Well, my daddy left home when I was three
Didn't leave very much to my mom and meExcept this old guitar and an empty bottle of boozeNow I don't blame him 'cause he run and hidBut the meanest thing that my daddy ever didWas before he left, he went and named me Sue
Well, he must've thought that it was quite a jokeAnd I got a lot of laughs from a lots of folkSeems I had to fight my whole life throughSome gal would giggle and I'd turn redAnd some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his headI tell you, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue
But I grew up quick and I grew up meanMy fist got hard and my wits got keenerRoam from town to town to hide my shameBut I made me a vow to the moon and starsI'd search the honky tonks and barsAnd kill that man that gave me that awful name
Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-JulyAnd I just hit town and my throat was dryThought I'd stop and have myself a brewAt an old saloon on a street of mudThere at a table, dealing studSat the dirty, mangy dog that named me Sue
Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dadFrom a worn out picture that my mother hadKnew that scar on his cheek and his evil eyeHe was big and bent and gray and oldAnd I looked at him and my blood ran coldAnd I said, "My name is Sue, how do you do?Now you gonna die", that's what I told him
Well, I hit him hard right between the eyesAnd he went down, but to my surpriseHe come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my earThen I busted a chair right across his teethAnd we crashed through the walls and into the streetKicking and a-gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer
Well, I tell you, I've fought tougher menBut I really can't remember whenHe kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodileWell, I heard him laugh and then I heard him cussAnd he reached for his gun but I pulled mine firstHe stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile
And he said, "Son, this world is roughAnd if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be toughI knew I wouldn't be there to help you alongSo I give you that name, and I said goodbyeAnd I knew you'd have to get tough or dieIt's that name that helped to make you strong"
He said, "Now you just fought one heck of a fightAnd I know you hate me, and you got the right to kill me nowAnd I wouldn't blame you if you doBut you ought to thank me, before I dieFor the gravel in ya gut and the spit in ya eye'Cause I'm the son of a bitch that named you Sue"What could I do?
Well, I got all choked up and I threw down my gunI called him my pa, and he called me his sonCome away with a different point of viewAnd I think about him, now and thenEvery time I try and every time I win, and if I ever have a-
Well, if I ever have a boy, I'll name himFrank or George or Bill or Tom, anything but SueI don't want him go around, man call him Sue all his lifeThat's a horrible thing to do to a boy trying to get a hold in the worldNamed a boy a Sue
4 comments:
he could have changed his name. or just modified it a little bit. maybe he could have gone by Sulu and then he would have been loved by all the nerds. it would have had a serious effect on the outcome of his life. instead he just stayed in his loop and became another redneck. Sad
I have a client named Sharon. A dude. And I get the feeling g he would have cut anyone that made fun so I don't think people messed.
Now I knew this as a poem in 'Where the Sidewalk Ends' when I was a kid
I didn't hear Cash's version till many years later, but I assumed the book came out first, for some reason
But I wasn't sure, so I did some digging
The song by Johnny Cash was released in 1969 from the 'San Quinten' album
"Where the Sidewalk Ends' was released in 1974, so that's a no on the book coming in first, but.....
Shel Silverstein released an album called 'A Boy Named Sue (And his other country songs)' in 1969 as well
But Shel still wrote the song, right?
Or was he doing a cover of Cash's song?
Well this is what I found out:
In his autobiography, Cash wrote that he had just received the song and only read over it a couple of times. It was included in that concert to try it out—he did not know the words and on the filmed recording he can be seen regularly referring to a piece of paper. Cash was surprised at how well the song went over with the audience.[
According to Shel Silverstein's biographer Mitch Myers, it was June Carter Cash who encouraged her husband to perform the song. Silverstein introduced it to them at what they called a "Guitar Pull," where musicians would pass a guitar around and play their songs.
Silverstein later wrote a follow-up named "The Father of a Boy Named Sue" on his 1978 Songs and Stories in which he tells the old man's point of view of the story.
So there you go, hopefully we all learned something today
Wow! I had absolutely no idea it was a Silverstein poem and song. That is awesome! I am going to adopt a boy and name him sue and return him. So he has that name.
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