Ballad of X

Things that are named "The Ballad of (Something)".

"The" being optional, as is the case with its parent trope, The X of Y.

Now, actual Ballad form requires specific meter and rhythm, so many of these examples won't fit that classification in its strictest sense (or even its loosest). The trope is about the title of a work, not the song structure. A lot of works use this trope to create a sort of parody title, combining the old-fashioned grandeur suggested by the term "ballad" with the implicit absurdity of the rest of the title.

See also The Something Song and Something Blues.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The Cowboy Bebop episode "Ballad of Fallen Angels."
• Ranma ½: "The Ballad of Ranma and Akane."
• Trigun: "The Ballad of Vash the Stampede."
• Ballad Of A Shinigami

Comics

• The Couriers volume 3 is The Ballad of Johnny Funwrecker
• The Ballad of Halo Jones
• The French title of the seminal Lobo comic book Portrait of a Bastich is La Ballade de Lobo (The Ballad of Lobo).
• Lucky Luke: Ballad of the Daltons & Other Stories (adapted from the 1978 film below)

Fan Fiction

• The Ballad of Aximili, an Animorphs parody of the folk song "William Taylor".
• "The Ballad of Maelewano". For bonus points, it presents itself as part of the zebra oral tradition and is structured in ballad form.

Film — Animated

• Lucky Luke: Ballad of the Daltons

Film — Live Action

• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
• Ballad of a Soldier
• The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
• The Ballad of Cable Hogue
• The Ballad of Harry Warden from My Bloody Valentine.
• The Ballad of Jack and Rose
• The Ballad of Narayama
• The Ballad of The Running Man
• Number 2: The Ballad of MonSturd from MonSturd.
• In UHF, "Weird Al" Yankovic's Dire Straits parody is titled "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" (and credited to Weird Al's character George Newman) after The Beverly Hillbillies theme song from which the lyrics have been borrowed. In Real Life, however, Weird Al had to name it "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies".

Literature

• The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem written by Oscar Wilde.
• "Ballad of a Boneless Chicken" is a children's poem by Jack Prelustky.
• The English version of Bertolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera has "The Ballad of Mack the Knife".
  • Albeit only as a result of something being Lost in Translation; the English meaning of the word "moritat" is Murder Ballad.
• The Ballad of Mulan
• "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" is a novelette written by Cordwainer Smith.
• "Ballad of the Flexible Bullet" is a short story by Stephen King.
• Rudyard Kipling was fond of these: "The Ballad of East and West," "The Ballad of the King's Jest," "The Ballad of the King's Mercy," "The Ballad of the Red Earl," etc.
• Many poems by Robert W. Service: "The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill," "The Ballad of the Black Fox Skin," "The Ballad of the Northern Lights," "The Ballad of Casey's Billy-Goat," etc.
• "The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator" is a poem by Anne Sexton.
• The Ballad of the Sad Café is a novella by Carson McCullers.
• The Ballad of Beta-2 is a novel by Samuel R. Delany.
• Poul Anderson's After Doomsday is about a crew of spacemen who return to find Earth destroyed, and write a song in the sector's Common Tongue, called "The Ballad of Brandobar'' to let other Earthlings know they're alive and can be found at Brandobar, as well as who nuked Earth.
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel book for The Hunger Games.
• The Ballad of America is a songbook with historical commentary by John Anthony Scott.

Live-Action TV

• An early Doctor Who serial, The Gunfighters, had "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon".
• The Gilligan's Island theme song is actually called "The Ballad of Gilligan's Isle" (written by creator Sherwood Schwartz and George Wyle)
• The theme to The Beverly Hillbillies is "The Ballad of Jed Clampett".
• An episode of Alton Brown 's Good Eats featuring foods that are both salty and sweet in nature, was appropriately titled The Ballad of Salty and Sweet.
• Firefly has The Ballad of Jayne Cobb.
  • Firefly's opening is The Ballad of Serenity.
• Whose Line Is It Anyway? has "The Ballad of Leonard the Lawyer".
• The Ballad of Big Al.
• Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders had an episode titled "The Ballad of Nick and Nat."
• As revealed in the Blackadder: The Whole Damn Dynasty script book, all the closing themes of Blackadder II were titled "The Ballad of Blackader the B..." (Boyfriend, Beheader, Bad Explorer, Bankrupt, Boozer, and Bold).

