Tag: Johnny Cash

Is Kris Kristofferson’s Greatest Song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”?

Kris Kristofferson got his big break with “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” which may be the greatest song ever written about loneliness.

Kris Kristofferson passed away on Saturday, September 28, 2024. As many of the obituaries point out, he had an amazing career, songwriter, actor, singer, Rhodes scholar, army helicopter pilot, and so much more. I was lucky while visiting a childhood friend to see Kristofferson in Houston back in March 1990 as he started the first Highwaymen tour with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. But if you ask me the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Kristofferson, it is the song “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down.”

Kristofferson may have had greater songs, and you can easily make the case for “Me and Bobby McGee” or “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” among others. But “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” may be the greatest song ever written about loneliness.

On the Sunday morning sidewalks,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned;
Cause there’s something in a Sunday,
That makes a body feel alone;
And there’s nothin’ short of dyin’,
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin’ city sidewalks,
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down.

Johnny Cash first recorded the song. In 1969, Kristofferson was working sweeping floors at Columbia studios and hoping to be a songwriter. You can hear this part of Kristofferson’s life in “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” where he had moved to Nashville, alone, alienated from his family, and struggling to get by.

Kristofferson famously flew a helicopter to Johnny Cash’s house to get Cash’s attention and give the singer a tape of his songs that included “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.” Cash subsequently played the song on his weekly television show, telling the audience about the up-and-coming songwriter. Cash released the song on record, and his version became the one that most people remember hearing first.

Lyrics and Johnny Cash’s Changes

Johnny Cash did tweak a few of the words in “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.” In his version, he refers to “Then I washed my face and combed my hair / And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.” But in Kristofferson’s original version, he sings about shaving instead of washing, “And I shaved my face and combed my hair / And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.”

Also, Kristofferson’s original describes the kid differently than Cash: “But I lit my first and watched a small kid / Cussin’ at a can that he was kickin’.” Cash took out the referencing to cussing: “But I lit my first and watched a small kid /
Playin’ with a can that he was kickin’.”

Why did Cash change a few words? Some have speculated Cash’s version is a little more optimistic, with the singer washing off his sins and seeing kids playing instead of cussing. I have not seen Cash or Kristofferson explain the small changes, but my theory is a little different.

Recall that when Cash first recorded the song, Kristofferson was not the established songwriter we know. He was new to the business and was the annoying guy trying to get his songs heard. So, Cash, even while recognizing a great song, did not approach it with reverence. So, he might have just thought the word changes sounded better. Regarding the kid kicking the can, Cash’s change got rid of the more blatant alliteration “cussin’ at a can” and stretched it out more, tying together the “w” in the first phrase (“watched”) to two more “w” words in the next phrase (“with”/”was”). Regarding the other change, he may have just liked the elongated sound of “washed” over “shaved.”

Cash’s tweaks were small, and he left most of the song alone, including what I consider the most heartbreaking line in the song, about smelling frying chicken. Most folks who have moved away from home can relate to recalling family dinners on Sundays and what it means to now be on your own.

Then I crossed the empty street,
And caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin’ chicken;
And it took me back to somethin’,
That I’d lost somehow, somewhere along the way.

We lost something else when we lost Kris Kristofferson, but we still have his music to lift us up and to comfort us when we are down and alone.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

Buy from Amazon

  • Ira Hayes Won’t Answer Anymore
  • Cowboy Jack Clement: “I Guess Things Happen That Way”
  • Columbia Records Drops Johnny Cash: “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”
  • “Bird on a Wire” and the Return of the Bald Eagle
  • Devil’s Right Hand Arrest in New York City
  • Taxi Driver Music: “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33”
    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Clarence Ashley: “The Cuckoo” & “Little Sadie”

    Folksinger Clarence “Tom” Ashley left a lasting legacy with his versions of songs like “The Cuckoo” and “Little Sadie,” influencing artists such as Bob Dylan.

    Clarence Ashley was among the folk and blues singers “rediscovered” during the 1950s and 1960s. Ashley, known as “Tom,” began performing in the early 1900’s, singing and playing banjo or guitar. He played with artists such as Doc Watson and lived to see his influence on a range of singers, even sharing a stage with Bob Dylan at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. He is known for his performances of songs such as “The Cuckoo” and “Little Sadie.”

