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About This Track
“I Hung My Head” is a murder ballad written by the singer-songwriter Sting and released on the album Mercury Falling. In 2002, Johnny Cash covered the song in the album American IV: The Man Comes Around along with several other contemporary songs.
The song begins describing a young man who takes his brother’s rifle out onto the hill early one morning, with time to kill (an idiomatic phrase originating from The Bible foreshadowing the event of the rider’s death) to practice his aim. As a lone rider rides across the plain, he takes aim at the rider as he moves to practice his aim (“I drew a bead on him; to practice my aim”) and accidentally pulls the trigger, killing the rider.
Without fully realizing the implications of his accident (“To wake from the dream”), he sets off running into the “salt lands”, throwing the rifle into a “stream” . Eventually he is discovered by a sheriff and in a moment of realization understands the implications of his actions even though he does not fully understand their meaning (“And all for no reason, just one piece of lead”).
He is brought before a Judge and jury and in front of his entire town to account for his actions and feels “the power of death over life” as the jury reach their verdict; realizing that he had “orphaned” the rider’s children and “widowed his wife,” he wishes he was dead.
The song begins describing a young man who takes his brother’s rifle out onto the hill early one morning, with time to kill (an idiomatic phrase originating from The Bible foreshadowing the event of the rider’s death) to practice his aim. As a lone rider rides across the plain, he takes aim at the rider as he moves to practice his aim (“I drew a bead on him; to practice my aim”) and accidentally pulls the trigger, killing the rider.
Without fully realizing the implications of his accident (“To wake from the dream”), he sets off running into the “salt lands”, throwing the rifle into a “stream” . Eventually he is discovered by a sheriff and in a moment of realization understands the implications of his actions even though he does not fully understand their meaning (“And all for no reason, just one piece of lead”).
He is brought before a Judge and jury and in front of his entire town to account for his actions and feels “the power of death over life” as the jury reach their verdict; realizing that he had “orphaned” the rider’s children and “widowed his wife,” he wishes he was dead.
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Albums featuring this track
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Mercury Falling
Sting
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Symphonicities
Sting Buy- Download Album
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25 Years
Sting Buy- Download Album
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Shouts
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granpubah wrote:
Damn, You're right. drummer IS 9/4!
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Neaera2410 wrote:
"the drummer must be a genius. incredible grooves!" The drummer plays in 9/4, whilst the other play in 9/8. I dig that. :)
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llaz927 wrote:
Very nice melodies, and lyrics as usual, from Sting.
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banapaulo wrote:
Credit to Sting for the lyrics, but this version is the one that really lets them hit home. When I first heard this I was surprised it wasn't traditional, let alone that Sting wrote it.
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Kershlaus91 wrote:
great song !
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lidatcz wrote:
love at first sight
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jcaulk215 wrote:
Isn´t this a good use of this time signature?
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gsm007g wrote:
My Nan.....new this young lad Named ...GMS ...Gordon Mathew Sumner...but new his father her milk man in Newcastle...
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san_music_fan wrote:
Adore... <3
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ShaniaEve wrote:
Very good!
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Fasstili wrote:
GREAT song. And Cash did a great cover of it.
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johnny008 wrote:
Sting's original is way better then Cash version! Stop talking about Cash, this is Sting's song and he's the best at performing it!!!
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ShadyAdy wrote:
Much as I like Johnny Cash's take on it, this here version by Mister Sting is frankly the original and best.
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Fluechtling wrote:
the drummer must be a genius. incredible grooves!
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Barrettmann wrote:
¿que pasa con Johnny Cash? .... ¿Saben porque se llama así?, porque cuando era pistolero, robó en una mercería y se llevó todo lo que había en caja. Por eso le viene lo de el "Cash" y Johnny porque era perqueño y su abuelo se llamó Juan. Y esta es la historia de "Juanillo er caja"
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tomelwood wrote:
This song is in a 9-beat rhythm - that's what makes it so neat. Sting is amazing - there's an unusual time signature in 5 or 7 on almost every album.
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Aardvarked wrote:
Sting's original is much much better than the cover Cash did, stop wanking over him.
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Hugo1979 wrote:
Great, great lyrics, I like Cash's version very much.
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IamFlood wrote:
Johnny Cash totally obliterates Sting's own version. Damn Sting and his fucking synths
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weemies wrote:
I LOVE this song. Totally flows... and it's in 9/8 like already mentioned. Btw the Johnny Cash version pretty much suck't.
Track Stats
145,169 Scrobbles
43,491 Listeners
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Recent Activity
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jokrieger added I Hung My Head to the playlist tmp4. Tuesday afternoon
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dreamcatcher73, FrankTyrell, Atherton0264 and 13 other people loved Sting – I Hung My Head. Tuesday afternoon
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CD-MUFI tagged I Hung My Head with ‘rock’. last month
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CD-MUFI, Mai-BrittOhlsen and aquatiki loved Sting – I Hung My Head. last month
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casamorgan added I Hung My Head to the playlist. November 2011
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