A Boy Named Sue

video File:Placeholder
<templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"></templatestyles><templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"></templatestyles><templatestyles src="Module:Infobox/styles.css"></templatestyles>

* Country
* rockabilly
* talking blues
* comedy

<templatestyles src="Hlist/styles.css"></templatestyles><templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"></templatestyles><templatestyles src="Module:Infobox/styles.css"></templatestyles>

"**A Boy Named Sue**" is a song written by Shel Silverstein that was made popular by Johnny Cash. Cash was at the height of his success when he recorded the song live at California's San Quentin State Prison at a concert on February 24, 1969. The concert was filmed by Granada Television for later television broadcast; Carl Perkins played guitar on the performance. The audio of the concert was later released on Cash's *At San Quentin* album. Cash also performed the song (with comical variations on the original performance) in December 1969 at Madison Square Garden. The song became Cash's biggest hit on the *Billboard* Hot 100 chart and his only top ten single there, spending three weeks at No. 2 in 1969, held out of the top spot by "Honky Tonk Women" by The Rolling Stones. The track also topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts that same year and was certified Gold on August 14, 1969, by the RIAA.

Shel Silverstein's recording was released the same year as "Boy Named Sue", a single to the album *Boy Named Sue (and His Other Country Songs)*, produced by Chet Atkins and Felton Jarvis.

## Plot

The song tells the tale of a young man's quest for revenge on a father who abandoned him at three years of age and whose only contribution to his entire life was naming him Sue, commonly a feminine name, which results in the young man suffering from ridicule and harassment by everyone he meets in his travels. Because of this, Sue grows up tough, mean and smartens up very quickly, though he frequently relocates due to the shame his name gives him. Angered by the embarrassment and abuse that he endures in his life, he swears that he will find and kill his father for giving him "that awful name".

Sue later locates his father at a tavern in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, during the middle of a summer season, and confronts him by saying, "My name is Sue! How do you do? Now you're gonna die!" This results in a vicious brawl that spills outdoors into a muddy street. After the two have beaten each other almost senseless, Sue's father admits that he is the "heartless hound"[*citation needed*] ("son of a bitch" in the Johnny Cash version) that named him Sue and explains that the name was given as an act of love. Because Sue's father knew that he would not be there for his son, he gave him the name, believing (correctly) that the ensuing ridicule would force him to "get tough or die." Learning this, Sue makes peace with his father and they reconcile. With his lesson learned, Sue closes the song with a promise to name his son "Bill or George, anything but Sue."

## Structure

The song has an unusual A-A-B-C-C-B rhyme scheme, broken only to mark the midpoint and ending. The song is performed mostly in the speech-like style of talking blues rather than conventional singing.

## Censorship

The term "son of a bitch" in the line "I'm the son of a bitch that named you Sue!" was censored in the Johnny Cash version both on single and the *At San Quentin* album, and the final line was also edited to remove the word "damn". Both the edited and unedited versions are available on various albums and compilations. The term "son of a bitch" was edited to "son of a gun" or altogether bleeped out in some versions. When performing the song live in later performances (such as in April 1970 at the White House and in 1994 at the Glastonbury Festival, for example), Cash would himself utter a bleep-censor sound in lieu of the word. The unedited version of the original San Quentin performance is included on later reissues of the *At San Quentin* album and on Cash's posthumous *The Legend of Johnny Cash* album. Silverstein, for his part, does not utter any profanity in his original version, with Sue's father instead identifying himself as the "heartless hound" that named him Sue.

## Inspiration

The core story of the song was inspired by humorist Jean Shepherd, a close friend of Shel Silverstein, who was often taunted as a child because of his feminine-sounding name.

The title might also have been inspired by the male attorney Sue K. Hicks of Madisonville, Tennessee, a friend of John Scopes who agreed to be a prosecutor in what was to become known as the "Scopes Monkey Trial". Hicks was named after his mother who died after giving birth to him.

In his autobiography, Cash wrote that he had just received the song and only read over it a couple of times. It was included in that concert to try it out—he did not know the words and on the filmed recording he can be seen regularly referring to a piece of paper. Cash was surprised at how well the song went over with the audience. The rough, spontaneous performance with sparse accompaniment was included in the *Johnny Cash At San Quentin* album, ultimately becoming one of Cash's biggest hits. According to Cash biographer Robert Hilburn, neither the British TV crew filming the concert nor his band knew he planned to perform the song; he used a lyric sheet on stage while Perkins and the band improvised the backing on the spot. While another song, "San Quentin", was expected to be the major new song featured in the concert and subsequent album (so much so the album includes two performances of "San Quentin"), "A Boy Named Sue" ended up being the concert's major find.