    Ashley was born in Tennessee on September 29, 1895, and he died in North Carolina on June 2, 1967. You may have first heard his voice on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music records, where one of the songs he performs is “The Coo Coo Bird.”

    The song, also with other titles such as “The Cuckoo” and “The Cuckoo is a Pretty Bird,” is an English folk song. The song begins with the bird, which is often associated with spring and with infidelity, and then goes on in various versions to lament about luck in love or gambling. Ashley’s version focuses on the latter.

    I’ve played cards in England;
    I’ve played cards in Spain;
    I’ll bet you ten dollars,
    I’ll beat you next game    .

    In the video below from the DVD “Legends of Old Time Music,” Ashley performs his version of “The Cuckoo.” Also, at the beginning of the clip he is interviewed about his music career. Check it out.

    Another song that Ashley recorded, but with a darker tone, is “Little Sadie.” Ashley recorded the folk ballad in 1928. The singer, named Lee Brown, tells about killing a woman (in some versions his wife), fleeing, getting caught, and ultimately being sentenced by a judge: “Forty-one days and forty-one nights / Forty-one years to wear the ball and the stripes.”

    Music critic Greil Marcus, writing in the liner notes for Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971), noted, “There’s something horribly laconic about Ashley’s 1929 recording of “Little Sadie.” Crinklingly ominous banjo notes trace a circle in which every story goes back to its beginning and starts up again, a circle in which every act is inevitable, worthless, and meaningless, a folk nihilism long before existentialism caught on in Paris.” Below is Ashley’s version of “Little Sadie.” Check it out.

    Bob Dylan recorded a version of “Little Sadie” that appeared on his Self-Portrait (1970) album. And two more versions appear on Dylan’s Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971), which was released in 2013. On the latter album, Marcus found Dylan’s “In Search of Little Sadie” to be “a revelation.”

    Marcus traces this Dylan version as the voice of a blustering killer, not caring (as in the character in Ashley’s version). But then the murderer finds fear in what may happen to himself.

    In The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, author Michael Gray notes that it is most likely that Dylan’s versions of “Little Sadie” were because of his knowledge of Ashley’s recording. He also notes that Dylan would have known Ashley’s recording of “The Coo-Coo Bird” from the Anthology of American Folk Music.

    Dylan’s versions of “Little Sadie” are not on Youtube, but perhaps the most famous descendant of Ashley’s song is Johnny Cash’s version of “Cocaine Blues.” Singer-songwriter T.J. “Red” Arnall wrote “Cocaine Blues” as a reworked “Little Sadie” and recorded the song in 1947. Here, Cash performs “Cocaine Blues” in 1968 at Folsom Prison.

    I do not believe anyone has yet connected the subject of the folk song “Little Sadie” to a real person. Some have found evidence that the song originated in an African-American community in the South. Wherever the song came from, singers like Clarence Ashley have kept the tale alive in their own ways.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Johnny Cash’s Concerts at San Quentin
  • The First Farm Aid
  • “I’ll Fly Away” and the Prisoner
  • New Old Dylan: “Pretty Saro”
  • Cowboy Jack Clement: “I Guess Things Happen That Way”
  • Pop Culture Roundup (April 2012 Edition)
    • ( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Buy from Amazon

    Rosanne Cash Takes a Stand With “Crawl Into the Promised Land”

    Rosanne Cash engages with the pressing issues we face with her new angry yet hopeful song, “Crawl Into the Promised Land.”

    Rosanne Cash has released a timely new song with John Leventhal, “Crawl Into the Promised Land.” The song tackles many of the issues we have been facing in 2020. In a handwritten note accompanying the song on her website, Cash asks about “Why we elected such an unfit person to guide us, Why do we kill Black people with impunity, Why our leaders dismantle and mock every institution. . . .”

    Cash adds that the “magnitude of the moment requires time and an ocean of reflection.” Recognizing that an election is approaching, the song lyrics ask us to be delivered from Tweets and lies. But it is deep down a song of hope. I even detect what seems to be a reference to her father Johnny Cash (“The old man surely must have known / To kick the lights and make his stand / Would give us strength back from the brink.”

