The Sting ‘Western’ That Johnny Cash Covered on His Final Album, “I Hung My Head”

“I was obsessed with Westerns,” said Sting. “I’d never miss a TV Western.” In his younger years, shows like Wagon Train, Raw Hide, Gun Smoke, Maverick, Have Gun, Will Travel, and Bonanza were among Sting’s favorites. As he became an adult, Sting says his love of Westerns never faded, and led him into the country music of artists like Hank Williams and Buck Owens.

“The storytelling in those songs really had a profound effect on me, so I would try and write songs in that genre,” said Sting. “But with me, it’s a question of authenticity. I’m from the North of England, I’m not from El Paso or somewhere romantic like that. But nonetheless, I like the storytelling aspect of country music. I like the sort of biblical sweep of the landscape.”

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“I Hung My Head”

Sting’s love of country music and Westerns later resurfaced on his fifth solo album Mercury Rising in 1995 on “I Hung My Head.” The song was later covered by the bluegrass group Blue Highway in 1999 before Johnny Cash recorded it on his final album American IV: The Man Comes Around from 2002, released a year before his death.

“When somebody like Johnny Cash covers one of my songs,” said Sting, “I feel vindicated somewhat.”

In the story, a young man accidentally shoots a man on horseback using his brother’s rifle and runs from the law.

Early one morning with time to kill
I borrowed Jeb’s rifle and sat on the hill
I saw a lone rider crossing the plain
I drew a bead on him, to practice my aim

My brother’s rifle went off in my hand
A shot rang out across the land
The horse, he kept running, the rider was dead

I hung my head, I hung my head

‘South Lands’

In Sting’s version, the man runs off to the salt lands, throwing the rifle into a stream. Cash’s version switched salt lands to south lands and stream to sheen—My brother’s rifle went into the sheen / I kept on running into the south lands.

“I was so proud to hear my words and music interpreted by the master,” said Sting in his 2007 book Lyrics. “Although he did replace the last word in the second line of verse two ‘stream’ with ‘sheen,’ for some reason. Whatever, he was probably just reading a misprint, and, even so, it didn’t detract one bit from the final result.”

I set off running to wake from the dream
My brother’s rifle went into the sheen
I kept on running into the south lands
That’s where they found me, my head in my hands

The sheriff he asked me why had I run
And then it came to me, just what I had done
And all for no reason, just one piece of lead

I hung my head, I hung my head

Cash’s ragged vocals leave behind a more cinematic movement, particularly at its end. As the young man waits to die at the gallows, his mind starts playing tricks on him as he sees the man he killed once again.

Early one morning with time to kill
I see the gallows up on the hill
And out in the distance, a trick of the brain
I see a lone rider crossing the plain

And he’d come to fetch me, to see what they’d done
And we’ll ride together to kingdom come
I pray for God’s mercy, for soon I’ll be dead

I hung my head, I hung my head

Sting later released a version of “I Hung My Head” with a full orchestra on his album Symphonicities, and the DVD Live in Berlin, both from 2010.

Photo: Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images