Music

• "Ballad of The Hip Death Goddess" by Ultimate Spinach, from Ultimate Spinach.
• "The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper" by Poets of the Fall, a Western inspired Ennio Morricone Pastiche about an implicitly Messianic, Reluctant Warrior lawman.
• "Ballad of Davy Crockett" by Bill Hayes
• "Ballad of the Green Berets" by SSgt. Barry Sadler
• "Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan, from Highway 61 Revisited.
• "The Ballad of Tom Jones" by Space and Cerys Matthews
• "Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" also by Bob Dylan
  • Namer for a rather notable band.
• "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" by Billy Joel
  • Word of God states that "The Ballad of Brenda and Eddie" was the original title for the main part of "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant".
• "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" by Leonard "Spock" Nimoy
• "Ballad of Mutt" by Bruce Dickinson
• "The Ballad of Mary (Queen of Scotts)" and "Ballad of a Hangman" by Grave Digger
• "Ballad of William Kidd" by Running Wild
• "Ballad of a Hard Man" by Thin Lizzy
• "Rollin' (The Ballad of Big & Rich)" by Big & Rich
• "Ballad of Obie Trice" by Obie Trice
• "The Ballad of John and Yoko" by The Beatles (available on Past Masters)
• "A Ballad for the Fallen Soldier" by Jay-Z
• "Ballad of a Ladyman" by Sleater-Kinney
• "The Ballad of Irving" by Frank Gallop
• "The Ballad of Lester Walker" by The Whitlams
• "The Ballad of Chasey Lain" by The Bloodhound Gang
• "Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes", "Ballad of A Well-Known Gun'', * "The Ballad Of Danny Bailey (1909-34)", and "The Ballad Of Blind Tom" by Elton John.
• "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" by Marianne Faithfull
• "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" by Jerry Scoggins. And the one by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
• Somewhat of a subversion: "A Ballad to Forget" by Soulwax
• "The Ballad of Dan" by The Arrogant Worms
• "Demon Bell - The Ballad of Horace Pinker" by Dangerous Toys.
• The Ballad of Jared and Jensen.
• If you were watching cartoons in, what, the late 80's or early 90's, you probably remember the incessant PSA called The Ballad of Gordon, though perhaps not by name. Here's the vid, one of the earlier songs by Barenaked Ladies.
• "Ballad of an Ancient Russian Warrior" by Aria
• "The Ballad of Barry Allen" by Jim's Big Ego
• "The Ballad of Sal Villanueva" by Taking Back Sunday
• "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard" by Roger Waters, a melancholy instrumental overlaid with audio from an interview with World War I veteran Alf Razzell where he describes being forced to leave the titular soldier behind in No Man's Land.
• "Ballad of Dwight Fry" by Alice Cooper from Love It to Death.
• "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
• "The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore" by Rob Zombie
• "The Ballad of Marston Moor" by The Electric Light Orchestra
• "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" by Foo Fighters
• "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)" by George Harrison
• "The Ballad of Springhill Disaster" by Peggy Seeger
• "The Ballad of Love and Hate" by The Avett Brothers
• "Ballad of Big" by Genesis.
• "Ballad of Enchantment" by Jagex Games Studio.
• "The Ballad of Michael Valentine" by The Killers.
• "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" by Panic! at the Disco.
• "The Ballad of Johnny X" by The Bouncing Souls.
• "Ballad of Truth and Lies", "Ballad of Weapon", and "Ballad of Hate" by Vladimir Vysotsky
• "Ballad of T.V. Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy)", by Cheap Trick
• "Ballad of a Cold Lost Marble" by Sparklehorse
• "Ballad of Jimmy Bones" by Latoya Williams
• "The Ballad of Big Poppa and Diamond Girl" by Cobra Starship
• "The Ballad of Candlepin Paul" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
• "The Ballad of Clay Carmine" by Miracle of Sound
• "The Ballad of Optimus Prime" by The Great Luke Ski
• "The Ballad of Cleo and Joe" by Cyndi Lauper
• "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" by Johnny Cash
• "The Ballad of Me and My Friends" by Frank Turner
• "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" by Jefferson Airplane
• "The Ballad of Death" by DJ Ashba (lead-guitarist in Guns N' Roses and Sixx:A.M.)
• "The Ballad Of Tommy Clayton & The Rawdawg Millionaire" by Of Mice and Men.
• "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" by Georgie Fame
• "The Ballad of Bull" by Sabaton
• "The Ballad of Buckethead" by Buckethead featuring Les Claypool on vocals.
• "The Ballad of Cookie McBride" by Iggy Pop.
• "The Ballad of Jeff" and "Ballad of the Mages" by Brentalfloss.
• "Luigi's Ballad" by Starbomb.
• "The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead" by XTC.
• "The Ballad of the Leningrad Cowboy" by the Leningrad Cowboys, part of the soundtrack of their film Leningrad Cowboys Go America.
• "Ballad of the Alamo" and "The Ballad of Bill Thaxton" by Marty Robbins.
• "Ballad of Our P.O.W's" by Johnny Price.
• "Ballad of Yarmouth Castle" by Gordon Lightfoot.
• "Ballad of Big Nothing" by Elliott Smith.
• "Ballad of Lydia Pinkham", a Bawdy Song proclaiming her vegetable compound's supposed "cures".
• "The Ballad of Jessica Blue", a series of four music videos accompanying Christina Grimmie's final EP, Side A.
• "The Ballad of a Mean Old Queen" by Sheb Wooley.
• "The Ballad of Jayne" by L.A. Guns.
• "The Ballad of Harry Lewis" by Allan Sherman.
• "The Ballad of Old Monroe" by Pete Seeger.
• '"The Ballad of William Worthy" by Phil Ochs.
• "The Ballad of Major Andre", a broadside ballad written during the American Revolution.

