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Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue

At the first major antiwar rally in Washington in April 1965, Judy Collins sang Bob Dylan’s “The Times They are A-Changin,’” and Joan Baez led “We Shall Overcome,” the anthem of the civil rights movement. That year, Malvina Reynolds wrote and sang “Napalm” (1965), which contributed to the anti-napalm campaign. It began, “Lucy Baines [Johnson], did you ever see that napalm? Did you ever see a baby hit with napalm?” Tom Paxton highlighted President Johnson’s deceptions with his popular, catchy, sing-along, “Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation” (1965).

Heavy metal protest songs gave vent to emotion, the lyrics barely decipherable amidst the throbbing instrumental beat, but still carried the movement’s antiwar orientation into the mainstream culture. Jimmy Hendrix’s distorted, screaming guitar rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” (1968) was played, not as a patriotic anthem, but as a reflection of the violence done in the name of the flag. Commercial radio stations were generally averse to playing music with controversial lyrics, but the popularity of the antiwar movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s allowed for the airing of general antiwar themes. Among the hit songs were Edwin Starr’s “War!” (1969) and Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “Ohio” (1970), which captured the nation’s grief over the killing of students at Kent State, and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” (1971).
Source:  “Protest Music of the Vietnam War.” United States Foreign Policy History and Resource Guide website


Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue
  • From the album At San Quentin
  • Recorded February 24, 1969
  • Released July 2, 1969

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

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