With ballads, it's not enough to be a good singer, you must be a good storyteller as well. Rather than just trying to memorise the words, you must memorise and understand the story - if you can do this, then you should have no trouble remembering the words, as they will come to you.

Just as the worst way to tell a joke is to have memorised it word for word, the worst way to sing a ballad is simply to learn the lines.

I love ballads.   I love the way the plot is often whittled down to the bare bone, and yet they can go off down apparently irrelevant sidetracks, like the talking parrot in The Outlandish Knight. I love the simple yet majestic language which can convey sometimes horrific events in such matter-of-fact tones.   Unfortunately there aren't many singers who can carry them off, and all too often the delivery, rather than the ballad itself, is boring. In the hands of the right singer, however, they can be spellbinding.