I Need a Little Help From DUer Johnny Cash Fans! PLEEEEZE?

[MarianJack]

Last night, I was indulging my admittedly pointless habit of flicking through channels before turning off the TV before dropping off to sleep. On Ovation, I saw just a bit of an in concert video of Johnny Cash singing a song about a Native American war hero who returned to a country that offered him NOTHING, and eventually died of alcoholism. In the audience there were many Native Americans, many looking beautiful and proud in their war bonnets.

I had 2 impressions:

1 It was a true story & Johnny seemed to love singing it. It was one of the best vocal performances of his I've ever heard!

2 It was a song that would REALLY piss off right wingers. After all, we know the republican view of REAL war heroes, which is "SCREW'EM"!

Does anybody know the name of this great song? Many thanks in advance!

PEACE!

[buddhamama]

1. i believe it is

Johnny Yuma.

[MarianJack]

5. Thanks, buddhamama!

I think that taterguy got the right one, though!

Isn't it great that Cash had such integrity in his music. Him for toby keith is a pretty piss poor exchange!

BTW, :yourock: !

[taterguy]

2. Ballad of Ira Hayes, I think

[buddhamama]

3. you're right

i was mistaken.

[MarianJack]

6. May That Be Your Biggest Mistake...

...of your day! :hi:

[buddhamama]

14. indeed

:hi:

[MarianJack]

4. DING, DING, DING!

Once I saw the name I knew that that was what it was.

Thanks, taterguy! :bounce: :kick: :headbang: !

[taterguy]

7. Thanks for reminding me to listen to it

I love my little Rio Music manager doohickey that lets me carry most of my music collection in one convenient palm sized gadget

[MarianJack]

10. You're Welcome!

We may get the CD out of next week's paycheck.

[AngryAmish]

8. Ira Hayes raised the flag on Iwo Jima

The famous one with the marines putting up the flag. All the guys who raised the flag had a bad end except for this one guy from Antigo, WI. His son had a book out a few years ago.

[MarianJack]

9. One of those little tidbits...

...that gets left out of the History books.

I taught History With An Attitude, and the kids LOVED it!

[bikebloke]

17. Hollywood already did a biop.

Wasn't there a film about Ira Hayes? I think it starred Tony Curtis as Ira. I wonder who'll play him in Clint's Iwo Jima flick.

[MarianJack]

31. I Saw That Movie a LOOONG Time Ago. 20+ years!

Good one! Curtis was very goo in it. I seem to recall very little of the usual 50's hollywood sugar-coating. Was it about Ira?

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. Call him drunken Ira Hayes...he won't answer any more...

Not the whiskey drinking indian...nor the Marine that went to war.

Really crazy, but I was just listening to that on "Legends" as I was cleaning. :hi:

[MarianJack]

12. That Line...

...almost made me cry!

It must be that great minds thing going there, MrsGrumpy! :patriot:

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. You bet! That song reminds me of my father in law, and I sob everytime

I hear it. You have excellent taste MJ! :hi:

[MarianJack]

15. My Family Was Luckier Than Most!

My Father and 3 uncles in combat in WWII and none of them got a Scratch!

Maybe my dad cut himself shaving once or twice, and all 4 of them saw some SERIOUS fighting!

[wildhorses]

16. perhaps you would be interested in this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4689022

[MarianJack]

19. Thanks, wildhorses!

One more of TOO many of our beautiful sons and daughters dying for lies.

[johnnie]

18. Ira Hayes is the one on the far left

I do believe.

[MarianJack]

20. Thanks, johnnie.

Too bad nobody would give him a job when he got home.

[Metta]

21. You may want to check this out.

The original song was written by Peter LaFarge, a seminal voice in the '60s for Indian affairs. This is from allmusic.com:

At around the same time that La Farge was recording for Folkways, Johnny Cash heard "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," one of La Farge's most heartfelt songs, and later saw La Farge perform in New York. The song told the true story of a Native American who became a hero as a marine on Iwo Jima, but found nothing but despair, unhappiness, and prejudice in civilian life. Cash and La Farge met in Nashville, and the country music star later cut an entire album, Bitter Tears, devoted to the status of the Native American in the United States, which included a half-dozen of La Farge's songs. Cash's single of "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" reached No. 3 on the country music charts, despite the refusal of many country disc jockeys to play the serious, politically provocative song, and Cash later gave it further exposure with a performance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival.

