Ballads

For me, listening to the song recording of Roddy McCorley in class really made the poem "come alive." On youtube I found a live singing of it which further enhances the experience--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uad8pxyeCJU


I also found it interesting that both ballads (Billy the Kid and Roddy McCorley) seem to have as their main character a mischevious, revolutionary youth that society tried to condemn. Since both of these ballads were written or repopularized in and around the time of the 60s, they seem to reflect the ideas of the youth of that era, who believed that the society, or "military-industrial complex" or "the system" they were fighting against was oppressing them and the natural, inherent goodness of human nature.

~Aviva