Johnny Cash

[fox69]

"Baby Ride Easy"
(duet with June Carter)

"Baby Ride Easy"
(duet with June Carter)



[Johnny:] If I drove a truck
[June:] And I were a waitress
[Johnny:] And I ordered coffee
[June:] And I poured you some


[Both:] Then you'd stop by on your way sometimes later
[June:] And if we arm-wrestled
[Johnny:] I'd say that you won

[Both:] I need my baby, ride easy, ride high in the saddle all day
[June:] If your loving is good
[Johnny:] And your cooking ain't greasy
[Both:] We’ll chuck the chuck wagon and we'll ride away

[June:] If I were a winsome pale senorita
[Johnny:] And I a bull-fighter, way down in the sand
[Both:] While the band kept on playing that Old Paso Doable
[June:] Would you throw me a flower
[Johnny:] Would you take my hand?


[Both:] I need my baby, ride easy, ride high in the saddle all day
[June:] If your loving is good
[Johnny:] And your cooking ain't greasy
[Both:] We’ll chuck the chuck wagon and we'll ride away

[Johnny:] If I ran the country
[June:] I'd be your first lady and I’d pick up the white house while you were away
[Both:] Waiting while you’re passing time with world leaders
[June:] Left alone together
[Both:] Alone we might lay


[Both:] I need my baby, ride easy, ride high in the saddle all day
[June:] If your loving is good
[Johnny:] And your cooking ain't greasy
[Both:] We’ll chuck the chuck wagon and we'll ride away

[June:] If your loving is good
[Johnny:] And your cooking ain't greasy

[Both:] Hey!

 

[fox69]

"Backstage Pass"

"Backstage Pass"



Hello I'm Johnny Cash
One night I had a backstage pass to the Willie Nelson Show

There were wackoes and weirdoes and dingbats and dodoes
And athletes and movie stars and David Allan Coe
There was leather and lace and every minority race
With a backstage pass to the Willie Nelson Show

Kristofferson got an offer for a movie promoters closed another deal or two
Waylon got a call from his son Shooter and he went home the minute he was through
I moved with the mob at intermission
To the green room where you see who you can see
There were has-been's and would-be's and never-were's
Paupers punks and millionaires and me
And there were wackoes...

Hells Angels blocked the traffic to the building
In order for the beer truck to come through
And waitin' in the wings to sing with Willie were hopeful stars of flickering magnitude
There was a singer Willie knew back in the fifties
Who once paid him fifty dollars for a song
There were women who once did and some who still would
I heard one ask did Connie come along
And there were wackoes...
I wish you could've been there well maybe you were

 

[fox69]

"Bad News"

"Bad News"



Ha ha ha come on bad news ha ha
Well bad news travels like wild fire goodnews travels slow
They all call me Wildfire ha ha cause everybody knows
I'm bad news everywhere I go
Always gettin' in a trouble and leaving little girls that hate to see me go
They tried to hang me in Oakland and the did in Francisco
But I wouldn't choke I broke their rope and they had to let me go
Cause I'm bad news everywhere I go
Always gettin' in a trouble and leaving little girls that hate to see me go
Now from north to south east to west the story is the same
From one state to another I have to change my name
Cause I'm bad news everywhere I go
Always gettin' in a trouble and leaving little girls that hate to see me go

Well now I've picked peaches in Georgia I lumberjacked in Maine
I've been hired fired and jailed in any town you can name
Cause I'm bad news everywhere I go
Always gettin' in a trouble and leaving little girls that hate to see me go

 

[fox69]

"Ballad Of A Teenage Queen"
(with Rosanne Cash and The Everly Brothers)

"Ballad Of A Teenage Queen"
(with Rosanne Cash and The Everly Brothers)



(Dream on, dream on teenage queen prettiest girl we've ever seen)

There's a story in our town
Of the prettiest girl around
Golden hair and eyes of blue
How those eyes could flash at you (How those eyes could flash at you)
Boys hung 'round her by the score
But she loved the boy next door who worked at the candy store
(Dream on, dream on teenage queen prettiest girl we've ever seen)

She was tops in all they said
It never once went to her head
She had everything it seems
Not a care, this teenage queen (Not a care, this teenage queen)
Other boys could offer more
But she loved the boy next door who worked at the candy store
(Dream on, dream on teenage queen you should be a movie queen)

