# A sad day - did Johnny Cash really record this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2005, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752 "2005-04-17T10:07:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/21 "2011-02-05T06:21:50Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > You may know this, but that song was actually written by Steve Goodman and John Prine. > > [Steve Goodman - You Never Even Called Me By My Name](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlHNOme8uEk). (Youtube link) I think this is the best version of the song. The Wikipedia page on him is a mess. The Controversy section says: > [@](#): > > Coe recorded two albums in 1978 and 1982 containing racist and misogynistic lyrics of extreme vulgarity and racial crudity: Nothing Sacred and Underground Album. Also available is a best of the albums compilation entitled “18 X-Rated Hits.” Coe has defended the songs such as “My Wife Ran Off With a Nigger” as bawdy fun which never made him much money—as well as pointing out that his drummer at the time, Kerry Brown (son of blues guitarist Gatemouth Brown) is black and married to a white woman. Napster added to the confusion regarding Coe’s racist songs by mislabeling offensive works by other artists, especially Johnny Rebel, whose songs are often mistakenly attributed to Coe. Aside from the fact that Napster never labeled anyone’s work (individual users did), it appears to be real. Link to Last.FM page in Spoiler: [http://www.last.fm/music/David+Allan+Coe/18+X-Rated+Hits](http://www.last.fm/music/David+Allan+Coe/18+X-Rated+Hits) He also appears to be a liar of some renown. After reading his Wikipedia page, I have to go take a shower. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/22 "2011-02-08T02:04:40Z")
Cash made a point of recording “The Ballad of Ira Hayes”, which laments the treatment of one of the six who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima. It portrays him as being ignored because he was just a drunk Indian who isn’t really worth helping. I doubt very much he’d record something like what was described here. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/23 "2011-02-08T02:39:05Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Because the original somehow didn’t get its point across. I think 2 is the dance remix. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/24 "2011-02-08T03:02:05Z")
Move Them Niggers North 2: Electric Jigaboo? sorry ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/25 "2011-02-08T03:23:46Z")
Good grief. This sounds like something from a Chappelle’s Show sketch. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/26 "2011-02-08T06:45:21Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > Cash made a point of recording “The Ballad of Ira Hayes”, which laments the treatment of one of the six who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima. It portrays him as being ignored because he was just a drunk Indian who isn’t really worth helping. I doubt very much he’d record something like what was described here. Not to mention Man in Black: > [@](#): > > I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, > Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town, > I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, > But is there because he’s a victim of the times. > … > I wear it for the sick and lonely old, > For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold, > I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been, > Each week we lose a hundred fine young men. > > And, I wear it for the thousands who have died, > Believen’ that the Lord was on their side, > I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died, > Believen’ that we all were on their side. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/27 "2011-02-08T15:14:02Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Move Them Niggers North 2: Electric Jigaboo? > sorry Do I go to hell just for snickering? (I almost typed “sniggering” but thought, mmm, no.) ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/28 "2011-02-08T15:37:51Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Move Them Niggers North 2: Electric Jigaboo? > sorry As a black man, let me just say this: I hate you for making me laugh at that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/29 "2011-02-08T20:25:37Z")
All of these are on YouTube. I pulled up a couple of them last night. I’m left of center but not a screaming liberal by any means, and I can sit through videos of childbirth and executions just fine, but couldn’t complete one. Just… golldam, you want to bathe afterwards. The comments are of course more disgusting than the songs; it’s easy to forget- especially if you’re a middle class white guy probably- that these people are still among us- you think of them as being kind of like doctors who smoked cigars while they sawed off your arm with rusty tools or pirates who said “Aaargh!” as a relic of the past. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/30 "2011-02-09T01:20:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The comments are of course more disgusting than the songs; it’s easy to forget- especially if you’re a middle class white guy probably- that these people are still among us- you think of them as being kind of like doctors who smoked cigars while they sawed off your arm with rusty tools or pirates who said “Aaargh!” as a relic of the past. …so wait…did the cigars saw your arm with a pirate…?.. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/31 "2011-02-09T02:13:04Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Move Them Niggers North 2: Electric Jigaboo? > sorry That was funny but this: > [@Sampiro](#): > > I think 2 is the dance remix. was hysterical! Thank you both so much. I was sitting here filled with sadness at the state of the world, and you helped me laugh. The best thing we can do to this shit is laugh at it\*, I think. \*_at it_, not with it. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/32 "2011-02-10T05:09:05Z")
_Move Them Niggers North 2: The Wrath of Klan_ ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/33 "2011-02-10T09:43:49Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > …so wait…did the cigars saw your arm with a pirate…?.. It was a different time. But mark my words- under Obamacare, you’ll be lucky if the worst you get is a cigar sawing off your arm with a pirate (probably in your concentration camp [and it’ll be raining]). ---
**Author:** ![Sledgehammer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Sledgehammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sledgehammer)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/34 "2023-01-13T03:00:38Z")
Its not johnny cash or david allen coe… its johnny rebel ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/35 "2023-01-13T04:24:54Z")
Wow. Searching for information on Coe and especially Johnny Rebel led me down a rabbit hole I never knew existed. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/36 "2023-01-13T15:07:05Z")
I wonder if the mix-up has to do with Johnny Cash having recorded _Johnny Yuma, the Rebel_ which was the theme to the television show _The Rebel_. That show was really screwed up, featuring a Confederate veteran saying things like, “I would never work to take advantage of another man.” Ummmm, you fought to protect slavery??? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/37 "2023-01-13T15:47:23Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > I wonder if the mix-up has to do with Johnny Cash having recorded _Johnny Yuma, the Rebel_ > which was the theme to the television show _The Rebel_. Plausible; the reason for the mix-up with Johnny Horton & Johnny Rebel is often given as the former having recorded “Johnny Reb”. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/38 "2023-01-13T18:23:02Z")
---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752/39 "2023-01-13T18:24:27Z")
I think we’re better off with this thread closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-sad-day-did-johnny-cash-really-record-this/299752.md?page=1)