Friday 12 January 2018

horsemouth royalwatcher (causes of death in english folk songs)

horsemouth has a day off.

the queen is talking about her crown and her coronation.

now as every storyteller knows the thing that symbolizes that the story is over is the reincorporation of elements from early on into the tale - when the first event is reincorporated the story has reached its (natural) end.




horsemouth has (once again) put up the pie chart of causes of death in traditional english folk songs to great acclaim- if you were to add scottish folk songs you could add poisoned (lord randall), you and your two sisters stabbed by a robber who turns out to be your brother (who then commits suicide when he realizes) in the ballad down by the bonnie banks of fordie. (horsemouth’s ganny’s maiden name - true story).

similarly the drowning does not include drowned by your jealous sister, your body hauled ashore made into a harp and that harp played at your sister's wedding to your intended, and the being mistaken for a swan by a trigger happy hunter does not mention that the girl shot was the hunter's girlfriend (a likely story).

folk songs tell a story (that is their main attraction and their main means of keeping themselves remembered). modern songs do not do this so much (they affirm and work emotions - they are attractions based around a moment of transformation - like a lumieres movie).

so with pop songs as with directing a film, by analogy, you want to get into the scene as late as possible (to move your story forward) and get out of the scene as early as possible.

horsemouth should really read his propp and all the other stuff round narrative and should think about the moment of magical transformation in songs. in some songs it is very early ‘STOP.. in the name of love...’ but this is still a chorus that will be returned to later - with the set up in the verse (the payoff line is of course think it over which is almost a throw away).

RIP 'fast' eddie clarke of motorhead this, hawkwind, and a lot of prog, the soundtrack to horsemouth's childhood and youth in the valleys.

 

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