[MarianJack]

22. Thanks, Metta!

I think I'll try to find that CD if it's available.

One undeniable thing about Cash, he had an almost absolute artistic integrity! I'll forgive his little slip of a nixon ass-kiss at the White House around 1970, when "The Lonely Voice Of Youth" was big. After reagan and 2 bushes, even an evil son of a bitch like nixon looks good!

[CanuckAmok]

23. More JC progressivism:

Man In Black - Johnny Cash
Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

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 the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought'a be a Man In Black.

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.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black

[MarianJack]

36. Gracias!

:headbang:

[Metta]

28. The Peter LaFarge side is available.

As part of a two lp on one cd, a Bear Family release out of Germany. Costs the same as having Folkways custom copy a cd for you of only the one lp. I found that out with a simple google search. I suggest checking out LaFarges bio on allmusic.com. It seems his voice was an acquired taste. ... wouldn't want you to be put off by that and not delve into his very worthwhile efforts because of it. Cheers.

[MarianJack]

37. Thanks Again, Metta!

:yourock:

[Metta]

40. The gift moves on.

:pals: :donut: Hey, if you pick it up, I'd be interested in your reactions.

[WCGreen]

24. They play that now and then on the Kent State Folk show

WKSU.org

Every Friday Saturday and Sunday night they play folk from 8:00 to 12:00....

Jim Bloom does a real good job....

You can stream it....

Or folk music 24/7 at

http://www.folkalley.com/

[MarianJack]

32. Thanks!

:hi:

[Tsiyu]

25. When I go through fundy towns

I like to crank that song up on the car stereo and roll down the window.

Then I hit "repeat."

"they'd let him raise a flag and lower it like you'd throw a dog a bone" just chills me to the core.

[MarianJack]

33. Pising Off Fundies!

One of life's great pleasures.

ChicaAzul's and my favorite way to do it is to show them that we know the Bible MUCH beter than they do!

[dbt]

26. FYI, Cash was opposed to the War On Iraq.

In a Rolling Stone interview, Rosanne Cash refers to the grief that she got for opposing the war:

"I got so much hate mail," Cash says. "Invariably, they would say, 'Your father's a real American, and you should go sleep with Sadaam.'" Ironically, Johnny Cash himself was adamantly against the war. "It broke his heart, it really did," she asserts, claiming that her father was "addicted" to war coverage on CNN during his last months. "We talked about it in every single conversation we had," she says. "He was almost a Quaker in his pacifism. He thought there was never a reason for war -- and he had felt that way, he told me, since the Vietnam War." <snip>

Even more ironically, Rosanne's detractors had it right: her father WAS a real American! He didn't give Shit One what anybody else thought about his beliefs, either.

SIDEBAR: Rosanne Cash's new CD, "Black Cadillac," is a freaking masterpiece! She remembers her father and her mother, warts and all. You can listen to every single track on it at this link.

I :loveya: Cash!
dbt
Remember New Orleans

[MarianJack]

34. The 2 Cashes Were Against pee-wee's big adventure

Gee, it's good that we have real "murikins" like toby keith! :sarcasm:

[strangemedicine]

27. Great Song. My daddy would sing along with the record.

The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Ira Hayes,
Ira Hayes


Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped

Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed


Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again

And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes


Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand

But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance


Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone!

He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes


Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died


< www.azlyrics.com >

[MarianJack]

35. What Powerful Lyrics!

I'm eary just reading them! Thanks!

[leftofthedial]

29. "true" story of Ira Hayes

one of the Iwo Jima flag raisers

[MarianJack]

38. Staged Photo, but Moving!

Also not a phoney gesture, like the toppling of saddam's statue by a selected crowd!

[Aristus]

30. Cash was part Native American. One-half or one-quarter Cherokee,

I believe. I tell you, you can REALLY see it in the video for "Hurt". He looks like an old chief telling his stories to the young ones around the fire.

Boy, the "Hurt" video really makes me cry. Seeing Johnny like that, all broken down and beaten. Even though it is a Trent Reznor song, all the anger, the bitterness and the self-loathing come straight from Cash's heart. June Carter Cash has a cameo in the video, which was filmed at the defunct House of Cash a few months before her death.

Just thinking about it now makes me tear up.

[MarianJack]

39. I Once knew he was part Cherokee,...

...but I'd forgotten. Thanks, Aristus! :applause: