#balladry

There’s a section of a ballad in an article I read that goes:

‘Much ill cometh of a small note

As Crum well set in a man's throat

That shall put many other to pain, God wote;

But when Crumwell is brought a-low

And we read out the Christ Cross Row

Of K L M then shall we have news’.

(You can find this section in the archives in a letter from Norfolk to Cromwell)

But a book also mentioning it says it’s part of a longer ballad adapted from ‘Christ’s cross row’.

I’m pretty sure the author got the extended version - based on his citations - from ‘the defeat of the pilgrimage of grace’ by bush and bownes. Unfortunately I don’t have access to this, and altho I’ve requested it from the library as it’ll be useful for my dissertation, I don’t think they’ll get it in time for the seminar i need it for!

OH BOY HAVE I GOT SOME RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOU

These all generally fall into the genre of “sweetheart murder ballads”, about (usually) a man killing his lover, often to avoid marrying her after she became pregnant with his child

Omie Wise is probably one of my favorites, its about a young woman who was murdered by her lover who refused to marry her. One of the reasons i like it a lot is because in the song, he admits he’s going to kill her, followed by the verse “He hugged her and kissed her and turned her around/ Then pushed her in deep waters where he knew that she would drown” which is just a really poignant contrast

Pretty Polly is good too, also about a woman murdered by her lover and buried in a shallow grave

Banks of the Ohio is another story of a woman murdered by her lover, this time for refusing his marriage proposal, but it’s unusual in that the narrator explains his decision and expresses his grief and regret over killing his love. 

Tom Dooley, which is based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina by Tom Dula (his name is pronounced Dooley in the Appalachian dialect) and his subsequent hanging. I wont get into it but that whole murder case has a LOT of intrigue and muddy areas and there was actually a book published about it not long ago. 

Knoxville Girl: This one is pretty brutal. The song goes into the consequences for the murderer (nightmares, being put in jail, etc) and at the end he still calls her “the girl I loved so well”, but in the song itself it doesnt really have a reason why he killed her??? According to wikipedia this song is “derived from the 19th-century Irish ballad "The Wexford Girl", itself derived from the earlier English ballad "The Bloody Miller or Hanged I Shall Be" about a murder in 1683″ which is neat.

Rain and Snow, about a man who is mistreated by his lover and finally kills her-- the Dillard Chandler version in the link is my favorite; it has a verse just before he kills her that goes, “I took her to her room where she met her fatal doom, and I trembled to my knees with cold fear,” then repeats “I trembled to my knees with cold fear” after he kills her. Imo having the reaction of the man makes the act of murdering the woman have much more weight in the song

Little Matty Groves- (Also known as Little Musgrave)This one is a little different than the others, its about an affair between a young man and a noblewoman being discovered by the woman’s husband, who duels (and kills) Matty Groves, then kills his wife for saying she would rather have been with Matty. Its an OLD old ballad. like OLD OLD. Like “dates to at LEAST 1613″ old. My favorite version is the one by Hedy West but I couldn’t find it online (its available on spotify tho if ur so inclined to look for it). Its fuckin good

[Not “murder ballads” per se but in the same ‘tragic love story’ genre: 

House Carpenter, about a man who comes back after a long absence to find his former lover now married (to a house carpenter) and with a child. He convinces her to leave her husband and child to go away with him, usually promising riches and many ships, but after they’ve been at sea for a while the ship sinks (or is sunk by the man, depending on the version) and drowns them both. In some versions its called “The Daemon Lover” and the man is implied to be the devil

Barbry Allen- This is a hugely popular old ballad, its from scotland but it was preserved in appalachia as well. The general theme of all the versions is that Barbara Allen is called to a young man’s house, who is sick with heartache for her (”Young William Green on his death bed lay/For the love of Barbry Ellen”) She refuses to marry him, and so he dies, then she feels so bad about it that she either dies from grief or kills herself, and they’re buried together. I love it, its got drama, its got grief, its got dying of heartbreak, its CLASSIC]

I was in a lilac sky

while holding our hands together

as if I was flying above the sea

and feeling the breeze, we unnoticed the flea

We were in a lilac sky

pastel in different gradient

hassle in ages

rascal like kids; unbeaten

Soon after a single game

a play and afraid

why did aesthetic go

a free of birds flies in lieu

Drifted while we mesmerize the native

old but gold, cannot be retrieved

forgive and forget, cannot be changed

it is time to end, the ice is about to break

We became the lilac sky, instead

who potentially evolved in different aspects

in separation on different angles

it formed a deprivation inside the nest

To the near future, a week to go

bid farewell, we had to let go

structural pieces, puzzled and thrown

good bye, a pangaea I have known.

til the sun's up, and orange—

when it stays the room

just like the novembers.

as quick as the time passed by

in galleries and shops for caffeine;

in travels with skins colliding

and eyes were met, then.

after dawn.

not more than the sunset.

it'll be gone. soon.