Yes, Jim, I think many of the story-ballads work well precisely because they are carried by simple tunes that don't distract from the narrative.

If anything, it's over-arranged songs that get me fidgety - you know the kind of thing: an eight-bar musical introduction, a four-bar musical break between verses, a 16-bar noodly bit in the middle, and the last line developed into a climactic eight-bar ending. The whole song can take twice as long as it otherwise might. Unless it's really well done, this kind of thing can seem self-indulgent, and have me looking at my watch and the empty glass in front of me.

(You did mean "radically" and not "racially", didn't you? Predictive text strikes again!)

Marje