Rhymes for the Working Man

The ballads and poems in this anthology were written by soldiers, miners, loggers,
a Supreme Court Judge, song writers and even a few poets. Some of the language
is pretty rough, but many of the men that wrote them or composed them were pretty
rough themselves. In many books about ballads, the authors are listed as unknown or
anonymous, but with the help of the internet, the Library of Congress, and several other
anthologies I found a few of the Unknowns.
Several qualities seem to give a ballad legs to remain popular over the centuries. It
has to relate to current human events, such as war, unrequited love or sudden death. It
also can be humorous, such as The four nights drunk, as any hung over man and pissed
off wife can attest to. Songs and poems about animal behavior will always be popular
because pups will always piddle and Persian kittens will always screw. The story poems
of Robert Service and Banjo Patterson, have fascinated generations by their vivid imagery
and the power of the English language.
Some of these ballads are very old. The Cockroach song, La Cucaracha, predates
Cortez and was sung by the Spaniards in the wars against the Moors. Other ballads were
modified from the original, such as My Darling Clementine. Even the great balladeer,
Woody Guthrie borrowed his song, Union Maid, from Thurland Chattaways song
Redwing. And Patrick Gilmores Johnnie Comes Marching Home, was taken from an
Irish Anti-war ballad, Johnnie I Hardly Knew Ye.
The type of music often leads to ballad composition. Dvoraks Humoresque, Sousas
Garry Owen and Howes Battle Hymn of the Republic are lilting and easy to sing and
memorize. Try to write lyrics to Beethovens Fifth or something out of Wagner. Johnnie
Cash recorded dozens of ballads to the same beat.