Sunday, November 22, 2009

Shel Shock

Stained glass window from the Chapel of St Etienne in Paris showing a unicorn in Noah's ark
Thanks to Peter Sieruta over at Collecting Children's Books, I just found out that the words to Johnny Cash's song "A Boy Named Sue" were written by Shel Silverstein.

Silverstein also wrote the lyrics to that silly song "The Unicorn" by the Irish Rovers ("Some humpty backed camels and your chimpanzees, Some cats and rats and elephants...") as well as the one called "On the Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show.

Sheesh. It's amazing how many pieces of trivia have never found their way into my head. How can it be so full when important facts like these are not included?
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Here's one of my favorite earlier posts that's tangentially related to "A Boy Named Sue."

1 comment:

Susan Nagel said...

I grew up reading Shel Silverstein and singing that unicorn song...oh, gads...now it is stuck in my head!