Cash also performed it on his own musical variety show, ending the song with the line, "And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him...John Carter Cash", referencing to his newborn son. Cash also performed this variant at the White House in April 1970; in later years, however, he would restore the original "any name but Sue" ending, but change the wording to "if I ever have another son".

According to Shel Silverstein's biographer Mitch Myers, it was June Carter Cash who encouraged her husband to perform the song. Silverstein introduced it to them at what they called a "Guitar Pull," where musicians would pass a guitar around and play their songs.

Silverstein later wrote a follow-up named "The Father of a Boy Named Sue" on his 1978 *Songs and Stories* in which he tells the old man's point of view of the story. The only known recording of the song by a major artist is by Shel Silverstein himself. Various cover artists have covered this song since then.

## Impact on popular culture

MAD Magazine issue No. 137 (September 1970) included a parody titled *A Boy Dog Named Lassie*, based on the fact that the *Lassie* movies and TV series employed male Collies in the female title role.

On an episode of *The Partridge Family*, a part Native American character introduces himself as "Sioux" causing a reaction from the family members, "A boy name Sioux?"

The gender-bending implications of the title have been adapted to explore issues of sex and gender, another use of the popular song title that goes beyond its original scope. The 2001 documentary *A Boy Named Sue* features a transgender protagonist and uses the song in the soundtrack. *A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music* is the title of a 2004 book about the role of the gender in American country music.

In the film *Swingers*, one of the male characters is named Sue. The name is explained by another character by saying, "his dad was a big Johnny Cash fan."

"A Boy Named Sue" is referenced in the Red Hot Chili Peppers songs "One Big Mob" and "Save This Lady."

In the *Dexter's Laboratory* episode '"A Boy Named Sue", Mandark recalls through his infancy and early childhood when his Hippy parents named him Susan and how he discovered his manhood by science.

The Stone Temple Pilots' song "Crackerman" references "A Boy Named Sue" in the second verse.

Wyrd Miniatures a hobby company, produces a male Outcast model named Sue for their Malifaux miniature skirmish game.

Chad Stokes Urmston references "A Boy Named Sue" in his 2014 song "Our Lives, Our Time". He sings: "At least we got our bodies, we all a boy named Sue".

The *Naked City* episode "The One Marked Hot Gives Cold" from 1962 has a plot similar to "A Boy Named Sue". The orphan character's name is L. Frank Childe. ('Love Childe') When he finds his father, the father tells him, "If you think about it, I made you independent son. I made you strong."

## References

1. ↑ *Boy Named Sue (and His Other Country Songs)* at Discogs (1969 Shel Silverstein album)
2. ↑ "Shel Silverstein Discography". *Dmdb.org*. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
3. ↑ *A Boy Named Sue*, YouTube.com
4. ↑ Bergmann, Eugene B.: *Excelsior, You Fathead! The Art and Enigma of Jean Shepherd*, 2005.
5. ↑ "Johnny Cash Is Indebted to a Judge Named Sue". *The New York Times*, July 12, 1970, p. 66.
6. ↑ Cash, Johnny: *Cash: The Autobiography*, 1997
7. ↑ Robert Hilburn, *Johnny Cash: The Life* (New York: Little, Brown, 2013), p. 353-355;363
8. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). *The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition*. Record Research. p. 75.
9. ↑ "Johnny Cash Chart History (Hot 100)". *Billboard*.
10. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). *Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001*. Record Research. p. 49.
11. ↑ http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s\_files/19690906.html
12. ↑ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?brws\_s=1&file\_num=nlc008388.6104&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=mhe12pta2k83e08udtq66ot062
13. ↑ Musicoutfitters.com
14. ↑ Top Records on 1969 (Based on Billboard Charts)", *Billboard*, December 27, 1969. pp. 16-17. Accessed December 7, 2016.
15. ↑ http://tropicalglen.com/Archives/60s\_files/1969YESP.html
16. ↑ Kristine M. McCusker, Diane Pecknold (2004) *A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music*, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 1-57806-678-6

Template:Johnny Cash
Template:Shel Silverstein