When I was young, I remember my father telling me about Boy Named Sue. He loved the idea of that song. He had long been fascinated with machismo, and Johnny Cash gave him the perfect outlet.
Years later, I found out that the song had been originally penned by Shel Silverstein. Shel had an amazing comedic whit, and a great sense of irony. I’m not sure how my father would feel about the toughness of this song if he heard this sequel, Father of Boy Named Sue.
Yeah, I lef’ home when the kid was three.
It sure felt good to be fancy free
Tho I knew it wasn’t quite the fatherly thing to do.
But that kid kept screamin’ and throwin’ up
And pissin’ in his pants til I had enough
So just for revenge I went and named him Sue.it was Gatlinberg in mid July
was gettin’ drunk but gettin’ by
Gettin’ old and going from bad to worse
When thru the door with an awful scream
Comes the ugliest queen I’ve ever seen
He says my name is Sue. How do you do?
Then he hits me with his purse.Now this ain’t the way he tells the tale
But he scratched my face with his fingernails
And then he bit my thumb
and kicked me with his high-heeled shoe.
So I hit him in the nose, and he started to cry
And he threw some perfume in my eye
And it sure ain’t easy fightin with a boy named Sue.So I hit him in the head with a caned-back chair
And he screamed, “Hey Dad,you mussed my hair!”
And he hit me in the navel and knocked out a piece of my lint.
He was spittin’ blood. I was spittin teeth.
And we crashed through the wall and out into the street
A-kickin and gougin’ in the mud and the bloodThen out of his garter he pulls a gun.
I’m about to get shot by my very own son.
He’s screamin’ about Sigmond Freud and lookin’ grim.
So I thought fast and I told him some stuff
How I named him Sue just to make him tough.
And I guess he bought it, cuz now I’m livin’ with him.Yeah, he cooks and sews and cleans up the place.
He cuts my hair and shaves my face.
And irons my shirts better than a daughter could do.
And on the nights that I can’t score,
Well, I can’t tell you anymore.
Sure is a joy to have a boy named Sue.
Yeah, a son is fun,
But it’s a joy to have a boy named Sue.
What this song shows us is what Silverstein and Cash both knew. Johnny Cash was an icon, image, and salesman. The real Johnny Cash was tormented, addicted, and dark. Johnny Cash’s music is interesting to me, but his life long struggle with addiction and his ultimate path to Christianity is much more fascinating.
I’ve been told not to speak about religion in polite company, but I never really liked that rule and you will rarely find my company to be polite. I do not see a valuable lesson in Cash’s religion. He isn’t some prodigal son returning home. He is a man coping with addiction by giving up his own free will. I have never agreed with the 12 steps approach, and I don’t believe in a god. Cash gave up part of himself to keep his head above water and make his addiction manageable. I’m sure that even he would disagree with me if he were able to. He gave up an addiction to drugs to seek an addiction to absolution, and in each he gave up a part of his own autonomy and independence.
I prefer not to see anyone’s god in Johnny Cash. I see a man chasing redemption, not from god, but from the world. The thing about redemption is that it always seems as if there is something to be redeemed for. Who can’t identify with that?