The “intentionally atrocious” Johnny Cash song that almost destroyed his career
Johnny Cash is an impeccable songwriter. He can inject his music with an attitude and a warmth that not many other musicians were ever able to, so grand in their construction that even tracks where it was just him and his guitar sounded like there was a whole band playing.
That being said, as well as being a prolific songwriter and performer, he was also quite funny, with a knack for injecting some of his songs with an element of humour. Consider the likes of ‘A Boy Named Sue’, written by Shel Silverstein but performed brilliantly by Cash. He could take the words of a famous satirist and deliver them with an heir of believability. The song became a go-to for Cash fans thanks to the track’s musical integrity and light-hearted nature.
This is an example of when humour in music can work well, and it’s not an anomaly either. Many songs, both old and new, have used humour to their advantage, whether that’s to make a point, to take the edge off something serious or because the singer just wanted to be funny. However, it doesn’t always work, as Johnny Cash found out with one of his tracks that nearly destroyed his career.
In 1984, the singer released a song called ‘The Chicken in Black’. From the jump, it sounds like a standard Cash track; there’s an upbeat country riff, quite jaunty in its execution, and the song wastes absolutely no time in getting to the lyrics, which are delivered with Cash’s iconic sounding voice. All appears well, but after the first couple of lines, you start to realise what the song’s story is… and it’s surprising.
Johnny Cash starts by singing from Johnny Cash’s point of view. He goes to his doctor, reporting headaches, and asks what might be causing them. After running some tests, the doctor comes back to Cash to inform him that the problem is his brain has outgrown his body, so they’re going to have to replace it with a new one. Luckily, a bank robber was shot and killed recently, so they can put the robber’s brain in Cash.
He agrees but finds shortly after the procedure that he has inherited the thoughts of the bank robber, which takes us to the chorus where the singer robs a bank and proclaims he’s no longer Johnny Cash but “The Manhattan Flash.” He takes everybody’s money and then starts robbing his friends as well. Eventually, it becomes too much, so he rings the doctor and asks for his brain back, but the doctor advises him his brain has gone.
Where? Well, he says that he has put the brain in a chicken who is now performing as Johnny Cash. The chicken has signed a 10-year record deal and is selling out arenas. The track ends with Cash (or The Manhattan Flash) saying people, “Ought to catch that Johnny Chicken show.”
Following the hostile reception of the track, Cash said that he had made it “Intentionally atrocious,” and it was pawed away as a poor attempt at writing a funny song. Whether or not there is more to it remains to be seen; no one has ever made much of an effort to read into the lyrics, but there are likely a number of theories that could be uncovered in the strange song. Until then, this is a track that few fans spend time pecking at.