Theater

• The Ballads of Booth, Czolgosz, and Guiteau in Assassins.
• The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.
• The Ballad of Ollie Deasy
• "The Ballad of Sara Berry" from Ryan Scott Oliver's 35MM: A Musical Exhibition.
• The Ballad of Baby Doe, an opera.
• "Ballad of the Robbers" from Knickerbocker Holiday.
• "The Ballad of Farquaad" from Shrek: The Musical.
• "The Ballad of Jane Doe" from Ride the Cyclone.

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: In "The Terrible Tunnel", the Storyteller sings "The Ballad of Sir Blunderbrain" to Gobo, Mokey, Boober, and Wembley.

Video Games

• Grand Theft Auto:
  • The original game's soundtrack had a song called "The Ballad of Chapped Lips Calhoun."
  • Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
  • Grand Theft Auto V: It has a mission for Michael called "The Ballad of Rocco." This is a reference to The Ballad of Gay Tony, where Rocco was an antagonist.
• Oddworld: The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot, cancelled sequel to Oddworld: Strangers Wrath.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The "Ballad of the Wind Fish" theme from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
  • The "Ballad of the Wind Fish" from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (an entirely different tune)
  • "The Ballad of Twilight" from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
  • The Ballad of Gales in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
  • The Ballad of the Goddess from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
• The Ballad of Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist.
• Super Meat Boy: "The Ballad of The Burning Squirrel", for stages set in Dark World 1.
• There are three Ballads in Kingdom of Loathing, all played by Accordion Thieves. They are The Power Ballad of the Arrowsmith, The Ballad of Richie Thingfinder, and Donho's Bubbly Ballad.
• Ballad of Hyllis, one of the most iconic themes from Beyond Good & Evil.
• Turnabout Sisters' Ballad from the first Ace Attorney, one of the series' most heartwarming themes, and Reminiscence ~ Steel Samurai's Ballad from Justice For All, Dark Reprise of the heroic sounding Steel Samurai's theme.
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP has Ballad of the Space Babies, the theme used when awakening the sylvan sprites.
• The seventh installment of the Dark Parables series is Ballad of Rapunzel.
• The soundtrack to the MMORPG RuneScape contains the track "Ballad of Enchantment".

Webcomics

• "Ballad of Awakening", from Homestuck's Volume 4 compilation.
  • Also, "The Ballad of Jack Noir" from the Midnight Crew album.

Web Original

• The Ballad of Edgardo, a forum role-play transcript
• The Ballad of Linkara, from Atop the Fourth Wall's 200th episode.

Western Animation

• One episode of Amphibia Is called "The Ballad of Hopadaiah Plantar".
• VeggieTales DTV film VeggieTales: The Ballad of Little Joe.
• The Ballad of Cow and Chicken.
• Phineas and Ferb has the episode "The Ballad of Badbeard," which contains a song entitled, uh, "The Ballad of Badbeard."
• The Educational Song from Animaniacs: "The Ballad of Magellan".
• Arthur gives us "The Ballad of Buster Baxter" in one episode, sung by Art Garfunkel.
• Futurama gives us "The Ballad of Me, Ramblin' Rodriguez''.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold gives us "The Ballad of Batman" in the Animated Music Video Teaser for "Night of the Batmen!"
• ChalkZone had "The Ballad of Toe Fu" from the episode of the same name.
• SpongeBob SquarePants has "The Ballad of Filthy Muck".

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