Tag: American Recordings

Now Johnny Cash Can Be On Your Tear-Stained Letter

Johnny Cash Forever The U.S. Postal Service is issuing a new Forever stamp later this year that will feature country singer Johnny Cash. The stamp will be the first in the Postal Service’s new Music Icons series, although it has not announced the date for the Cash stamp yet.

The Postal Service explains that the stamp is designed to look like a 45 rpm record sleeve. Frank Bez took the photo during a photo shoot for the album, Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash (1963). Greg Breeding designed the stamp.

And what better way to celebrate the news than with one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs from his American Recordings period, “Tear-Stained Letter.” The song, written by Cash, appeared on 2003’s American IV: The Man Comes Around, but it actually goes back much further. Another version of the song appeared on Cash’s 1972 A Thing Called Love, which apparently was never released on CD (but is available as an MP3).

The original 1972 version of “Tear-Stained Letter” is a slow sad song, as a lover makes one last attempt to win back his love. But Cash reworked the song for the 2003 version, adding some new lyrics and upbeat music. With the changes, Cash turned the sad plea into a message to make the ex-lover feel guilty (“I’m gonna to bring back to your mind / What you said about always being true.”). Here is the updated 2003 version.

Here is the 1972 version of “Tear-Stained Letter.” (Note that the Johnny Cash song is not the song of the same name written by Richard Thompson and recorded by other artists like Jo-El Sonnier and Patty Loveless).

Now, whether sending a sad or happy tear-stained letter, you can include Johnny Cash on the envelope taking the letter on its journey to your lost love. Or you can just use it to pay your bills.

Which version of “Tear-Stained Letter” do you like best? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “Bird on a Wire” and the Return of the Bald Eagle

    bald eagle live feed

    Last year, along with John Fullbright’s cover of Steve Earle’s “Me and the Eagle,” we posted a live feed of a bald eagle and its eaglets in a nest in Iowa. Well, those babies have flown off, but the feed now has a bald eagle with some new eggs, so we check in on the new babies while we also listen to a Johnny Cash song on a day that would have been the country legend’s eightieth birthday. Recently there was posted live feed of a mother Bald Eagle from Decorah, Iowa. [2024 Update: Unfortunately, the live stream is no longer available.]

    The nest seems fairly secure for the high winds, but seeing the family so high up reminds me of one of Leonard Cohen’s most covered songs, “Bird on a Wire.” Cohen originally recorded the song in 1968 for the album Songs from a Room (1969). The song has been covered by The Neville Brothers, Willie Nelson, KD Lang, and others. My favorite cover is the one made by Johnny Cash for the 1994 album that marked a comeback for him, American Recordings. The weariness of his voice goes perfectly with the song.

    A version of Cash singing the song with an orchestra appeared on Unearthed (2003), and Cohen has also performed his song with an orchestra. But I like the sparse instrumentation versions.

    bald eagle The song is so beautiful that Kris Kristofferson, who has written many beautiful songs, has stated that he’d like the first three lines of “Bird on a Wire” on his tombstone.

    Like a bird on a wire,
    Like a drunk in a midnight choir,
    I have tried in my way to be free.

    The song has been described as a “bohemian My Way,” and one can sense a more realistic and darker life appraisal in Cohen’s song than the Frank Sinatra classic. While “My Way” is underscored with pride, “Bird on a Wire” is tempered with regret (“I have torn everyone who reached out to me”). There are some reports that the song inspired the title of the Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn movie, Bird on a Wire (1990), but it is hard to see the meaning of the song in the action-comedy film, so I hope that story is not true.

    For today, here is to the Iowa bald eagles who unlike us, live free without regret. And here is to Johnny Cash on his birthday, because his music helped us comprehend freedom as well as sorrow, atonement, and grace.

    What is your favorite version of “Bird on a Wire”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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