There is a lot about Johnny Cash that is recognizable. There’s his low country voice, black wardrobe, country twang, and his songs about hard-working folks. It’s a combination of all those things that has helped to make him one of the legends in the country genre.
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But while the entirety of so many of his songs are great, it’s often how they perk your ear at the outset that grabs your musical attention. Here below, we wanted to explore three songs from Cash that open with a bang. Indeed, these are three of the best opening lines by Johnny Cash.
[RELATED: 5 Songs You Didn’t Know Featured Johnny Cash]
“A Boy Named Sue” from At San Quentin (1969)
Written by poet and author Shel Silverstein (he of The Giving Tree fame), this song was first recorded live and released on the album At San Quentin. There is something so charming and just right on point hearing Johnny Cash sing from the perspective of a tough man with the girl’s name Sue and tell the story of that guy in front an audience of prison inmates—it’s as American as baseball or the 4th of July. And on the track, Cash opens with the lines,
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
“I Walk the Line” from Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar! (1956)
One of his earliest hit songs, this track from Cash is about love and being a good husband. Sure, as an outlaw country man, Cash has impulses to do things that you, well, wouldn’t exactly be happy to tell your mother or wife about. Drinking, smoking, philandering. But while he’s in love with the object of affection, he sings, he’s willing to put all those aside for the straight-and-narrow path. It’s admirable, if not impossible for the Man in Black. Either way, though, he sings,
I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line
“Ring of Fire” from Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash (1963)
There is just something so apt about the metaphor of fire when it comes to love. Its passion can be hot and steamy but you can also get burned if you play around too much. And Cash uses these ideas on this, one of his most popular and beloved songs. Falling in love can feel, as he puts it, like falling into a ring of fire. The flames can warm you but they can also singe. Indeed, on the track, Cash opens,
Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring
Bound by wild desire
I fell into a ring of fire
Photo by ITV/Shutterstock
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