# I want more true ballads... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2007, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834 "2007-07-15T05:43:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/21 "2007-07-15T18:03:41Z")
[And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_The_Band_Played_Waltzing_Matilda). The only version I’ve heard is by The Pogues, but theirs is good. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/22 "2007-07-15T18:49:40Z")
**Warren Zevon** had numerous ‘story songs’, and they’re just fantastic. Among his best: _Carmelita_ _Veracruz_ _Jeannie Needs a Shooter_ _The French Inhaler_ _Desperados Under the Eaves_ _Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)_ _Boom Boom Mancini_ _Lawyers, Guns and Money_ _Frank and Jesse James_ _Mama Couldn’t be Persuaded_ _Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner_ Another source of great story songs is **John Prine** Some of his best: _Sam Stone_ _Donald and Lydia_ _Paradise_ _The Great Compromise_ _Christmas in Prison_ _Hello in There_ _Angel from Montgomery_ _Six O’clock News_ _Mexican Home_ _Lake Marie_ ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/23 "2007-07-15T21:15:14Z")
[QUOTE=whatami] Thanks for some great suggestions! The Highwayman was great, basically the exact type of song I’m looking for. The version I cam across was with [Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Weylon Jennings](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw1bHaUk1CM) . [/QUOTE] Oooo, I’ll have to check that one out. Tell you what, I’ll go find the Nelson/Cash/Jennings version and you go dig up the Phil Ochs one. You’ll thank me. Honest. While you’re at it, you might also want to find _Tam Lin_ by Fairport Convention and _Alison Gross_ by Steeleye Span. Both of them have supernatural storylines and great melodies. Oh, and Lorenna McKennitt, who I maligned up-thread, has a beautiful version of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s [_Lady of Shalott_](http://www.xs4all.nl/~josvg/cits/lm/lorecd44.html). ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/24 "2007-07-15T23:11:09Z")
[The Irish Ballad](http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/irish.htm) by Tom Lehrer 😃 ---
**Author:** ![percussion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@percussion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percussion)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/25 "2007-07-15T23:12:59Z")
Ron Hynes, Ron Hynes RON HYNES!! ---
**Author:** ![percussion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@percussion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percussion)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/26 "2007-07-15T23:17:46Z")
and youtube link [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lV6QlEL46Bs/hqdefault.jpg "Ron Hynes - Dry (live)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV6QlEL46Bs) ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/27 "2007-07-15T23:34:42Z")
[QUOTE=koeeoaddi] [The Highwayman](http://www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html) should do it for you. …and please find the lovely, urgent, haunting Phil Ochs version, _not_ the dull Loreena McKennit one. [/QUOTE] Lovely, urgent, haunting - and butchered. At least Loreena McKennit only cut two verses (Though one of them _is_ essential to the plot). See if you can find the late, great Peter Bellamy’s albums of Kipling poems set to music: _Merlin’s Isle of Gramarye_ and _Oak, Ash and Thorn_ are songs from ‘Rewards and Fairies’ and ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’, _The Barrack-Room Ballads of Rudyard Kipling_ does what it says on the tin and \*Keep on Kipling \* and _Mr Kipling Made Exceedingly Good Songs_ are settings of general Kipling poetry. All are done in the folk tradition (some to traditional tunes) and are well worth a listen. Difficult to find, though. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/28 "2007-07-15T23:38:02Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] Another rich source for ballads is that sub-genre of folk music called ‘filk.’ Basically, it’s folk music with an SF/Fantasy theme. Though - the definition can get kind of fuzzy. Traditional ballads often get adopted wholesale, there’s at least one filk singer who has been putting much of Kipling’s poetry to music. Alas, it’s often hard to find. Some of the lyrics for songs I’ve liked that I could find are linked here: [Dawson’s Christian](http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/dawsons-christian.html), by Duane Elms [Flowers for Algernon](http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/flowers-for-algernon.html), by Kathy Mar [Operation Desert Storm](http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/operation-desert-storm.html), by Tom Smith (It’s not what you think it’s about.) [Threes](http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/threes.html), by Mercedes Lackey and Leslie Fish [Captain Jack and the Mermaid](http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/captain-jack.html), by Meg Davis [/QUOTE] And don’t forget [The Blacksmith of Brandywine,](http://indepos.comicgenesis.com/d/20050513.html) by Pat Garvey. A filk favorite – whether it’s based on a true story, as alleged, I do not know. On a lighter note: [Cows With Guns,](http://www.danalyons.com/lyrics/lyrics_for_public/cows_with_guns_lyrics.html) by Dana Lyons. Which **is** based on a true story. Is too! ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/29 "2007-07-16T00:11:53Z")
As a bluegrass fancier, for 30 years now, I can heartedly suggest [Knoxville Girl](http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiKNOXGIRL.html). Sad, but true, mean sumbitches existed in the old days. If you want to hear the best version, it would be by the Stanley Bros. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/30 "2007-07-16T00:16:35Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] On a lighter note: [Cows With Guns,](http://www.danalyons.com/lyrics/lyrics_for_public/cows_with_guns_lyrics.html) by Dana Lyons. Which **is** based on a true story. Is too! [/QUOTE] I don’t know. Seems a bit far fetched. I bet they just inflated it from [this incident](http://www.bluelyrics.net/b/boiled_in_lead_lyrics/hook_em_cow_lyrics.html). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ryobserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@ryobserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryobserver)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/31 "2007-07-16T00:18:27Z")
