For the 1964 album, see I Walk the Line (album). For the 1970 soundtrack album, see I Walk the Line (soundtrack album). For the movie, see Walk the Line

"I Walk the Line" is a song written by Johnny Cash and recorded in 1956. A 1970 movie of the same name, starring Gregory Peck, featured a soundtrack of Johnny Cash songs including the title song. In 2005 Walk the Line was produced starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, directed by James Mangold.

Song

The song is about Cash staying faithful to his wife at the time, Vivian despite being on the road:

I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you
Because you're mine/I walk the line

Cash scored his first number one hit with the song and it is the source of the title of the 2005 biopic Walk the Line (as well as the non-biographical 1970 movie mentioned above).

The song is very simple and like most Cash songs, the lyrics tell more of a story than the music conveys. (You've got a way to keep me on your side/You give me cause for love that I can't hide/For you I know I'd even try to turn the tide).

It is based upon the "boom-chicka-boom" or "freight train" rhythm common in many of Cash's songs. In the original recording of the song, there is a key change between each of the five verses, and Cash hums the new root note before singing each verse. The final verse is sung a full octave lower than the first verse. According to Cash, he loved the sound of a snare drum, but drums were not used on country music back then, so he placed a piece of paper in his guitar strings and created his own unique "snare drum". From that point onwards, at many concerts, Cash would tell the story and perform the song the same way.

The unique chord progression for the song was inspired by an accidental backwards playback on Cash's tape recorder while he was in the Air Force. Later, he wrote the lyrics in a backstage dressing room in Gladewater, Texas in 1955, after a discussion with fellow performer Carl Perkins encouraged him to adopt "I Walk the Line" as the song title. Cash originally intended the song as a slow ballad, but producer Sam Phillips preferred a faster arrangement, which Cash grew to like as the uptempo recording met with success.

Once while performing the song on his TV show, Cash told the audience, with a smile, "People ask me why I always hum whenever I sing this song. It's to get my pitch." The humming was necessary since the song required Cash to change keys several times while singing it.

The song was originally recorded at Sun Studio on April 2, 1956, and was released on May 1. It spent six weeks at the top spot on the U.S. country charts that summer, and also reached number 19 on the pop music charts.

In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #30 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.^[1]

In 2006 Levi Strauss & Co. commissioned three advertisements (called "Straight Line", directed by Tom Carty) using the song, featuring cover versions sung by Megan Wyler and Adem Ilhan.

Indie rock band Murder by Death released the song "Sometimes the Line Walks You" in 2006 as an homage both in name and style to Cash's work.

Notes

1. ^ The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. RollingStone.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.

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