A boy named Sue

My daddy left home when I was three And he didn't leave much to ma and me Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid But the meanest thing that he ever did Was before he left, he went and named me Sue Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk It seems I had to fight my whole life through Some gal would giggle and I'd get red And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head, I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean My fist got hard and my wits got keen I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame But I made a vow to the moon and stars That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars And kill that man who gave me that awful name Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July And I just hit town and my throat was dry I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew At an old saloon on a street of mud There at a table, dealing stud Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me Sue Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye He was big and bent and gray and old And I looked at him and my blood ran cold And I said, "My name is Sue, how do you do Now you're gonna die" Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes And he went down, but to my surprise He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear But I busted a chair right across his teeth And we crashed through the wall and into the street Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer I tell ya, I've fought tougher men But I really can't remember when He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss He went for his gun and I pulled mine first He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile And he said, "Son, this world is rough And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along So I give ya that name and I said goodbye I knew you'd have to get tough or die And it's the name that helped to make you strong" He said, "Now you just fought one hell of a fight And I know you hate me, and you got the right To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do But ya ought to thank me, before I die For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye 'Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you Sue" I got all choked up and I threw down my gun And I called him my paw, and he called me his son And I came away with a different point of view And I think about him, now and then Every time I try and every time I win And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name himâ?¦ Bill or George! Anything but Sue! 【三岁时我那丧良心的爹抛弃我们娘俩走了，没留下什么有用的东西，除了我这个娘娘腔的名字--Sue。生活本就不易，对于一个叫Sue的男孩儿尤甚，因为这个名字我被同龄人狠狠的歧视嘲笑，为了躲避侮辱我搬来搬去。我发誓有生之年一定要找到那个给我起名Sue的狗年养的，亲手宰了他。皇天不负有心人，一个夏天，我终于在一个酒馆找到了他-- 一个脸上带疤， 壮如骡子的渣男。 我走到他面前，报了身份：My name is Sue! How do you do? Now you're gonna die! 之后我们就大打出手。我狠狠地揍了他的狗眼，没想到他抓起刀，割了我的耳朵，我又顺手抄起椅子朝他狗牙砸去…我们从屋里打到屋外，在混合着污血和啤酒的泥里又抠又踹。最后打到筋疲力尽，他掏出了抢，不过我先他一步扣响了扳机…… 他喘着粗气，笑了，对我说：儿子，抱歉，我是给你起名Sue的那个狗娘养的，你恨我是应该的，你杀了我我也不怪你，但临死前我要跟你说明白，这个世界是残酷的，要想立足你就得变得强大，Sue这个名字让你的生活变得十分艰难，但也让你变得像今天这么强大！你得感谢我，因为这个名字是我给你的！ 我一下子哭了，手里的枪不自觉地掉落，我扑上去抱住他，大声叫着：爹啊，你真是我亲爹啊！ 在以后的日子里每当我咬牙坚持取得成功时，我都会想起给我起名Sue的父亲。有时我也想过要是有了儿子，我会给他起个什么名字，Bill or George! Anything but Sue!】 1969年，Johnny Cash在圣昆汀监狱办了一场免费演唱会（之前他还在Folsom监狱办过一场），听众自然是在押犯还有监狱守卫。从歌里想象出的现场情景是这样的：台下一群囚犯穿着带编号的衣服规规矩矩的坐着，台上Cash穿着猫王式的衣服，卖力又潇洒地唱，每唱到精彩处都会响起一阵并不整齐但和歌词搭配十分和谐的叫好声。演唱会上的歌曲后来被录制成专辑At San Quentin发行，听到的这首A boy named Sue就出自这一专辑，也是Cash首次公开演唱这首歌。 为了配合情绪，Cash在演唱时加了一些脏词，如son of a bitch（原词为heartless hound），damn， 在正式发行时，这些脏词都被用"哔"声处理掉了。在现场演唱时，有时Johnny Cash也会十分讽刺的用"哔"声代替脏话。 基本上每个现场版本的结尾歌词都不相同，在圣昆汀是"Bill or George, any damn thing but Sue! I still hate that name!"，在他自己的电视秀上是"And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him...John Carter Cash"，有了孩子以后又变成"if I ever have another son" 歌曲作者是多才多艺的谢尔·希尔弗斯坦（Shel Silverstein），漫画家，诗人，作曲家，歌手，国内十分出名的《失落的一角》，《爱心树》就是他的作品。 除了A boy named Sue，希尔弗斯坦还以Sue父亲的角度写过一首歌，名为Father Of A Boy Named Sue，内容和A boy named Sue大相径庭：Sue和他的名字一样成了娘娘腔，也是一见面就打他爹，但不是用拳头，而是用钱包，用香水，用长长的指甲，用尖尖的高跟鞋，他十分在意形象，打斗升级的原因是他爹把他头发弄乱了……而他爹给他起名Sue只是因为年轻时责任感太差，而希望Sue这个名字能让他坚强则完全是枪口下的急中生智... (Okay now years ago I wrote a song called A Boy Named Sue and that was okay And everything except then I started to think about it and I thought It is unfair I am looking at the whole thing from the poor kid's point of view And as I get more older and more fatherly I begin to look at things from an old man's point of view So I decided to give the old man equal time okay here we go) Yeah I lef' home when the kid was three and it sure felt good to be fancy free Tho I knew it wasn't quite the fatherly thing to do But that kid kept screamin' and throwin' up and pissin' in his pants til I had enough So just for revenge I went and named him Sue Yeah it was Gatlinberg in mid July I was gettin' drunk but gettin' by Gettin' old and goin' from bad to worse When thru the door with an awful scream comes the ugliest queen I've ever seen He says my name is Sue how do you do then he hits me with his purse Now this ain't the way he tells the tale but he scratched my face with his fingernails And then he bit my thumb and kicked me with his high-heeled shoe So I hit him in the nose and he started to cry and he threw some perfume in my eye And it sure ain't easy fightin' with a boy named Sue So I hit him in the head with a caned-back chair And he screamed hey dad you mussed my hair And he hit me in the navel and knocked out a piece of my lint He was spittin' blood I was spittin' teeth And we crashed through the wall and out into the street A kickin and gougin' in the mud and the blood and the creme de menth Then out of his garter he pulls a gun I'm about to get shot by my very own son He's screamin' bout Sigmond Freud and lookin' grim uh So I thought fast and I told him some stuff How I named him Sue just to make him tough And I guess he bought it 'cause now I'm livin' with him Yeah he cooks and sews and cleans up the place he cuts my hair and shaves my face And irons my shirts better than a daughter could do And on the nights that I can't score well I can't tell you anymore Sure is a joy to have a boy named Sue yeah a son is fun But it's a joy to have a boy named Sue 原文地址（多图）http://www.douban.com/note/503461312/