The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #125951 Message #2813091
Posted By: Phil Edwards
15-Jan-10 - 05:54 PM
Thread Name: Taking on the Big Boys? - classic big long ballads
Subject: RE: Taking on the Big Boys? - classic big long ballads
I think audiences used to have a lot more tolerance of long songs than we think they have now. I'm thinking not of ballads but of songs like The Three Ravens -
Line 1 Refrain 1 Line 1 again Refrain 2 Line 1 yet again,/i> Line 2, finally Refrain 3
When I've done it I've always wimped out and done four lines of verse instead of two, with no repeats. Do it with the repeats and I fear modern audiences would be champing at the bit after three or four verses - "His hawks do all about him fly", yes, yes, we heard you the first time, then what? Songs where the verses themselves include lots of repetition without variation fall into a similar category - after a few verses of the Prickle-Eye Bush it's hard not to hanker after a bit of complexity or narrative development...
"Yes, I shall bring you gold, When I've got it back you see, For I lent it to my two best friends over there And I'm sure they'll give it to me."
Hangman, stay your hand For ten minutes or thereabout For my brother's financial affairs sound complicated And he needs to straighten them out...