    The video that accompanies “Crawl Into the Promised Land” song is a “visual corollary,” offering images including the Civil Rights, women’s rights movements, and such important figures as the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The video was directed by Phyllis Housen and Eric Baker. Check it out.

    Proceeds from the song go to the Arkansas Peace & Justice Memorial Movement.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • I’ll See You In My Dreams: Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021
  • Remembering Johnny Cash During “September When It Comes”
  • Is Kris Kristofferson’s Greatest Song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”?
  • Arlo McKinley Gets To the Core of “This Mess We’re In” On New Album
  • The Pines at Night (Matthew Ryan) Releases Full Album,”A Year of Novembers”
  • Clarence Ashley: “The Cuckoo” & “Little Sadie”
    • ( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Johnny Cash’s Journey and “The Gift”

    Johnny Cash The Gift

    YouTube Originals has produced a documentary about Johnny Cash called, The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (2019). Director Thom Zimny — who also made Elvis Presley: The Searcher and Springsteen on Broadway, tells the story of the Man in Black. The title is inspired for a term Cash’s mother used to describe Cash’s voice, “the gift.”

    With cooperation from Cash’s estate, Zimny uses archival footage, home movies, and audio interviews to help tell the story. The film focuses on major invents in Cash’s life, such as the death of his brother as a child and the singer’s Folsom Prison concert.

    The documentary is currently streaming for free on YouTube. Check it out in its entirety below.

    What do you think of The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Is Kris Kristofferson’s Greatest Song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”?
  • Clarence Ashley: “The Cuckoo” & “Little Sadie”
  • Rosanne Cash Takes a Stand With “Crawl Into the Promised Land”
  • Louis Armstrong and Jimmie Rodgers: “Blue Yodel 9” (Duet of the Day)
  • Sheryl Crow & Johnny Cash: “Redemption Day”
  • Burl Ives & Johnny Cash
    • ( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

     

    Buy from Amazon

    Louis Armstrong and Jimmie Rodgers: “Blue Yodel 9” (Duet of the Day)

    On July 16, 1930, two of the great forefathers of American music met in a Los Angeles recording studio. Louis Armstrong, the great jazz and blues man — and probably America’s greatest contributor to music, had been hired to back up the “Father of Country Music” Jimmie Rodgers on “Blue Yodel 9 (Standing on the Corner).”

    History does not record how the two men came to record this song together. Armstrong and his wife Lillian, who played piano on the recording, had recently moved to California. Armstrong was signed to a different record company (Okeh) than where they were recording at Victor.

    Some have guessed that the two legends must have somehow ran into each other, or that Rodgers proposed the meeting. On “Blue Yodel 9,” Rodgers included some lyrics he took from Nolan Walsh’s 1926 blues recording of “The Bridewell Blues.” And, in addition to the lyrics, Rodgers must have liked the trumpet accompaniment on Walsh’s song, played by Louis Armstrong.

    Unfortunately, Armstrong did not get to sing, but he played his trumpet. Armstrong and Rodgers would never get to record together again, as Rodgers died from tuberculosis in 1933. But they made a great record, and there may have never been a greater teaming of two artists in American music history.

    Although Rodgers and Armstrong never got to combine their vast talents again, Armstrong did later get the chance to return to “Blue Yodel 9” with another country music legend. In the fall of 1970, he appeared on Johnny Cash’s variety show on ABC. During the show, the two men performed the song.

    At the time, Armstrong was not in good health (he would die on July 6, 1971). And his doctors had told him not to play his trumpet. But he did anyway, and this time he got to throw in some vocal riffs with Cash’s yodels. Not surprisingly, Armstrong got a standing ovation. It was awesome.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • Willie and Merle Are “Missing Ol’ Johnny Cash”
  • Is Kris Kristofferson’s Greatest Song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”?
  • Clarence Ashley: “The Cuckoo” & “Little Sadie”
  • Rosanne Cash Takes a Stand With “Crawl Into the Promised Land”
  • The World Needs a Little Louis Armstrong Right About Now
  • Johnny Cash’s Journey and “The Gift”
    • ( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)