In listening to the Johnny Cash CD that I gave Mickelle for Christmas, I've developed an affinity for this song, and as I've listened more closely to the lyrics, I find them a little odd. So, ignoring authorial intention, I will examine the lyrics via hermeneutics.
Here are the lyrics with my comments in italics:
I was totin' my pack along the long dusty Winnemucca road (we have the anti-hero figure of the drifter on a road in Nevada trying to hitchhike. The defenite article "the" means that the listener can pinpoint the exact road to Winnemucca of which the song speaks)
When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load (Again, the high-plains-drifter motif. The semi driver is the modern-day stagecoach driver, the modern cowboy)
If you're goin' to Winnemucca, Mac, with me you can ride (The driver offers travel to Winnemucca. Mac, aside from being my name, is a common term for an unknown individual. Similar terms are dude, bro, buddy, or partner. This means that he has not offered his name, something that someone on the lam would not do.)
And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside (not much here)
He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand (the question begins, since the desert weather is the same day-in day-out they begin talking about the boring landscape of the desert west. The implicit complaint is that there is only dirt and sand in the area and the question implied is "who would want to live here?")
And I said, 'Listen! I've traveled every road in this here land' (The self-aggrandizing drifter replies, that he has truly been everywhere and there is nothing new that he hasn't seen before)
I've been everywhere, man (He claims to have been everywhere, man)
I've been everywhere, man (Yeah, you just told us that)
Crossed the deserts bare, man (Okay)
I've breathed the mountain air, man (okay)
Travel...I've had my share, man (But why has he been traveling. Later lyrics point to a more sinister reason for his drifting. He doesn't drift because he can, man, but because he has to, as we shall see)
I've been everywhere (again, we got it)
I've been to
Reno (Where he shot a man, just to watch him die, as we learn from the Folsom Prison song. It's odd that he would mention Reno first given the ties between the other song, it's importance in his oeuvre, and the obvious primacy of the notion that the criminal always returns to the scene of his crime. He goes to Reno first in his list, because it is what caused him to drift in the first place. He shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die).
Chicago
Fargo
Minnesota
Buffalo
Toronto
Winslow
Sarasota
Wichita
Tulsa
Ottawa
Oklahoma
Tampa
Panama
Mattua
La Paloma
Bangor
Baltimore
Salvador
Amarillo
Tocapillo
Pocotello
Amperdello
I'm a killer (Hidden here at the end of all the cities he has visited, we see the rhyming confession, "I'm a killer"; in this otherwise fun song, we have a dark, ominous threat against the driver, against the listener even. )
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere
I've been to:
Boston
Charleston
Dayton
Lousiana
Washington
Houston
Kingston
Texarkana
Monterey
Fairaday
Santa Fe
Tollaperson
Glen Rock
Black Rock
Little Rock
Oskaloussa
Tennessee
Tinnesay
Chickapee
Spirit Lake
Grand Lake
Devil's Lake
Crater Lake
For Pete's sake
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere
I've been to
Louisville
Nashville
Knoxville
Omerback
Shereville
Jacksonville
Waterville
Costa Rock
Richfield
Springfield
Bakersfield
Shreveport
Hackensack
Cadallac
Fond du Lac
Davenport
Idaho
Jellico
Argentina
Diamondtina
Pasadena
Catalina
See what I mean
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere
I've been to
Pittsburgh
Parkersburg
Gravelburg
Colorado
Ellisburg
Rexburg
Vicksburg
El Dorado
Larimore
Adimore
Habastock
Chadanocka
Shasta
Nebraska
Alaska
Opalacka
Baraboo
Waterloo
Kalamazoo
Kansas City
Sioux City
Cedar City
Dodge City
What a pity (and here at the end, we have "what a pity". A pity that he has been all over running from the law, from his demons. It is a pity that one man would have had to have drifted so much. The all-seeing eye of the Great Other still sees him wherever he goes, and he has flees in vain, knowing that he will eventually be caught and face judgement.)
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel...I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere
This song is deeper than it seems.
8 comments:
Mac (as in "dude"), I'm sorry you're bored. It might have been interesting to tell us where all these places are located, cuz some of them, I just don't know where they are.
Oh, BTW... Cash is king.
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I see you like Johnny Cash, as do I. Just one small problem here, besides the slight errors in the lyrics.
"The song "I've Been Everywhere" was written by Geoff Mack in 1959 and made popular by the singer Lucky Starr in 1962.
The song (as originally written) listed Australian towns. It was later adapted by Hank Snow for North American (predominantly United States) place names and by John Hore (later known as John Grenell) with New Zealand place names (1966).
The song was a number 1 hit in Country Music in November 1962 in the United States for the recording artist Hank Snow.[1] The song was also recorded by Lynn Anderson (USA 1970), Asleep At The Wheel (USA 1973), Johnny Cash (USA 1996),...." - quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I've_Been_Everywhere
It just HAD to be pointed out by somebody. Hank Snow wrote the American road names, which is why he is credited in the insert for the CD album "The Legend Of Johnny Cash(Geoff Mack is Credited also, in the back, with the song list). Also from that insert - "1994s American Recordings album set the tone, mixing new tunes with traditional fare like "Delia's Gone." To Cash, a good song was simply a good song, regardless of who wrote it...." - Rich Kienzle
So, although it MAY be true, that the man in the song was running (he may have just been a serial killer who hadn't been caught), it was nothing more than coincidence that Reno was mentioned in a Johnny cash song 3 years BEFORE "I've been Everywhere" was written by Geoff Mack - just sayin'
Also from the wiki, which will help explain some of the hard to find road names - "Geoff Mack's music publisher offered the song to Canadian-born country musician Hank Snow in 1962. Snow thought the song had potential for the Canadian and American markets, but only if the place names were adapted to North America. At his publisher's urging, Geoff Mack consequently re-wrote the song using a North American atlas supplied to him by the publisher. The North American version starts: I was totin' my pack along the dusty Winnemucca road. Below are the places mentioned in this version of the song, most of which are in North America, but a few of which are in Central and South America, e.g. Costa Rica and Argentina:
First verse
Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota,..." So you can see here, that Johnny cash did NOT place Reno at the beginning of the list.
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