I was just downloading some Johnny Cash mp3’s, and to my horror, I ran across this tune called “Ship Those Niggers Back.” I downloaded it, hoping against hope that it would turn out to be an ironic comment against racism. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. It was as bad as the title suggests. Worse, even. It was a very old recording of poor quality, so I can’t tell for certain if the singer was actually him.
I am given hope by the fact that Google returns very few matches on this subject, so I hope to god this was just a mislabeling of the mp3 file. I understand he wasn’t a perfect man, but this kind of racism is something I’d have a really hard time overlooking. Someone please assure me this isn’t actually Johnny Cash.
I am sorry that I had to wade through those awful titles, but glad to find out that it wasn’t Johnny Cash.
So - moral dilemma.
Should I rename the mp3 to “Ship Those Niggers Back - Odis & The 3 Bigots, Often Mislabeled as Johnny Cash” and upload it just to set the record straight? Or should I just delete it so as not to spread the hate?
We had a thread a while back where a Johnny Horton fan was horrified because someone had told him that Horton had recorded “Who needs a Nigger”. Somehow or other all this Johnny Rebel crap seems to get connected to every country singer named Johnny.
Wow, ** Rube E. Tewesday** has got some memory! I’m the one that started the Johnny Horton thread, and finally satisfied myself that it wasn’t Johnny Horton who made those records.
I checked around some back then, and Johnny Rebel is the artist (to use the term loosely) that’s responsible. Some say that Johnny Rebel is a “pen name” for David Allen Coe, but I wouldn’t make that claim myself without better information than what I was able to find.
Note that mp3 files on the 'net are often improperly credited. Most of the time, it’s no big deal. When it’s something like this, it sucks.
Just to set the record straight; Johnny Rebel is not the pseudonym of David Allen Coe or Johnny Horton. It is the pseudonym of a Cajun country singer by the name of Clifford Joseph Trahan, also known as Pee Wee Trahan. He used this name mostly in the 1960`s on the Reb Rebel label out of Louisiana.
CountrifiedSoul had correct information, but I could see how the mistake was made. I’ve done concert video of David Allen Coe, and he is a consummate ass-wipe. Half his concert patter is about him getting screwed over by the industry, but if he always behaved like he did that night, I’d say he had it coming.
Additionally, his fans were the rudest bunch I have ever seen at this particular venue, a place that is renowned for being friendly.
Indeed. One Happy Rhodes song was identified as a duet between Kate Bush and Annie Lennox, and in that case it brought a lot of attention to an unknown artist.
If you download mp3’s for nothing, you get what you pay for. A lot of them are mislabeled. Weird Al Yankovic, for instance, hates the tenth-rate crap that circulates under his name.
My wife, who used to write for Country Music magazine, took me along to Opryland where she was supposed to interview David Allen Coe.
I’d always wanted to meet him, because You Never Even Called Me… was one of my favorite songs and I’d brought along one of his albums, hoping for an autograph.
He came out of his bedroom and his manager introduced D and myself.
No offer to shake our outstretched hands and no answers to D’s questions.
The man said not one word. He just stood there (“like some idol”;))
I can believe it. Nice to have confirmation that he is as big of a jerk as he appeared to be. Most of the really talented people I’ve met have been decent human beings, country music in particular valuing being accessible to fans and “down to earth”.
