and now.

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  11. The song “I Ain’t Got No Home” by Woodie Guthrie explains what people who were affected by the Dust Bowl had to endure. The Dust Bowl which occurred during the Great Depression, cost many people their land, homes and businesses and they were forced to migrate across the country to restart their lives. This song has a more somber tone to it and I think that Guthrie is also trying to explain the anger and how overwhelmed Dust Bowl refugees were feeling after they lost everything they had owned. I could tell by the tone of the song and the instruments how heartbroken these people were.

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  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGJTaP6anOU

    “I can’t help falling in love,” is a famous ballad that’s sung by Elvis Presley. It is a perfect “I want to relax and look at the stars,” song. There are very little instruments being played during the song. I think this is because they really want to focus on Elvis’ voice and his yearning for the one he loves. The song is very slow paced but that’s also what makes it so soothing. It’s about a man, Elvis Presley in this case, who’s been love struck and doesn’t know what to do about it. He knows it might be a mistake but it’s too late because he has already fallen.

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  13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWbwxWlsu8Q&feature=emb_title

    The song that I choose was "Barbara Allen" sung by Matthew Sabatella and the Rambling String Band. When listening to the song lyrics it is clearly about a tragic story ending in death. I believe that the song was actually brought over by European Settlers as written in an article. What makes it a ballad is that the piece was made and brought to the new world. The song includes a kind of love story that becomes tragic. Also the song some repetition in the song giving away that it is a ballad. During the song that was sung also had a really old fashion banjo playing in the background with a very simple strumming pattern. I felt that this little of instruments really highlighted the lyrics of the song and became more powerful.

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  14. The song “long black veil” by lefty frizzle was an incredibly popular ballad and was later covered by many singers such as Johnny cash. In the song, there was a murder in the town of the singer. The murderer was said to look a lot like the singer and the police arrest him. They ask him for an alibi or else he will be killed for his crime. He refuses to give an alibi because he was actually in bed with his best friend’s wife. So instead of humiliating his best friend and the wife, he chooses to die instead. The song then goes on to say how the wife will walk the singers grave in a long black veil and how no one knows the truth. This is a very tragic ballad because there is no justice in this story. The murderer is still out there, the best friend doesn’t know the truth, the wife doesn’t get in trouble, and the singer died for a crime that wasn’t his. This is a ballad because of the stanzas and the rhyme scheme of abcb.

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  15. “Colley’s Run-I-O”, recorded for Library of Congress in 1946 by L. Parker Temple, tells of a group of lumberjacks who journey to work in the unforgiving site called Colley’s Run. From what I could find, there is no evidence that this location actually existed, but the ballad became popular among the workers and woodsmen of eastern America. Though it depicts the hard life of working lumbermen, “Colley’s Run-I-O” maintains a sweet and inviting melody that paints their labor in a more positive light. As is traditional with American ballads, each stanza is split into four lines. More unusually, an ABCD rhyme scheme is established, rather than ABCB or ABAB. The phrase “Colley’s Run-I-O” is repeated at the end of every stanza, and it is initially unclear how the lumberjacks feel about the titular location. However, through lines like “Provided you pay good wages” and “To that God-forsaken gehooley of a place,” it quickly becomes obvious that Colley’s Run-I-O offers less than ideal working conditions. Nevertheless, this ballad emphasizes that laborers must take what opportunities they are given in order to make a living and sustain their families— a quintessentially American theme.

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  16. https://youtu.be/gxEPV4kolz0

    Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” is a soft rock hit that tells the personal stories of those who reside in a bar and how they come together to listen to the piano man for comfort and escape from their daily lives. The chorus is repetitive following every verse and is something everyone can sing along to together. In the end its revealed the singer himself is the piano man, observing people go about their daily lives in a bar that he works in, as they turn to him for music. Its overall a song about the aftermath of a typical American work day, as people come together to mope about their average lives, but finding satisfaction in the piano man’s playing.

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  17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NuX79Ud8zI

    “Big Iron” by Marty Robbins is one of the many ballads featured in his album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. As soon as the music begins you can automatically tell that the ballad has an old western/cowboy theme to it. The ballad opens with a brief fast pace and catchy guitar solo quickly followed by the first verse of the ballad. I immediately liked the sound of Marty’s singing voice, it was very soothing and you could understand all of his words very clearly. He had pretty good vocal range and was able to hit some higher mid range notes as well as the lower notes. The ballad has a very nice flow to it and the beat and tempo are consistent throughout the whole song. This ballad tells the story of an outlaw by the name of Texas Red and an Arizona Ranger who was sent to capture Texas Red dead or alive. It takes place in a town called Agua Fria. The Ranger rides into town and tells the people he’s looking for Texas Red. Once Red hears the news about the Ranger they meet in the middle of the street at 11:20 to have a gun speed duel. The ballad ends with the Ranger killing Texas Red ending in a happy ending. Like all other ballads the song has lots of repetition of key phrases or words. The main phrase that is repeated the most through the song is “Big Iron on his hip”. The phrase is repeated a total of 13 times. A “Big Iron” is basically just a poetic way of saying a gun or a pistol. Another thing that is repeated is the number 20 which is repeated 3 times. The song also follows the standard ballad reptilian rhymes and number of lines in a stanza. This song has a total of 8 stanzas all of them have 5 lines. The first 4 lines of each stanza follow an AABB rhyme scheme. The 5th and final line of the stanza is just a repeat of the last phrases of the 4th line.


