A lot of my 1970s playlists have rock music featuring ... That’s where a few ballads fit in nicely. They don't have to be sad or full of doom and gloom. Neither do they all have to be lush ...

Sam Peckinpah’s “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” is a splendid example of the New Western. It’s also a fine movie, a wonderfully comic tale we didn’t quite expect from a director who seems more at home ...