Johnny Cash Silver
 

NOTE !!! 

(Ghost) "Rider's In The Shy" #1 Pop Hit For Vaughn Monroe 
In 1949 

Johnny Cash, Dear Mama

I remember that hot August day in 1949. I was seventeen but was six feet tall and had been doing a mans work a In the cotton fields since I was twelve. The cotton was laid by. That didn’t mean that we where through working. That meant that we where through working the cotton fields until it was ready to pick the cotton in late September or October. Laying down time was not time to lay down and rest from my work. It was another phase of are farm life where we really went to work, not only ourselves but for our animals. We canned the food, we hauled the hay, we harvested the corn, alfalfa, the soy beans, and for me the most dreadful job was cutting our winter wood supply for the heating and for the cook stove From sunup to sundown Daddy and I work, he’d pick out the trees that we could cut down, usually White Oak, a Pine Oak, or maybe a Hackberry which was easier to cut sometimes we cut a tough Ash or an Elm. Come on son he’d say as we sung back and forth a six foot cross cut saw. Pull hard then push back a little when I pull, and all I’ll do the same for you. Over and over on and on, in a straight line until the tree fell, always exactly where he planned for it to do. After it crashed, he took a double bladed axe and walked down the tree, cutting the limbs off. My job was to pile the limbs in the rear in a neat pile, a tall wide neat pile.

We don’t want to leave the woods looking trashy Said Daddy. Gotta have clean ground so the mules can pull the wagon around from one cut to the next when we get ready to load up. These days we work at cutting. We didn’t have a watch, but sunup to sundown in Arkansas in August is a long long time. Who was that singing, you asked " That Was Me Mama " I said, bugging you, dancing you around and continuing the song. You stop me " your Voice has dropped " you said " I never heard you sing those low notes before " It’s that cross cut saw Mama, " I grinned, and those big blocks of wood " . You stopped me again with a serious, earnest look in your eyes. I stood still and listened to what you had to say. " God has a hand on you son " and said " someday you’ll be singing on the radio, not just on KLCN, Blytheville, not just WMOS, Memphis but everywhere. Everybody will hear you sing and your life will be a beacon. You’ll have many followers . I pray you’ll have wisdom to lead the right direction. You have a special calling a gift. Always remember that and always know that his hand is upon you and you won’t go wrong so long as you use your gift as he wills " I paused and slowly nodded as if to say " I know and understand " Then strolled out the front porch, sat on the sing and started to quietly singing, playing with the new notes that had been added when my voice had dropped, amazed at the sounds I was making .

Everybody going to a wonderful time up there, Everybody going to have a wonderful time up there O glory hallelujah. Boom-baba-Boom-baba Brother there’s a reckonin a comin in the morning

I sang on and on, and dreamed my dreams of the years to come. There hasn’t been a day passed in the last thirty years that I haven’t recalled that scene in the kitchen with you mama, and the things you said and how you said it as if you Knew. I remember that afterwards, I nodded my head and "I almost said I know it Mama " but I didn’t, I just started singing. Now after twenty-five years in the profession, I think maybe my voice is still suitable at times to played on the radio. You still like it, don’t you, Mama. Thet's what matters to me. All My Love     Johnny Cash

Words To The Song ( Ghost ) Riders In The Sky

An ole cowpoke went ridin out one dark and windy day.
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way when
all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw a plowin
through the ragged skys, up a cloudy draw

Yippee Yi Ya, Yippee Yi Ya

their brands were still on fire an their hoofs were made of steel
their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath I could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
for he saw the riders comin hard heard their mournful cry

Yippee Yi Ya, Yippee Yi Ya
Ghost Riders In The Sky

Their face gaunt their eyes were blurred an shirts all soaked with sweat they're ridin hard to catch that herd but they ain't caught em yet
Cause they've got to ride forever on that range up in the sky
On horses snortin fire as they ride on hear their cry

Yippee Yi Ya, Yippee Yi Ya
Ghost Riders In The Sky
Ghost Riders In The Sky

( Ghost ) Riders In The Sky, was a number two country hit for
Johnny Cash on May 19, 1979
If my mind serves me right, Johnny  once mentioned at a concert that had always wanted to do the song (Ghost)Riders In The Sky,  but copyright had prevented it

These are the foot notes that is on the back side of the album Johnny Cash Silver and I must confess I hadn’t read them in years. When I did read them, while typing them for the Web Site, I was amazed on the detail that Johnny Cash went into describing the early years of his childhood and what a great influence that both of his parents had on his life. I truly believe that the tuff years, and hard work as a young boy, and with a loving family life, molded Johnny Cash into a great artist and a wonderful song writer that he has been down through the years. Steven Menke

The call came in late that night, as I was enjoying just a little sleep, and a little rest before the early morning would come. Work for the next day was near!!. Dad screamed the boy, Johnny Cash is hear at the fair tonight, can you hear him? The cell phones of the day was poor sounding, and calls very costly, and the boy surly must have been hundreds of miles away. Slowly waking, I said why? I thought Saturday night was the date for Johnny Cash Son? surly then I would be there for the concert. I’m sorry said the boy, my mistake but I’ll let you listen on my cell phone, if you pay bill !! And so it went, I heard the concert and I paid the cell phone bill. Great show Johnny Cash. ( One of the songs I clearly remember hearing was Ghosts Riders in the Sky ) Steven Menke

Links To Words of Other Songs

Home Of The Blues

Big River

I walk The Line

Hank And Joe And Me

Forty Shades Of Green

All Over Again

What I Care

The Orange Blossom Special

Revised: September 03, 2007