Johnny Cash - Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian

All roads lead here. We've covered 3 Johnny Cash albums so far, 2 of which were in this trilogy of episodes (as well as some not so tame references in other episodes). We have one more Johnny Cash deep dive to get to, but before we get to his American Series, we have to get to his original "controversial" album about the Native Americans. Bitter Tears was released to mixed reviews in 1964, with sales for the album following his previous album trends, but without the airplay he was used to getting. This is the man the wrote "Ring of Fire"!! Cash had sang about Native American issues before, but this time it had a sense of urgency since it was calling out the then CURRENT displacement of the Seneca people. Between 1960 and 1964, Congress and JFK's administration determined that they be moved from the land promised to them by George Washington (in one of our oldest treaties)--in order to make way for a dam... A dam which eventually caused flooding and damage to their NEW homes as well. It was a true tragedy happening right in front of America's eyes and, as usual, they didn't want to acknowledge it. Although the album didn't get the play at the time it deserved, it has become recognized as one of his best works.

Episode Links:

We're Still Here: Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears Revisited (documentary): https://youtu.be/6swIYZL1tc0?si=EdR-jCeHsdEL9ai9

Johnny Cash's open letter to Billboard: https://www.johnnycash.com/photo/johnny-cash-the-ballad-of-ira-hayes-open-letter/

Joey Clift's new book "We've Been Here the Whole Time": https://www.joeyclift.com/book

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