Bawdy Ballads Alex Morgan

We are finally getting to one of the ballad types and topics that made me realize how much potential lay in these old songs…. Monstrous births. Or, to be clear, that's how they were marketed at the time. They were actually an overall mix of true accounts of birth defects and used the idea of deformity as a direct metaphor. Either which way it went, one thing remained the same. The mother was almost always to blame in some way or another.Prides's FallThe two inseparable brothers.Infant Mortali...

Welcome everyone to Episode 19 Where we are looking at all the ways to woo those wonderful and witty wenches… or the ones who value knowledge over marriage, the one’s that fit the Athena archetype. Show transcript and blogA mad kinde of wooingHares on the Mountain The Blue Stocking SocietyThe EnlightenmentSupport the Show.

Today we look at both the history and one of the earliest versions of the Robin Hood legend, which spread and gained popularity largely through the ballad traditions. While we do we will look at how he fits in with that classic trickster archetype, and how the social and economic factors of the 1300's led to fertile ground for the growth of his story. Robin Hode and the Munke / Robin Hood and the Monk Timeline Documentary The Medieval Warm Period The Great FamineBlack Death 100 Years Wa...

Today we do a bit of background in how song and politics intermingle from the key years of the English Civil War and look at the ballad "LONDONS Warning-Peece,Being, The Common-Prayers Complaint." from 1643. LONDONS Warning-Peece, BEING, The Common-Prayers Complaint.5 members of ParliamentCharles ICharles I on trial Henrietta MariaThose who signed the death warrant of Charles I“Every tub must stand on it’s own bottomThe First Baron’s WarHung drawn and quartered.Black letter broadsides an...

Today we look at the timelessness of fart jokes, and look at a couple of them inside ballads, and parts of Jonathan Swift's “The Benefit of Farting Explained,” which is a satirical essay on why farting should be free. We will also look at two parents who shake all their sons sins out in a sieve.BawdyBallads.com“A Looking Glass for Lascivious Young Men”"A bloody BATTLE between a Taylor and a Louse."“The Benefit of Farting Explained”The History of FartingSupport the Show.

Welcome back all you wonderfully curious lil’ devils to Bawdy Ballads and today’s episode, “Taking dem kids, or the Poor Act of 1601" where we will look at one of the most important laws in terms of ballad sellers, often considered vagrants, but we will begin by looking at the letter home of Richard Frethorne, sold into an "apprenticeship" by his local council or parrish when his parents could no longer afford to care for him during a period of economic recession. Show transcript and Ba...