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  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JWTaaS7LdU&pbjreload=101

    Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" is a classic love ballad from the early 90s. This song headlines the legendary soundtrack/album for the movie "Bodyguard." Whitney sings about loving someone, but knowing that by being with them she's holding him back, she decides to leave and let go of the relationship. She wishes her partner the best, and promises to always love him. Whitney opens the song's first verse acapella, highlighting her beautiful vocals. Whitney's iconic voice made her one of America's biggest stars in the music industry, and her love ballads are still iconic to this day. "I Will Always Love You" endures through time because of its tremendous power and soul.

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  19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kQBIO-VdQQ

    The Ballad of Jesse James is about a member of the James-Younger Gang during the 1870s-1880s. The gang notoriously robbed trains and banks successfully, but one day they messed up and some of their members were killed. The rest of the gang regrouped and one of the members, Robert Ford, killed Jesse James so he could collect a bounty. This ballad is American because it glorifies outlaws and “the Wild West,” portraying Jesse James as a sort of Robin Hood figure. The Ballad of Jesse James endures because people still like to glorify the Wild West and especially murder ballads.

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  20. “Ida Red” by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys is a very fun song as it seems like an endless story of Ida Red. They play a fast tempo beat with a cello, drums, a slide guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, and a piano. There’s almost a solo for each instrument making it fun and intriguing. A group of 6 men jump in to sing a very catchy Ida Red Ida Red chorus which means the audience can sing along without knowing the fast verses sung by the lead singer. This song takes some lyrics from the tune “Sunday Night” by F.W. Root. With several arrangements of Ida Red, this proves to be one of the most populaire because of it’s fun lyrics which contains populaire topics like drinking and partner dancing.

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  21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exve40nNg-M

    Johnny Cash’s “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” is a traditional American song written about a pretty girl from a small town. This is considered a ballad because of the story form it takes and the western style guitar as the background. Johnny Cash’s unique voice makes this song even better. Like other ballads, there are lines that are repeated all throughout the song and each verse ends with the same line about the boy from the Candy store. This ballad tells the story of a girl who is seemingly always being chased by boys. But when a famous Hollywood man comes to town, she goes with him to acquire fame and fortune. However in the end she gives all of this up to go back to live with the boy next door who worked at the Candy Store. I loved Cash’s soothing guitar music and I ended up enjoying listening to it much more than I thought I would. As opposed to other ballads I have listened to this had a much happier ending but something they both had in common was that most ballads have a deeper meaning and message that they convey through their lyrics.

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  22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q9UafsiQ6k

    The ballad I chose is Black by Pearl Jam. I chose this because it doesn’t come off as a typical ballad, as it's a somewhat hard rock song from the 90s.
    The theme of this ballad is letting go. In an interview in 2011, Eddie Vedder, the singer and songwriter of Black, said himself that’s what the song is about. Although some say it’s about a long term relationship, with a woman whom Vedder had been dating since 1983, married in 1994 and divorced in 2000, Eddie just said its “letting go.” He leaves it at much broader of a perspective or meaning than many listeners may have perceived.
    This is American because Eddie Vedder himself is an American singer, songwriter, and player of instruments like guitar. His music is made and produced in America.
    This song endures. It is one of Pearl Jam’s most famous songs to this day, if not one of the most famous songs of all time, or of the 90s grunge era at least. The rawness in Vedder’s singing is poured out into every lyric he sings. It was the center of Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten, which came out in 1991.
    I was reading about Eddie Vedder and his early life a while ago, and I think he said something about how rough of a patch he was going though in his late teen years. This was when he wrote the songs for his first album, with the raw experiences and pain in his being, so it is all reflected in his music. Vedder also said, he was utterly surprised at how popular that album was, as it focuses in on such pain (even though the tunes aren’t soft/depressing). The album was on the top charts in the country in the 90s, and this was because of the “relatability” in his music, as many people were going through what Vedder went through when writing this song. Basically, it endured because people felt personally connected to the music and possibly Eddie Vedder himself (if your a hardcore fan..).
    The song is perfect. No other words.

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