A Boy Named Sue!

    This song is very familiar to me. My dad listened to Johnny Cash all the time when I was growing up. I think this was his favorite song.
    The song "A Boy Named Sue," is a poem. Cash uses imagery to make us feel, see, smell and hear what he is singing about in the song. "At an old saloon on a street of mud, There at a table, dealing stud, Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Sue." A person can picture an old western town with muddy streets, you can hear people walking on the wooden sidewalks and the swinging doors to the saloon squeaking as you swing them open. Walking into the bar you see your dad sitting there gambling. You recognized him right away. Just like a abandoned dog is filthy, you see how dirty your father is, you can smell his stench. The son is disgusted with his father for the name he bestowed upon him. Cash goes on to describe his dad further saying, "And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye. He was big and bent and gray and old." The scar that is a distinguished mark of identification, a dead give away of who he is. The look of pure meanness in his face. You see this enormous aged man that shows signs of having led a rough and turbulent life. Someone who probably was a fighter, gambler and a heavy drinker.  "A Boy Named Sue," is a very descriptive piece of literature.