The late, great Johnny Cash passed away on September 12, 2003.
Bruce Springsteen was scheduled to perform the following evening at FedExField in Landover, and it was a pretty safe bet that he’d tip his hat to the Man in Black. The only question was: which song would he choose?
It seems obvious, in retrospect: “I Walk the Line,” Cash’s first #1 hit (on the Billboard Country chart) refused to leave the record charts for 43 weeks when it was released in 1956.
Lyrically simple but musically complex, Cash’s love song to his first wife became a signature song, establishing his sound and racking up accolades. Rolling Stone ranked it as the #1 greatest country song of all time and #30 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
So it was a perfect choice for Bruce’s salute to Johnny, and he wasted no time getting to it. On the evening of September 13, Bruce strolled onto the stage with his acoustic guitar in hand, and without a word of introduction or explanation (none was necessary) he performed a beautiful acoustic arrangement of “I Walk the Line.”
Bruce wisely avoided the original version’s challenging key changes, which also meant he didn’t have to mimic Johnny’s humming (which Cash did on the record in order to find the right pitch).
As a result, Cash’s sweet lyrics are laid bare without distraction, and Soozie Tyrell’s lonely, lovely violin bridges the verses to create an unbroken pledge of love and fidelity.
Bruce must have been pleased with how it came off, because he opened his show with it the next night as well. After that, though, the song went back on the shelf–other than a brief nod to it as an intro to “I’m on Fire” on the Magic Tour, Bruce hasn’t played “I Walk the Line” ever since.
I Walk The Line
First performed: September 13, 2003 (Landover, MD)
Last performed: September 14, 2003 (Chapel Hill, NC)
