The Complete Johnny Cash Lyrics from a Lifetime of Songwriting

by Cash, Johnny; Stielper, Mark; Carter Cash, John

• ISBN13: 9780316503549
• ISBN10: 0316503541
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-10-14
• Publisher: Voracious

Summary

Every lyric to every song that iconic American artist Johnny Cash ever wrote: the complete, comprehensive catalog of Cash's 55-year career as a songwriter, including nearly 500 songs
 
Johnny Cash, "The Man in Black," is one of America's most prolific and influential songwriters, speaking through his songs to the soul of the nation while capturing the victories and losses that marked his own life. This comprehensive and definitive book collects—for the first time—every one of his song lyrics alongside never-before-seen reproductions of handwritten pages from his own notebooks.

Organized chronologically and with critical commentary on themes that appear throughout his work, including a foreword from his son, John Carter Cash, this book catalogs Cash's range as a poet and storyteller. It traces his evolution from his earliest compositions to his last love song, through periods of personal struggle, political activism, and tests of faith. What emerges is an unprecedented portrait of Johnny Cash as a timeless American artist.

Author Biography

Johnny Cash was an American singer and songwriter who continues to be one of the bestselling musical artists of all time. He is best known for blending country, rock, blues, and gospel in his music, ushering in the Countrypolitan and Outlaw country movements. Cash was also a successful actor, writer, and activist. His lifelong support for SOS Children’s Villages, a nonprofit advocating for children in need, led to the creation of the Johnny Cash Memorial Fund to carry on that legacy after his death.

John Carter Cash is the only son of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. He has produced five Grammy Award-winning albums and owns and operates the Cash Cabin Studio in Tennessee. He is also the author of House of Cash: The Legacies of My Father, Johnny Cash.

Mark Stielper has chronicled the life of the Man in Black for nearly forty years, contributing to a dozen Cash biographies, appearing on screen in documentaries, and speaking at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Cash museum. Johnny Cash himself called Stielper "my friend, the family historian" and said, "He knows more about me than me."