[ti:a boy named sue]
[ar:johnny cash]

[offset:500]
[00:16.55]my daddy left home when i was three
[00:18.71]and he didn’t leave much to ma and me
[00:21.02]just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
[00:25.70]now, i don’t blame him cause he run and hid
[00:28.17]but the meanest thing that he ever did
[00:30.25]was before he left, he went and named me ’sue.’
[00:34.10]
[00:36.43]well, he must o’ thought that is was quite a joke
[00:38.55]and it got a lot of laughs from a’ lots of folk,
[00:40.83]it seems i had to fight my whole life through.
[00:45.66]some gal would giggle and i’d get red
[00:47.97]and some guy’d laugh and i’d bust his head,
[00:50.49]i tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named ’sue.’
[00:54.44]
[00:57.72]well, i grew up quick and i grew up mean,
[01:00.03]my fist got hard and my wits got keen,
[01:02.35]i’d roam from town to town to hide my shame.
[01:07.01]but i made me a vow to the moon and stars
[01:09.43]that i’d search the honky-tonks and bars
[01:11.75]and kill that man that give me that awful name.
[01:15.11]
[01:16.34]well, it was gatlinburg in mid-july
[01:18.70]and i just hit town and my throat was dry,
[01:21.15]i thought i’d stop and have myself a brew.
[01:25.65]at an old saloon on a street of mud,
[01:28.13]there at a table, dealing stud,
[01:30.61]sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me ’sue.’
[01:34.60]
[01:35.11]well, i knew that snake was my own sweet dad
[01:37.62]from a worn-out picture that my mother’d had,
[01:39.86]and i knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
[01:44.42]he was big and bent and gray and old,
[01:46.88]and i looked at him and my blood ran cold
[01:49.25]and i said: "my name is ’sue!’ how do you do! now you gonna die!"
[01:55.74]
[02:00.75]well, i hit him hard right between the eyes
[02:03.15]and he went down but, to my surprise,
[02:05.68]he come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
[02:10.21]but i busted a chair right across his teeth
[02:12.49]and we crashed through the wall and into the street
[02:14.66]kicking and a’ gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.
[02:18.34]
[02:19.82]i tell ya, i’ve fought tougher men
[02:21.84]but i really can’t remember when,
[02:24.18]he kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
[02:28.93]i heard him laugh and then i heard him cuss,
[02:31.38]he went for his gun and i pulled mine first,
[02:34.11]he stood there lookin’ at me and i saw him smile.
[02:37.08]
[02:37.86]and he said: "son, this world is rough
[02:41.20]and if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
[02:43.90]and i know i wouldn’t be there to help ya along.
[02:48.25]so i give ya that name and i said good-bye
[02:50.67]i knew you’d have to get tough or die
[02:53.16]and it’s that name that helped to make you strong."
[02:56.60]
[02:59.00]he said: ’now you just fought one hell of a fight
[03:01.33]and i know you hate me, and you got the right
[03:03.61]to kill me now, and i wouldn’t blame you if you do.
[03:08.38]but ya ought to thank me, before i die,
[03:10.74]for the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
[03:13.36]cause i’m the son-of-a-bitch that named you ’sue’.’
[03:17.31]
[03:21.36]i got all choked up and i threw down my gun
[03:24.07]and i called him my pa, and he called me his son,
[03:26.32]and i come away with a different point of view.
[03:30.68]and i think about him, now and then,
[03:33.07]every time i try and every time i win,
[03:35.70]and if i ever have a son, i think i’m gonna name him
[03:40.79]bill or george! anything but sue! i still hate that name!