“Springhill Mining Disaster” by Pete Seeger (recorded by The Dubliners among others) is a story song and a good one, IF you get one of the long versions. Please ignore the gutted U2 version. As others have said above, you can’t go far into traditional Irish and Scottish music, or music influenced by these traditions, without bumping into ballads galore. Some are centuries old and exist in multiple versions and recordings. “Little Musgrave” and “Barbara Allen” are love stories gone awry, “Barratt’s Privateers” and “Greenland Whale Fisheries” are tales of work gone wrong, and there are lots of battle songs, some historically reliable, many not. Even The Pogues’ “Smell of Petroleum” could count as a story song, of a sort. --That opens up the topic of comic ballads, a genre in itself. Traditional ones include “The Irish Rover” and “William Bloat”. Filk has plenty of comic songs, starting with the immortal and infamous “Banned From Argo” by Leslie Fish, and Tom Smith’s “Seven Drunken Nights in Space”. A quite serious filk ballad is Gordon Dickson’s “Jacques Chretien”, which comes right out of one of his Dorsai stories–and yes, it’s been recorded. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/32 "2007-07-16T00:33:12Z")
There’s the “Ballad of Mary Read,” by [Peter S. Beagle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_S._Beagle) (I think – at least I’ve got a filk tape where he performs it). Which is based (more or less) on a [true story.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Read) I can’t seem to find the words online, but I recall it begins: Come all ye filibusterers and roving buccaneers Ye rapparees and picaroons and wayward privateers Ye gentlemen of fortune, roaring captains one and all Come hear the tale of Mary Read and Dancing Jack Duvall CHORUS: And it’s a glass for every prize, and two for every dirty deed And three more for the soul of wicked loving Mary Read (In fact, I remember **all** the lyrics, I’ve done the song in SF-con bardic circles many times – but in light of board policy and Beagle’s ongoing copyright troubles, I will forbear to post any more. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/33 "2007-07-16T00:39:40Z")
_The Tain_ by The Decemberists is supposedly based on the Irish story [Táin Bó Cúailnge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%A1in_B%C3%B3_C%C3%BAailnge). I say supposedly because the lyrics of the song are more like an artistic interpretation of the original story than a faithful retelling of it. The song itself is a medley which repeatedly changes tempos and styles and includes everything from metal riffs to circus music. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/34 "2007-07-16T00:45:26Z")
**Brain Glutton** , that’s one of the great things about Mary Read, though - there’s just enough historical evidence to prove she lived, and was a pirate - but the details are so sketchy, and poorly documented, the artist can do most anything with her life, if they so wished. For that matter, there’s reason to question just how accurate the records of her death in jail might be. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/35 "2007-07-16T00:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=Boulter’s Canary] Lovely, urgent, haunting - and butchered. At least Loreena McKennit only cut two verses (Though one of them _is_ essential to the plot). [/QUOTE] You say butchered, I say deftly edited. Our mileage varies, I suppose. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/36 "2007-07-16T01:06:50Z")
The [Song of Roland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_roland) is a medieval ballad based on a real event, the [Battle of Roncevaux Pass.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass) (Based very loosely – the poet turns the Basques into Moors, in accordance with the Crusading spirit of the time in which he wrote.) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/37 "2007-07-16T01:16:03Z")
Corn on the cob but _Three Wooden Crosses_ by Randy Travis fits the bill I reckon. _Lily of the West_ is another, there are a variety of versions by amongst others, The Chieftains and Bob Dylan. _Lakes of Pontchartrain_ and _On The Banks of The Old Pontchartrain_ probably count too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/38 "2007-07-16T01:26:44Z")
[Three Fishers,](http://www.azchords.com/r/rogersstan-tabs-3357/threefishers-tabs-114300.html) by Stan Rogers – not based on any real event, AFAIK, but definitely a ballad. [The Witch of the Westmorelands,](http://www.barbaradickson.net/lyrics_witch_of_west_official.html) by Archie Fisher (but memorably covered by Stan Rogers). ---
**Author:** ![ThisSpaceForRent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisspaceforrent/32/345_2.png) [@ThisSpaceForRent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisSpaceForRent)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/39 "2007-07-16T03:28:37Z")
[QUOTE=Sam Stone] _Sam Stone_ _Donald and Lydia_ _Paradise_ _The Great Compromise_ _Christmas in Prison_ _Hello in There_ _Angel from Montgomery_ _Six O’clock News_ _Mexican Home_ _Lake Marie_ [/QUOTE] …and **bruised orange** …aka _chain of sorrow_ I would also add…_Stella Blue_ by the grateful dead and may others if i didn’t have to be at get up at 2:30 am for work… peace my friends… ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2007, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834/40 "2007-07-16T04:00:29Z")
all fictional I think- The Killing of Georgie by Rod Stewart The Alan Parsons Project- Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe Nick Cave- Where the Wild Roses Grow, with Kylie Minogue also Cave- Henry Lee, with PJ Harvey [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-more-true-ballads/411834.md?page=3)