Resurrection Jukebox 2015 Day 11

Johnny Cash recorded a lot of cover songs. The Beatles, Willie Nelson, Bob Marley, the Rolling Stones, U2, Depeche Mode, and Nine Inch Nails all provided songs for Cash to cover. It often surprises me the interest musicians and vocalists have in music from other genres. Country artists enjoy rap, and rockers are inspired by classical music. Perhaps I'm too set in my ways to find the connections there. Actually, I'm prejudiced against rap music. It's mysogynistic, crude, and violent. I often can't understand what being said. Theresa lot of slang, mumbling, and unfamiliar terms. It also trends toward percussion and bass, neither of which I want to hear an excess of. Of which I do not want to hear an excess?

Anyway, I didn't mean to rant about rap music. Instead, I'd like to present you with another Johnny Cash cover. It's a song I've never heard of by an artist I have enjoyed for years. Here is Bruce Springsteen's Highway Patrolman.




"Highway Patrolman"

My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state
I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8
I always done an honest job as honest as I could
I got a brother named Franky and Franky ain't no good

Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down
I get a call over the radio Franky's in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away
But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way

Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good

Well Franky went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment settled down took Maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin' robbed
Franky came home in '68 and me I took this job

Yea we're laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin', teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of mine

The night was like any other, I got a call 'bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line
There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad, bleedin' hard from his head there was a girl cryin' at a table, it was Frank they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
I must of done 110 through Michigan county that night

It was out at the crossroads down round Willow bank
Seen a Buick with Ohio plates behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through them county roads till a sign said Canadian border 5 miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his taillights disappear

Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"
I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good