Album · 1964
Bitter Tears
by Johnny Cash
Bitter Tears is an album by Johnny Cash, released in 1964 on Columbia, with 8 tracks.
- 8
- Tracks
- 32 min
- Runtime
Not yet rated — be the first
Album · 1964
by Johnny Cash
Bitter Tears is an album by Johnny Cash, released in 1964 on Columbia, with 8 tracks.
Not yet rated — be the first
8 tracks · 32 min
Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian is a concept album and twentieth album released by country singer Johnny Cash in 1964 on Columbia Records. It is one of several Americana records by Cash; as its title implies, the tracks on the album focus exclusively on the history of and problems facing Native Americans in the United States. Cash had been convinced that his ancestry included members of the Cherokee tribe, and this partly served as inspiration for recording Bitter Tears, but later on as he began researching his ancestry, he actually had no Cherokee ancestry, but Scottish, English, and Scots-Irish ancestry. Throughout the album, Cash concentrates on the harsh and unfair treatment of the indigenous peoples of North America. The songs were written in part by Cash himself and in part by Peter La Farge, with the final track credited to Cash and Johnny Horton. The first song, "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow", concerns the loss of Seneca nation land in Pennsylvania due to the construction of the Kinzua Dam in the early 1960s. Cash rerecorded it decades later and released it on Unearthed with the lyrics altered to describe his relationship with and devotion to June Carter Ca…