Here's a recording my friend and I did a few years ago. I sang and played the guitar and mandolin. (The mandolin break is right at the end... it's my favorite part!)
Perfect production - the stuff you listen to in your car while driving into the sunset. Still, someone's got to explain the mindset and fascination of murder ballads to me. The story seems to be roughly the same in each one of them, but the motives remain enigmatic and unexplained.
Seems straightforward to me Bertram, getting rid of an unwanted toy after you're finished playing with it... or maybe he was a politician Conversly, there's "Johnston". The fair sex are full of skullduggery too: http://homepage.mac.com/henryqueen1/...945/index.html
Stuche that was might pickin' and singin'...
Very nice Michael. Bertram, seems to me that you have a perfect handle on murder ballads.
getting rid of an unwanted toy Fair enough, but murder seems over the top compared to what happens in Irish/Scottish songs, where the girl is just left behind without even knowing the name of the guy who is supposed to return when "cockle shells grow on christmas bells". I suspect the unfathomability of the murderer's mind is part of the fascination, like people watching LOST...
Nice one Stuche! Scott
I don't know about that Bertram, Ireland, Scotland and England can boast themselves a fine rattle-bag of murder ballads, many of which eventually made their ways across the ocean to the states and became 'popular' there. I read one thesis on murder ballads which describes that one difference between old world murder ballads and those sung in the America is that in most ballads collected in the States the killer usually faces justice and/or damnation for their misdeeds where as in European Ballads they generally did not suffer any consequences for their actions. As for the appeal of them... well, originally, as i am sure you know, they were a form of news recalling and retelling real events so they would have had some sort of relevence for people... and often, particularly in the American cases they also served as a morality tale, louche living > foul deeds > death and damnation Their appeal for people now may simply be their relative antiquity, their craft, some of them are just good songs, and lets not forget the draw of the macabre. Also, i would not agree with there being a lack of motivation, revenge, jealousy, greed, anger, sheer bloody mindedness, you'll find all the same motivations in Shakespeare
Thanks for posting that Mr. Stuche
Thanks M.Marmot for this analysis most of which I agree with. I don't doubt there is a motivation, only the music is not really transporting it - for example Stuche's recording here would qualify for describing a nice relaxing evening with friends and a beer if it wasn't for the words. In combination, it describes a nice relaxing evening with a girl and a knife. You wouldn't play this music as a film score for Charly Chainsaw Taking his Work Home. On the other hand, there's Deliverance... got to think it over. I'll come back to you.
My take on the music for ballads is that one of its main purposes is simply to act as mnemonic device, something to help to remember the words. Older ballads can have dozens of verses and given their length may have proven difficult to remember without the aid of a tune, and thats even granting that those brought oral tradition usually can boast of a better capacity to memorize and recall than most modern folks. Often the melodies of even popular songs would not be set and would change depending on the circumstance of time and place. It was not uncommon for people to fit new lyrics to pre-existing melodies. One famous example is that of the hymn 'Amazing Grace' which, if i recall rightly, was not originally sang to the tune which we now all know it. This might explain how some grisly tales have such pretty melodies. Also, i think that a lot of these ballads have come from musical traditions which are rooted in certain scales and modes which may have allowed for the haunting sound of minor scales but definitely not the full range unnerving dischords that a modern audience of movie soundtracks has available to listen to. This would have probably limited any dramatic pretension in the melodies used to convey songs. Last, but for me the most important factor, most of these songs were probably first delivered acapella with the emphasis being on the words and story. I remember an article on ballad singing, it maybe the liner notes to one of the Smithsonian collections of songs, it noted that the best/most popular singers of ballads were those always those who the melodies sang well, but those who sang powerfully that is those who could animate the story with their singing. I think that the subsequent addition of instruments to these songs often tends to take from the power and drama of the story... the story telling element becomes subdued by the insistance and concentration on the melody. By the way, please note, that none of this is intended as a criticism, or meant to take away from the version of Pretty Polly posted above which I really did enjoy.
I would add that juxtaposition of contrasting concepts is not an unusual aesthetic or literary technique, which also helps set a story in one's mind. Take for example the movie Fargo which justaposes horrific violence against dry comedy. That was a hugely successful movie.
Or Jaws.....
I just want to clarify that I am English and I haven't murdered anyone.....music on the other hand, I murder everyday! Great vid Michael....
Oh how quickly ye forget, ye Sassenach... All's forgiven Tosh.
It's that very contrast between the extremely simple but haunting modal melody (which could stand for the lovely young girl) and the horrible things that are done to her by our murderer that draws me to this song. I image a time when people actually listened to the lyrics of a singer in a small gathering and the gasp from the crowd when the girl was murdered. Almost exactly the formula for a slasher movie only without the movie -- it's left to the imagination.
Now I get it (I am late sometimes) - when Stuche said "haunting" I suddenly realized that in this song, for a change, the modal mood is meant seriously. That is not easily recognized in genres where modal melodies are used to convey a lot of less serious situations (my girl left me/my car broke down/lost my job/running out of whiskey etc.) Another thing that hides the seriousness is the groove - I am used to Irish/Scottish laments that are intentionally non-rhythmic to avoid any resemblance of dancing (= merriment). Interesting points from Eddie (Jaws) and Martin (juxtaposition): In Jaws, we learn to get out of the water when we hear that "bom bom bom bom". Following the analogy, murder ballads should teach girls to run like hell when they hear Bluegrass music Tragic musical elements are supposed to represent the victim's feelings, but juxtaposition brings the murderer's feelings in (or rather the absence of any feelings or else he wouldn't do it), reminding us that there's no use searching and destroying evil because evil is not a thing as such but just the absence of good.
I've found that girls run like hell whenever I play bluegrass music...maybe it's working!
Do they run towards you Stuche?
Not recently...
I don't have to play anything to make the girls run. I was at a CW reenactment recently and a 14yo girl had face paint on her cheek. I made a show of pulling out my snot-stained hankercheif, spittin' on it and holding it out to her with a, "Here honey, let me get that off your face." Those 14yo girls can move fast!
Now all we need to find out is why it's "Prettty Polly" with a triple t in the credits at the end instead of "Prettty Pollly" with triple l as well Just proving I have watched it many times.
Thanks for spotting that Bertram! Must be a case of "runaway keys"... but that's another song entirely. (I'll certainly fix it.)
abc X:1 T:Pretty Polly M:2/4 L:1/8 K:G E| E3/2 E/2 EG|E-D B,D| E2E-G| E4-| E3 B| B3/2 B/2 Bd| B2 AG| B2B-A|\ B3 B| B2 AG| E2 DE| G2 AG| E4-| E3||
Jim. Thanks to you and the others for taking the time to attach the ABC'S on all of these songs. And thanks for bringing up Michael's Pretty Polly. So I could listen to it a couple two or three times again. It cheered me up. Gary
Wow, Gary, you must be really depressed if a "murder ballad" cheers you up. But seriously, thanks for listening.
Bump