He would marry her next spring
Saved his money, bought a ring
Then one day a movie scout
Came to town to take her out (Came to town to take her out)
Hollywood could offer more
So she left the boy next door working at the candy store
(Dream on, dream on teenage queen see you on the movie screen)

Very soon she was a star
Pretty house and shiny car
Swimming pool and a fence around
But she missed her old home town (But she missed her old home town)
All the world was at her door
All except the boy next door who worked at the candy store
(Dream on, dream on teenage queen saddest girl we've ever seen)

Then one day the teenage star
Sold her house and all her cars
Gave up all her wealth and fame
Left it all and caught a train (Left it all and caught a train)
Do I have to tell you more
She came back to the boy next door who worked at the candy store

(Now this story has some more, you'll hear it all at the candy store)

 

[fox69]

"Ballad Of Barbara"

"Ballad Of Barbara"



In a southern town where I was born
That's where I got my education
I worked in the fields and I walked in the woods
And I wondered at creation.

I recall the sun in a sky of blue
And the smell of green things growin'
And the seasons chang'd and I lived each day
Just the way the wind was blowin'.

Then I heard of a cultured city life
Breath takin' lofty steeples
And the day I called myself a man
I left my land and my people.

And I rambled north and I rambled east
And I tested and I tasted
And a girl or two, took me round and round
But they always left me wasted.

In a world that's all concrete and steel
With nothin' green ever growin'
Where the buildings hide the risin' sun
And they blocked the free winds from blowin.

Where you sleep all day and you wake all night
To a world of drink and laughter
I met that girl that I was sure would be
The one that I was after.

In a soft blue gown and formal tux
Beneath that lofty steeple
He said, "Do you Barbara, take this man,
Will you be one of his people?"

And she said, "I will." and she said, "I do."
And the world looked mighty pretty
And we lived in a fancy downtown flat
'Cause she loved the noisy city.

But the days grew cold beneath a yellow sky
And I longed for green things growin'
And the thoughts of home and the people there
But she'd not agreed to goin'.

Then her hazel eyes turned away from me
With a look that wasn't pretty
And she turned into concrete and steel
And she said, "I'll take the city."

Now the cars go by on the interstate
And my pack is on my shoulder
But I'm goin' home, where I belong
Much wiser now and older.

 

[fox69]

"Ballad Of Forty Dollars"
(with Waylon Jennings)

"Ballad Of Forty Dollars"
(with Waylon Jennings)



The man that preached the funeral said
"It really was a simple way to die
He laid down to rest one afternoon
And never opened up his eyes"

They hired me and Fred and Joe
To dig the grave and carry up some chairs
It took us seven hours and I guess
We must have drunk a case of beer

I guess I ought to go and watch them
Put him down but I don't own a suit
And anyway when they start talkin'
About the fire in hell I get spooked

So let's just sit here in the truck
And act like we don't know him when they pass
Anyway, when they're all through
We got to go to work and mow the grass

Here they come and who's that riding
In that big old shiny limousine
Look at all that chrome I do believe that
That's the sharpest thing I've seen

That must belong to his rich uncle
Someone said he owned a big old farm
When they get parked let's mosey down
And look it over, that won't do no harm

That must be the widow in the car
And won't you take a look at that
That sure is a pretty dress you know
Some women do look good in black

He's not even in the ground
And they tell me his truck is up for sale
They say she took it pretty hard
But you can't tell too much behind a veil

Listen ain't that pretty when
A bugler plays a military taps
I think when you were in the war
They always hide and play a song like that

Well, here we are and there he goes
And I guess that you might call it our bad luck
I hope he rests in peace
But the trouble is the fellow owes us forty bucks

 

[fox69]

"Ballad Of The Ark"

"Ballad Of The Ark"



Well I tell you a story about a good man
Who had many a problem before he reached dry land
It ain't easy for a good man to go down no it ain't easy for a good man to go down
On the earth there was trouble sorrow and pain
So the Lord said to Noah I'm gonna make it rain
It ain't easy for a good man to go down no it ain't easy for a good man to go down
Noah gathered his sons and the ark it was raised
Two by two came the animals that they might be saved
It ain't easy...

