On the other side of Johnny Cash‘s more intense songs like “Folsom Prison Blues,” the apocalyptic “The Man Comes Around,” “God’s Gonna Cut You Down,” or “Cocaine Blues,” were more amusing stories of gender-bending names, a psychobilly Cadillac, and a fowl surgery.
In 1966, Cash also highlighted the more convivial pages in his songbook with his 23rd album, Everybody Loves a Nut, consisting mostly of novelty songs, including “The Singing Star’s Queen,” which poked fun at his outlaw friend Waylon Jennings.
Cash often pulled some of these comical songs into performances, including “Joe Bean” and “Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog,” which appear on his 1968 live album At Folsom Prison, and “Please Don’t Play Red River Valley” with wife June Carter on The Johnny Cash Show.
Throughout the decades, Cash continued showing his lighter side in songs. Here’s a look behind three more unexpectedly humorous songs he recorded from the late 1960s through the early ’80s.
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“A Boy Named Sue” (1969)
Written by Shel Silverstein
Inspired by his friend, writer Jean Shepard, who narrated and co-scripted the 1983 film A Christmas Story and was often teased as a young boy for having a more feminine name, Shel Silverstein wrote the story about a young boy seeking revenge on a father who left him with a guitar and named him Sue.
Well, my daddy left home when I was three
Didn’t leave very much to my mom and me
Except this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze
Now I don’t blame him ’cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that my daddy ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me Sue
Well, he must’ve thought that it was quite a joke
And I got a lot of laughs from a lots of folk
Seems I had to fight my whole life through
Some gal would giggle, and I’d turn red
And some guy’d laugh, and I’d bust his head
I tell you, life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue
While reading the lyrics off from a sheet of paper at the foot of the stage, Johnny Cash first recorded “A Boy Named Sue” for his 1969 live album At San Quentin. He later performed it on The Johnny Cash Show changing one of the closing lines from Well, if I ever have a boy, I’ll name him Frank or George or Bill or Tom, anything but Sue to And if I ever have a son, I think I’m gonna name him John Carter Cash,” citing his own son’s name.
When he later performed the song with the Highwaymen, he reworked the line again, singing If I ever have another boy, I think I’m gonna name him Waylon, or Willie, or Kris,” referring to bandmates Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.
Cash also sang “A Boy Named Sue” in the East Room of the White House on April 17, 1970, for then-President Richard Nixon.
More than a decade later, Silverstein released “The Father of the Boy Named Sue,” told from the perspective of the father, on his album Songs and Stories.
“One Piece at a Time” (1976)
Written by Wayne Kemp
In 1979, Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three recorded the novelty song “One Piece at a Time,” a song originally written Wayne Kemp about a man working at a General Motors plant in Detroit, Michigan, who takes home parts to build his own hodgepodge psychobilly Cadillac.
One day, I devised myself a plan
That should be the envy of most any man
I’d sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand
Now gettin’ caught meant gettin’ fired
But I figured I’d have it all by the time I retired
I’d have me a car worth at least a hundred grand
I’d get it one piece at a time, and it wouldn’t cost me a dime
You’ll know it’s me when I come through your town
I’m gonna ride around in style, I’m gonna drive everybody wild
‘Cause I’ll have the only one there is a round
So the very next day, when I punched in
With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends
I left that day with a lunchbox full of gears
I’ve never considered myself a thief
But GM wouldn’t miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out over several years
“One Piece at a Time” was Cash’s last song to hit No. 1 on the Country chart and the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 29.
“The Chicken in Black” (1984)
Written by Gary Gentry
Released in 1984, Johnny Cash’s parody of “Man in Black” didn’t go down how he would have liked with family and friends. The comical story follows Cash, who gets a brain transplant and ends up with one of a robber, while his goes to a chicken.
For two long years, my head hurt bad
So the doctor checked me, and he shook his head
He said, “I’m sorry to tell you
But your body’s outlived your brain”
He said, “I know this doctor in New York, son
And he’ll fix you right up with a brand new one”
So the head doctor met me when I stepped down off of the train
He said, “We had this bank robber killed last night
His body’s shot, but his brain’s alright
I’ll give you a transplant, boy, and you’ll be okay”
I got my new brain in and I was feelin’ great
I went right back to Nashville with no headache
But something strange happened when I walked in the bank one day
Once released, the song made it to 45 on the Country chart, but it wasn’t something Cash was most proud of, calling it “intentionally atrocious” in his 2003 memoir Cash: The Autobiography. His closest family and friends also reacted poorly to the song.
“The last record I gave CBS was called ‘Chicken in Black,’ and it was intentionally atrocious,” said Cash. “I was burlesquing myself and forcing CBS to go along with it; I even made them pay for a video, shot in New York, with me dressed like a chicken.”
He added, “Looking back on ‘Chicken in Black,’ it’s no wonder to me that it took a while to get another decent record deal. People were probably afraid to bank on an artist who’d make a mockery of himself like that.”
Photo: David Redfern/Redferns
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