Released
on October 26th, 1964, Johnny Cash's concept album, Bitter Tears:
Ballads of the American Indian, turns 60 years old today. Though some
of the language may be arcane by today's standards, the sentiments and
the purpose of the album remain significant in an age when first nations
peoples are still seeking justice and reconciliation for abuses they've
suffered at the hands of colonialists.
Cash
felt a particular kinship with first nations due to his belief that he
had Cherokee ancestry in his family. He was primarily of English and
Scottish descent, but his paternal grandmother claimed Cherokee
ancestry. However, a DNA test of Cash's daughter, Rosanne, in 2021 on
the program, Finding Your Roots, found she has no known Native American
markers. Regardless of genetic heritage, Cash's concern for and
appreciation of first nations people and culture was sincere and
heartfelt.
The 1960s was a time
of social awakening, with activism towards racial injustice being one of
the first frontiers of cultural revolution. With the folk scene
rapidly raising awareness within the pop music landscape, country music
stars like Cash were seeing an opportunity to deal with real issues,
effecting real change. Peter La Farge wrote five of the songs, two were
by Cash, and the final track was by Cash and Johnny Horton. The first
song, "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow", by La Farge, concerns the
contemporary loss of Seneca nation land in Pennsylvania and New York
(the Cornplanter Tract) due to condemnation for federal construction of
the Kinzua Dam in the early 1960s. "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", tells
about Ira Hayes, a young Marine of Pima descent, who participated in the
flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II. After becoming an instant
celebrity because of the iconic photo of this event, Hayes struggled
with life in the postwar years. He returned to his native Gila River
Reservation, where the government had built a dam that diverted critical
water supply. Hayes died of alcoholism and in poverty. La Farge's song
"Custer" mocks the popular veneration of General George Custer. He was
overwhelmingly defeated, in part due to his own errors, by Lakota
warriors at Little Big Horn. "The Talking Leaves" is about Sequoyah
inventing written words in 1821, which increased Cherokee literacy.
At
the time of the album's release, public sentiment towards native
peoples was mostly ambivalent or actively opposed to indulging their
concerns. "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" was released as the sole single
from the album, reaching #2 on the country singles chart, while the
album reached #2 on the country chart and #47 on the pop chart. But
initial success for these was soon dampened as radio stations refused to
play the songs and record buyers began to turn away from Cash's social
activism. Facing censorship and an angry backlash from radio stations,
DJs and fans for speaking out on behalf of Native people, Cash decided
to fight back. He paid for a full-page ad that appeared in the August
22nd, 1964, issue of Billboard magazine, calling some DJs and
programmers "gutless" for not playing the Ira Hayes song, and asking why
they were afraid to do so. He left the question unanswered. Cash began
a campaign to support the single by buying and sending out more than
1,000 copies to radio stations across America. By September 19, the song
had reached number 3 in Billboard. In 2010, the Western Writers of
America chose "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" as one of the Top 100 Western
songs of all time.
This would not
be the first time Cash would court controversy. He would frequently
tackle social issues in his music, most famously using an invitation
from President Nixon to perform at the White House in 1970 to play his
song, "What Is Truth", a tune specifically aimed at supporting the young
"hippie" generation of so-called "long-haired weirdos". Its sentiments
of acceptance and understanding of the young generation were anathema
to Nixon's stance, and the evening went down in history as notorious for
its statement against authority.
Bitter
Tears may suffer somewhat in that its use of certain terms has become
archaic in modern times, but the sincere concerns for the abuses
suffered by first nations people is without question.
