Wide Open Road (Johnny Cash song) explained

Wide Open Road
Type:single
Artist:Johnny Cash
Album:Original Sun Sound of Johnny Cash
B-Side:"Belshazah"
Released:1964
Recorded:1955
Genre:
Length:2:33
Label:Sun

"Wide Open Road" is a song written by Johnny Cash.[1] It became the first song he recorded for Sun Records.[2] [3] [4]

Recorded by Cash in early 1955,[5] [6] it wasn't released as a single until 1964,[7] years after his move to Columbia. (That year Sun included the unpublished songs "Belshazah" and "Wide Open Road" on the album Original Sun Sound of Johnny Cash and also released them as two sides of the only single off it.)

Composition

Cash wrote this song while serving in the U.S. Army in Germany.[8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

It is a song about a lovers' quarrel.[13] It is one of those songs in which Cash "chases his roaming [woman] of waits for [her] to return, all while feeling a sense of dislocation and identity trouble because of the woman's departure". Other examples include "Big River", "So Doggone Lonesome", "Port of Lonely Hearts", "Don't Make Me Go", "Next in Line", "There You Go", "Two-Timing Woman".[14]

John M. Alexander writes in his book The Man in Song: A Discographic Biography of Johnny Cash,

According to AllMusic, this early song "shows the singer still under influence of Hank Williams". It is also "a rarity in featuring the steel guitar of A.W. 'Red' Kernodle, who left the group [The Tennessee Three] shortly afterwards."[15] [16] [17]

Cash recollected:

Track listing

The opposite side of the single is another song written by Cash himself, "Belshazah".[18] As AllMusic states, that gospel song was "an unusual inclusion in that [Cash's] producer, Sam Phillips, usually recorded only the performer's secular material."[20]

Covers

The song has been covered by a number of artists including The Little Willies.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Millard, Bob . Country Music . 1999-09-30 . Da Capo Press . 978-0-306-80903-3 . en.
  2. Book: LIFE Unseen: Johnny Cash: An Illustrated Biography With Rare and Never-Before-Seen Photographs from the Archives of Sony Music Entertainment . 2013-08-13 . Time Home Entertainment . 978-1-60320-492-7 . en.
  3. Book: Miller, Stephen . CAMION BLANC: JOHNNY CASH Une icone américaine . CAMION BLANC . 978-2-35779-462-7 . fr.
  4. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Johnny_Cash/6NJKDgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&pg=PT70&printsec=frontcover<br />https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Golden_Age_of_Rock_N_Roll/AZSeU_rmdxYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&pg=PA72&printsec=frontcover
    https://www.google.com/books/edition/Johnny_Cash_FAQ/-NCGDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&pg=PT42&printsec=frontcover
  5. Book: Hall . Dennis R. . American Icons [3 volumes]

    An Encyclopedia of the People, Places, and Things that Have Shaped Our Culture [3 volumes] ]

    . Hall . Susan Grove . 2006-06-30 . Bloomsbury Publishing USA . 978-0-313-02767-3 . en.
  6. Book: Dobler, Franz . The Beast in Me. Johnny Cash: ... und die seltsame und schöne Welt der Countrymusik . 2021-11-09 . Heyne Verlag . 978-3-641-28282-0 . de.
  7. Web site: Cover versions of Wide Open Road by Johnny Cash. SecondHandSongs. 2022-05-05.
  8. Book: Gigliotti . Jim . Who Was Johnny Cash? . HQ . Who . 2022-06-07 . Penguin . 978-0-399-54417-0 . en.
  9. Book: Guralnick, Peter . Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll . 2015-11-12 . Orion . 978-0-297-85654-2 . en.
  10. Book: Miller, Stephen . Johnny Cash: Das Leben Einer Amerikanischen Ikone . 2010-04-09 . Bosworth Music . 978-0-85712-277-3 . en.
  11. Book: Hilburn, Robert . Johnny Cash - et liv . 2016 . Klim . 978-87-7129-859-8 . da.
  12. Book: Johnny Cash - Google Books. 31 October 2013 . Orion . 978-0-297-86658-9 . There was also “Wide Open Road,” the song John had written, or at least started, in Germany with Hank Snow in mind. John's brother Roy thought “Wide Open Road” was John's best song yet, but John himself wasn't so sure. He thought it was pretty standard country stuff, but it was pretty standard country stuff, but in the early months of 1955 Sam had seemed at least a little interested in it, so ....
  13. Book: Johnny Cash: Story und Songs kompakt - Google Books. 3 June 2010 . Bosworth Music . 978-0-85712-337-4 .
  14. Book: Edwards, Leigh H. . Johnny Cash and the Paradox of American Identity . 2009-02-25 . Indiana University Press . 978-0-253-22061-5 . en.
  15. Web site: Johnny Cash - The Original Sun Sound of Johnny Cash [Bonus Tracks]]. AllMusic. 2023-11-19.
  16. Book: Rolling Stone . Cash: A Tribute to Johnny Cash . 2010-04-27 . Ebury Publishing . 978-0-7535-3465-6 . en.
  17. Book: JEMF Quarterly - Google Books. 1973 . John Edwards Memorial Foundation . "Wide Open Road" : The cuts used on the original Sun releases Su 392 and SLP-1275 and on the Sun International single release SUN-58 use a steel guitar ....
  18. Book: Sheehy . Colleen Josephine . Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan's Road from Minnesota to the World . Swiss . Thomas . 2009 . U of Minnesota Press . 978-0-8166-6099-5 . en.
  19. [18]
  20. Web site: Johnny Cash - Wide Open Road / Belshazah. Discogs. 2023-11-19.
  21. 7" single (Sun 392, 1964)
    1. "Wide Open Road" (2:30)
    2. "Belshazah" (2:21)[20]
  22. https://books.google.com/books?id=0iAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX46vAic-CAxWxJhAIHecmD7U4ChDoAXoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Wide%20Open%20Road%22%20%22Johnny%20Cash%22&f=false<br />https://books.google.ru/books?id=U0UEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX46vAic-CAxWxJhAIHecmD7U4ChDoAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Wide%20Open%20Road%22%20%22Johnny%20Cash%22&f=false
    https://books.google.ru/books?id=h0UEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX46vAic-CAxWxJhAIHecmD7U4ChDoAXoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Wide%20Open%20Road%22%20%22Johnny%20Cash%22&f=false
    https://books.google.ru/books?id=bkUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA36&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX46vAic-CAxWxJhAIHecmD7U4ChDoAXoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Wide%20Open%20Road%22%20%22Johnny%20Cash%22&f=false
    https://books.google.ru/books?id=rUUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjA_oLPic-CAxWEKRAIHRqaBXo4FBDoAXoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Wide%20Open%20Road%22%20%22Johnny%20Cash%22&f=false
    https://books.google.ru/books?id=Y0UEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA28&dq=%22Wide+Open+Road%22+%22Johnny+Cash%22&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj31fbeic-CAxXXDhAIHWqaAX44HhDoAXoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Wide%20Open%20Road%22%20%22Johnny%20Cash%22&f=false

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