Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire : What was it really about?

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The family of late singer Johnny Cash has blocked an attempt by advertisers to use his hit song Ring of Fire

― Emma, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

it's about those rings of fire that daredevils ride their motorcycles through

― the surface noise (electricsound), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The official story is that June Carter wrote the lyrics about falling in love with Johnny Cash when they were courtin'. It's about falling in love with a dangerous man (or woman).

― ass burn, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

it's about the burning of iraqi oil fields in the first gulf war. june, a prescient woman, foresaw this event many years before it happened.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

didn't she write that long before they courted, though, when they were still married to other people?

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, she did -- I think it was written several years before they married.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, you're right it was before they were married, but they were very much attracted to each other when they were still married. In fact, Cash told her, years before their marriage, that they'd be married someday, and she wrote the song about falling for him.

― ass burn, Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Songs dedicated to (actually existing) people who were married to someone else.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:44 (twenty-two years ago)

my version has the fantastic four sent to jail in a frame-up. when thug #12 tries to make johhny storm his pretty-boy bitch, the torch lets him get started, and then it's 'flame on.' the horns kick in over thug #12's howls of agony ....

― ccccccc, Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

"TV producer Sula Miller, of Big Grin Productions in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, said she had thought of the idea while suffering from the
condition. "

i was about to post this quote asking what on earth made someone suffereing from piles think of this song,but i figured it out and i really wish i hadn't

― robin (robin), Thursday, 19 February 2004 06:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a friend about ten years ago that had what I remember as a very convincing argument that this song is about sodomy.

― antexit (antexit), Thursday, 19 February 2004 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)

she brought him back to the church, that's a large part of what this song is about

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 09:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Hemorroids.

― Steev, Thursday, 19 February 2004 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Given June Carter's religious views and that she was married to someone else at the time, it seems like the song is about falling for Johnny, but realising this is 'wrong'. Hell beckons as they fall 'down, down, down', through the Dante's rings of hell. She doesn't have any choice, she fell for him 'like a child' but she realises her feelings doom her to life outside of the Chruch and an eternity in hell. All wrapped up in a little mariachi jig to show how helplessly in love with Johnny/June she/he was - ie I'm singing about eternal damnation but my love makes me want to do a funny little dance.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Thursday, 19 February 2004 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)