Of course, the great ballads are story songs. If the singer has taken the effort to reassemble the song it can be wonderful. Take Patrick Spens as an example--The version you caught school was probably three or four verses long and except for the intro and the drowning is pretty dumb. The story is long [about 28 verses at least] and tells the whole story of why they were thrown out of Norway in Winter. It even makes sense.

I was playing Arragon in Merchant of Venice and the director asked me why I was getting the poetic part of the role when I had so much trouble with the early part. It was all about the rhythm. Much the same can be said about the Porter's role in MacBeth. The music of the words is one of the things which makes Shakespeare great.