"The Folk Singer" is a folk song, written by Charles E. Daniels and American musician Johnny Cash and first recorded by Cash in 1968. It is also known as "Folk Singer" or, less often, "The Singer". Allegedly about American pop singer

Tommy Roe Thomas David "Tommy" Roe (born May 9, 1942) is a retired American rock and pop singer-songwriter. Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila" (1962) and " Dizzy" (1969), Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late ...

, "The Folk Singer" was first recorded in 1968 and released as a B-side on a 45 RPM live reissue of Cash's "

Folsom Prison Blues "Folsom Prison Blues" is a song by American singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. Written in 1953, it was first recorded in 1955 for his debut studio album '' Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!'' (1957), appearing as the album's eleventh track. T ...

" single in April 1968. Later recorded by

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...

(on the album, '' The Times They Are A-Changin''') the same year and

Glen Campbell Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting '' The Glen Campbell Good ...

(on the album, '' Try a Little Kindness'') in 1970, the song reached a wider audience from these versions.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds version (1986)

"The Folk Singer" was recorded by Australian

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

group Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 1985, with a slightly altered lyric, under the title "The Singer." First released as a single in June 1986, the song later appeared on the band's third studio album, '' Kicking Against the Pricks'', which was composed entirely of cover versions. "The Singer" was performed live on all of the band's following tour dates throughout 1986—1989 and on a number of other occasions up until 2005.

Track listing

;UK 7" (7 MUTE 47) #"The Singer" (Daniels, Cash) – 3:08 #"Running Scared" ( Roy Orbison,

Joe Melson Joe Melson (born May 1935) is an American singer and a BMI Award-winning songwriter. Life and career Joe Melson was born in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas, United States. He was reared on a farm until he was sixteen. He attended high school in ...

) –2:07 ;UK 12" (12 MUTE 47) #"The Singer" (Daniels, Cash) – 3:08 #"Running Scared" (Orbison, Melson) – 2:07 #"

Black Betty "Black Betty" ( Roud 11668) is a 20th-century African-American work song often credited to Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter as the author, though the earliest recordings are not by him. Some sources claim it is one of Lead Belly's many adaptations ...

" ( Lead Belly) – 2:33

Personnel

;Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds * Nick Cave - vocals *

Mick Harvey Michael John Harvey (born 29 August 1958) is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The ...

- guitar, drums (on "Running Scared") *

Barry Adamson Barry Adamson (born 11 June 1958)Biography
. Barryadamson.com. is an English pop and rock music ...

- bass *

Thomas Wydler Thomas Wydler (born 9 October 1959), is a Swiss musician best known for being a core member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, of which he has been a drummer since 1985. Prior to joining them, he was a member of the experimental German band Die Hau ...

- drums *

Hugo Race Hugo Justin Race (born 23 May 1963) is an Australian rock musician and record producer who had been based in Europe from 1989 to 2011. He was a member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1983–85), and The Wreckery (1984–89) with Nick Barker ...

- guitar (on "Running Scared" and "Black Betty") *

Tracy Pew Tracy Franklin Pew (19 December 1957 – 7 November 1986) was an Australian musician, and bassist for The Birthday Party. He was later a member of The Saints, and worked with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. As a member of the Birthday Party, Pe ...

- bass (on "Running Scared" and "Black Betty") ;Additional musicians *The Berliner Kaffeehausmusik Ensemble - strings * Gini Ball - strings (on "Running Scared") *

Martin McCarrick Martin McCarrick (born 29 July 1962) is an English cellist, keyboardist, guitarist and composer. Aside from being a live and recording artist, he is also a teacher and visiting lecturer in music. Career His first recording in the pop/rock ar ...

- strings (on "Running Scared") ;Technical personnel *

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

- producer, engineer *

Tony Cohen Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 19572 August 2017) was an Australian music record producer and sound engineer. He worked with Nick Cave's groups the Birthday Party, and then the Bad Seeds from 1979 to 2001. In mid-1986 he had followed Cave t ...

- co-producer, engineer *Peter Gruchot - art direction, photography

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folk Singer Johnny Cash songs Songs written by Johnny Cash 1968 songs Nick Cave songs 1988 singles Songs about death Song recordings produced by Flood (producer)