Wednesday, August 19, 2015

1965: Wer Kennt Den Weg


   In 1965 Johnny Cash recorded his 1956 #1 country single "I Walk The Line" in German. Fifteen years earlier, Cash was assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the U.S. Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, Germany as a Morse Code Intercept Operator for Soviet Army transmissions. While his friends headed to downtown bars to pick up women, he'd often stay at the barracks playing his guitar and dreaming of the day he'd become a country music star. 

    In 1965, the same year The Beatles recorded some of their songs in German, Cash tackled his old hit.


  With his customary twang, Cash delivered the lines:  Am allerschönsten war es doch zu Haus/ Und doch zog's mich einst in die Welt hinaus /Und in der Ferne suchte ich mein Glück /Wer kennt den Weg, den Weg zurück?

  And you know what? Country music doesn't sound half bad in German.

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