Well it rained forty days and it rained forty nights
All the earth it was covered the mountains out of sight
It ain't easy for a good man to go down no it ain't easy for a good man to go down
When the waters receded and the earth it was dry
The Lord said to Noah go forth and multiply
It ain't easy for a good man to go down no it ain't easy for a good man to go down
Yes the Lord made a rainbow way up in the sky
He promised no flood would ever murder you and die
It ain't easy for a good man to go down no it ain't easy for a good man to go down

 

[fox69]

"Ballad Of The Harp Weaver"

"Ballad Of The Harp Weaver"



Son said my mother when I was knee high
You need of clothes to cover you and not a rag have I
There's nothing in the house to make a boy's britches
Nor shears to cut a cloth with nor thread to take stitches
There's nothing in the house but a leaf end of rye
And the harp with a with the woman's head nobody will by and she began to cry
That was in the early fall and when came the late fall
Son she said the sight of you makes your mother's blood crawl
Little skinny shoulder blades stickin' through your clothes
And where you get a jacket from God above knows
It's lucky for me lad your daddy's in the ground
And can't see the way I let his son go around and she made a queer sound
That was in the late fall when the winter came
I'd not a pair of bridges nor a shirt to my name
I couldn't go to school or out of doors to play
And all the other little boys passed our way
Son said my mother come climb into my lap
And I'll chave your little knees while you take a nap
And oh but we were silly for half an hour or more
Me with my long legs draggin' on the floor
I rocked rocked rocked to a mother goose rhyme
Oh but we were happy for half an hour's time
But there was I a great boy and what would folks say
To hear my mother singin' me to sleep all day in such a daft way
Men say the winter was bad that year fuel was scarce and food was dear
A wind with a wolf's head howled about our door
And we burned up the chairs and sat upon the floor
All that was left us was a chair we couldn't break
And the harp with the woman's head nobody would take for song or pity sake
The night before Christmas I cried with the cold
I cried myself to sleep like a two year old
And in the deep night I felt my mother rise
And stare down upon me with love in her eyes
I saw my mother sitting on the one good chair
A light falling on her face from I couldn't tell where
Looking nineteen and not a day older
And the harp with the woman's head leaned against her shoulder
Her thin fingers moving in the thin tall strings
Were weave weave weaving wonderful things
Many bright threads from where I couldn't see
Were running through the harp strings rapidly
And gold threads whistlin' through my mother's hands
I saw the web grow and the pattern expand
She wove a child's jacket and when it was done
She laid it on the floor and wove another one
She wove a red cloak so regal to see
She's made it for a king's son I said and not for me but I knew it was for me
She wove a pair of bridges and quicker than that
She wove a pair of boots a little cocked hat
She wove a pair of mittens she wove a little blouse
She wove all night in the still cold house
She sang as she worked and the harp strings spoke
But her voice never faltered and the thread never broke
But when I awoke there sat my mother
With the harp against her shoulder lookin' nineteen and not a day older
A smile about her lips and a light about her head
And her hands in the harp strings frozen dead
And piled up beside her toppling to the skies
Were the clothes of a king's son just my size

 

[fox69]

"Beans For Breakfast"

"Beans For Breakfast"



I couldn't hear you for the TV, I didn't know you said goodbye
I saw your cancelled check for the airfare, didn't know flyin' got too high
Beans for breakfast once again, hard to eat 'em from the can.

I've run out of clean utensils, I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
I heard the crows outside my window, guess it's me they're talkin' about
The fire you lit has burnt to cinders, every good things fizzled out
Beans for breakfast once again, hard to eat 'em from the can.

Wish you'd come back and wash the dishes, I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
Caught a cold with the window open, crow droppings o my window sill
Probably got histoplasmosis, got no gun or I would kill them crows
Beans for breakfast once again, hard to eat 'em from the can.

Plastic forks are a dime a dozen I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
Finally made it to the mailbox, felt so bad I thought I'd die
All I got was a bill from my doctor, well I guess flyin' ain't so high
Bean for breakfast once again, hard to eat 'em from the can.

Blue tick mattress cold and greasy, I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man
The house burned down from the fire that I built, in your closet by mistake
After I took all them pills, but I got out safe in my duck head overalls
Beans for breakfast once again, I'm a hungry nasty lonesome man.

 

[fox69]

"Beautiful Words"

"Beautiful Words"



We're at the place of the Sermon on the mount
Beautiful words beautiful words He spoke beautiful words
The wind lay still and the whole world listened as He spoke beautiful words
Blessed are the poor in spirit for their is the Kingdom of Heaven
Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled
Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake
For their is the Kingdom of Heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile ye
And persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake
Beautiful words beautiful words He spoke beautiful words
The wind lay still and the whole world listened as He spoke beautiful words