Johnny Cash Lovin’ Locomotive Man / I Got Stripe

Johnny Cash. Born in Kingsland, Arkansas, on February 26, 1932. Died in
Nashville, Tennessee, on September 12, 2003. While Carl Perkins’ career at SUN
Records was at its lowest point when he made the move to Columbia Records in the
beginning of 1958, Johnny Cash was enjoying a wave of success that had let him
built a strong reputation based on several number one country hits, a wide collection
of memorable songs and, not less important, a very own recognisable sound.
Nevertheless, whilst Perkins’ desertion responded to a certain jealousy provoked by
the fact of seeing how the company attention had turned to other artists on its roster,
Cash had found some other motives to leave SUN: “Everybody was leaving. We
didn’t like the royalty rate we were getting. [...] I was paid according to what a small,
independent label could pay me at the time. We didn’t think it was fair”. Another
reason had more to do with artistic growth: “I’d been talking to other record
companies about things I wanted to do as an artist, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to
do ‘em on Sun”. One way or the other, he felt sure that “it was definitely time to
move on” and, in the summer of 1958, Johnny Cash became a Columbia artist,
establishing a long-term relationship full of agreements and disagreements but
plenty satisfactory when talking about artistic and commercial results. Nearly three
decades that extended the legend and defined the myth of the Man in Black.
Leaving apart a personal life adorned with heavy drinking, drug abuse and marital
problems, Cash’s first years at Columbia were quite productive. His first single for
the label (“All Over Again” / “What Do I Care”) entered the Top Ten and the second
one (“Don’t Take Your Guns To Town” / “I Still Miss Someone”) reached the Number
One. On the other hand, his discography augmented steadily well into the sixties as
SUN kept releasing some of the cuts Johnny had recorded before leaving.
The cuts on this plate are perfect examples of Johnny Cash early Columbia
recordings. “I Got Stripes” came out on July 1959 together with “Five Feet High and
Rising”, another great song self-penned by Johnny. Telling a prison tale with
notorious humor, it was his fourth single at Columbia and a big hit that reached the
Top Five in the country charts and entered the Top 50 in the pop charts. On the
other side, being a minor addition to the great railroad songs the singer recorded
throughout his long career, “Lovin’ Locomotive Man” (backed with “Girl In
Saskatoon”) was far from enjoying the success of “I Got Stripes”, although Billboard
gave the record a four-star "Very Strong Sales Potential" rating. Strange Things
Happen Every Day, you know.