Comments on Puzzle #40523: Three Songs from a 1976 Album
By Bruce Beckett (Bruce Beatlefan)
peek at solution solve puzzle
quality: 
difficulty: 
solvability: line & color logic only
peek at solution solve puzzle
quality: difficulty: solvability: line & color logic only
Puzzle Description Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers
#1: Mathew (keiimaster) on Jun 1, 2026 [SPOILER]
Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers#2: David Bouldin (dbouldin) on Jun 2, 2026 [SPOILER]
Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers#3: Jota (jota) on Jun 2, 2026 [SPOILER]
Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers#4: Mathew (keiimaster) on Jun 2, 2026 [SPOILER]
Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers#5: Kristen Vognild (kristen) on Jun 2, 2026 [SPOILER]
Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers#6: Bruce Beckett (Bruce Beatlefan) on Jun 3, 2026 [SPOILER]
Comment Suppressed:Click below to view spoilers#7: Dave Widener (bartfish) on Jun 3, 2026
Bruce, I too am a member of the bicentennial class. We had two tassels on our caps, one of our school colors and one red, white and blue with a gold liberty bell crimp holding it together. I miss the music so very much! Cheers!#8: David Bouldin (dbouldin) on Jun 8, 2026
That's a really interesting question, Bruce. My first thought is that the storytelling impulse never disappeared so much as it migrated into the other genres and forms as the popularity of folk has been overshadowed.
A few examples more from my time (bicentennial baby rather than class). "Zombie" by The Cranberries was written in direct response to the Warrington bombing. Public Enemy's "By the Time I Get to Arizona" captured and helped document the controversy surrounding Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Other examples that come to mind are U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday," Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning," Manic Street Preacher's "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next," Bruce Springsteen's "Youngstown," and Rage Against the Machine's "Wake Up." Different styles and audiences, but all pulling from real events, historical movements or cultural flashpoints in ways that remind me of the older folk tradition. More recently, songs like "Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony spread through the public consciousness less like a pop hit and more like an old protest song.
I wonder if part of the difference now is that songs no longer have a monopoly on storytelling. Ballad were one of the primary ways ordinary people learned about and remembered an contemporary event. Today that same role is shared with documentaries, films, podcasts, books, YouTube channels, and social media. That's been developing like a gradient over the years. The desire to commemorate events and capture a moment in history seems unchanged...there are just a lot more competing ways for those stories to be told these days.
Show: Spoilers
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