Favorite Song Lyrics

2 Johnny Cash Songs

Ballad of Ira Hayes

Call him drunken Ira Hayes,
He won't answer anymore,
Not the whiskey drinking Indian,
Or the marine that went to war.
Gather 'round me people,
There's a story I would tell,
'Bout a brave young Indian,
You should remember well.
From the land of the Pima Indian,
A proud and noble band,
Who farmed the Pheonix Valley,
In Arizona land.

Ragged Old Flag.
"
I walked through a county courthouse square
On a park bench an old man was sitting there
I said, your old courthouse is kinda run down
He said, naw, it'll do for our little town
I said, your old flagpole has leaned a little bit
And that's a ragged old flag you got hanging on it

He said, have a seat, and I sat down
Is this the first time you've been to our little town?
I said, I think it is
He said, I don't like to brag
But we're kinda proud of that ragged old flag

You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when
Washington took it across the Delaware
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it writing say can you see
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seams
To the OP's original suggestion for only a stanza or line, next to hearing Billie Holiday's voice in my head singing,

Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth


the line I personally have the most visceral lyric-vocal reaction to is:

But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry.


Johnny Cash was the man. And to finish with Hurt? Just amazing.