What's your favourite Johnny Cash song and why?

Ring of Fire
I walk the line
that’s it

Folsom Prison Blues

I’m partial to The Ballad of Ira Hayes, though I’m not exactly sure why. It’s a pretty sad song based on a true story and a real person.

Runners up:
Girl From The North Country with Bob Dylan
Don’t Take Your Guns To Town

“Ring of Fire ”

“I Walk the Line ”

Those are the only two songs I can think of that I know sound good to me

Ring of fire because of the memories of when I first heard it.

Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line, & Hurt

Hurt.

And my favorite of his original songs is Folsom Prison Blues.

God’s Gonna Cut You Down

Boy named Sue.

Love the lyrics. Gonna name my boy Sue for the same reasons.

“Hurt.” So sad and moving. Tears me up to hear how ragged his voice had become close to his death, yet still how powerful.

Ring of Fire

“Hurt” was a NIN cover but I agree that Cash’s version was great.

@absalom he made it his own IMO.

@ccrow

I confess I prefer his version, too.

Ghost riders in the sky, and I don’t know why….

Is it impossible to enjoy both for their own merits without the need to compare the two? It’s somewhat unfair.

Cash was facing his own mortality, the very real, uncomfortable feeling that one day soon, he will stop being – the entire song and video has a reflective feel to it. A king on his deathbed, if you will.

Reznor, back circa The Downward Spiral, was dealing with isolation, existential angst, drug addiction and the feeling of strangeness – his is softer, a sense we are traveling through his emotive, lonely mind.

Each are great. There isn’t a need to say “this one is better,” because they are wholly different.

One of my earliest musical memories is A Boy Named Sue, for some reason. I still love it 40 years later.

Jackson… June Carter’s vocals are a perfect mix for the Cash voice.

Ring of Fire because June Carter wrote it about her love for him, and theirs is such a great love story.

Somewhere I saw a fantastic black and white video of her singing it, but I can never Google it up.

I did find Johnny singing it in 1963. And the two of them singing Jackson in 1968.

Folsom Prison Blues. It’s the only Johnny Cash song on my iPod, and I’m ashamed to say that even my 4 year old can sing along. :( I do turn the volume down when the song gets to the “bad bitch” part, so I guess I’m not a total degenerate as a mom.

Highwayman by Johnny Cash and the Highwaymen (Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon).

Folsom Prison Blues.

To Beat the Devil

Ghost riders in the Sky

Just to name a couple….

“I Walk The Line” I think his voice is sexy

I don’t think I could pick a favorite.

Satisfied Mind The song is haunting, like a prophecy or a horrible memory.

“Sunday morning coming down” Reminds me of the small towns I have always lived in.It could have been written by Kris Kris. I’m not sure.

@Grisaille I do like both versions. :-)

I keep my fly wide open all the time
I might of drank a little too much wine
She should have told me she was only nine
Because she’s nine, I’m doin’ time

I realize Johnny Cash is covering Nine Inch Nail’s song, but I like his version of “Hurt.”

Me too, the video was extra cool.