The ballads and poems in this anthology were written by soldiers, miners, loggers,a Supreme Court Judge, song writers and even a few poets. Some of the languageis pretty rough, but many of the men that wrote them or composed them were prettyrough themselves. In many books about ballads, the authors are listed as unknown oranonymous, but with the help of the internet, the Library of Congress, and several otheranthologies I found a few of the Unknowns.Several qualities seem to give a ballad legs to remain popular over the centuries. Ithas to relate to current human events, such as war, unrequited love or sudden death. Italso can be humorous, such as The four nights drunk, as any hung over man and pissedoff wife can attest to. Songs and poems about animal behavior will always be popularbecause pups will always piddle and Persian kittens will always screw. The story poemsof Robert Service and Banjo Patterson, have fascinated generations by their vivid imageryand the power of the English language.Some of these ballads are very old. The Cockroach song, La Cucaracha, predatesCortez and was sung by the Spaniards in the wars against the Moors. Other ballads weremodified from the original, such as My Darling Clementine. Even the great balladeer,Woody Guthrie borrowed his song, Union Maid, from Thurland Chattaways songRedwing. And Patrick Gilmores Johnnie Comes Marching Home, was taken from anIrish Anti-war ballad, Johnnie I Hardly Knew Ye.The type of music often leads to ballad composition. Dvoraks Humoresque, SousasGarry Owen and Howes Battle Hymn of the Republic are lilting and easy to sing andmemorize. Try to write lyrics to Beethovens Fifth or something out of Wagner. JohnnieCash recorded dozens of ballads to the same beat.
