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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 83820
Released: October 11, 1994 |
| Our Price: $6.22 |
| Used Price: $4.22 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Bitter Tears (Ballads of the American Indian) Track Listing:
1. As Long as the Grass Shall Grow
2. Apache Tears - Johnny Cash, Cash, Johnny
3. Custer
4. The Talking Leaves - Johnny Cash, Cash, Johnny
5. The Ballad of Ira Hayes
6. Drums
7. White Girl
8. The Vanishing Race - Johnny Cash, Horton, Johnny
Editorial Review:
With his highly personal early 1960s work, Johnny Cash had been trying the patience of the Columbia brass, who were less than thrilled with his commercial performance. When "Ring of Fire" topped the country charts in 1963, it allowed him to continue the many ambitious concept albums-history lessons close to his heart. The eight songs on 1964's Bitter Tears are sung from the point of view of the American Indian (still the accepted term in 1964), and together they form a potent work that is both deeply real and highly spiritual. With assistance from co-composer Peter LaFarge, Cash offers an earnest, solemn portrait of Native Americans that examines a variety of issues through a range of viewpoints and contained in unadorned musical settings. Cash actually took out full-page ads daring radio programmers to play "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," but all of the material hits home, from LaFarge's defiant "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow" to Johnny Horton's mournful, spooky "The Vanishing Race." --Marc Greilsamer
Bitter Tears (Ballads of the American Indian) Reviews:
Wonderful 
2008-06-01 - I have looked for this album for years,should have known Amazon would have it. Johnny at his truthful best.
Bitter Tears
2007-12-07 - Johnny Cash's least known, but maybe his best. A great and sadly truthful tribute to American Indians.
Replaced copy that was distroyed years ago...
2007-03-24 - I am happy that I was able to replace an old LP that was distroyed years ago...thanks
Classic Cash
2007-01-09 - Johnny Cash was singing about the plight of Native Americans long before it was cool -- or even universally acceptable. However, this is not just an historical document or a message album. It's another example of why Johnny Cash still sells records from the '60's: great music. I like his mid-sixties stuff the best; I recommend all of the "theme" albums, plus Orange Blossom Special. These are musts for anyone who wants to venture beyond the greatest hits packages.
Home 
2006-11-10 - I'd had it in mind to get this recording for a while. The song about the Seneca is about my home. It's where I came from. I was 3 years old when they had The Removal from our homes for the Kinzua dam. I never really knew life before the relocation areas, except through my elders. We have our own version of what happened, and how it happened. The US gov't. knew our attachment to the land, and they wanted to break us. The alternative plan to Kinzua would have better served the purpose that the gov't. put out for doing what they did. They rejected that plan because they had they're own plan. They thought our spirit lived in the land, they didn't understand that each person's spirit lives inside them. They had lost touch with they're own spirit, and they thought that they could do the same with us. They were wrong. The song does a fair job of portraying this.
