who wrote the song i hung my head
Sting
title: I Hung My Head text: I Hung My Head "I Hung My Head" is a song written by the singer-songwriter Sting and released on the 1996 album "Mercury Falling". It reflects Sting's childhood fondness for TV Westerns, as well as his avowed interest in Country music, but also tackles deeper and more philosophical themes of life and death, justice and redemption. In 2002, Johnny Cash covered the song in the album "". Sting re-recorded the song in an orchestral version for his 2010 album "Symphonicities". It tells the story of a boy who shoots a man, the resulting shame, and the consequences he faces. The title: I Hung My Head text: and is struck by the realization of what he has done. He is brought before a judge and jury, where he begs forgiveness and wishes he were dead. Awaiting execution on the gallows, he sees as a "trick of the brain" the rider return, so that they will ride together "till kingdom come". The man prays to God for mercy. The song is one of very few popular tunes written in compound time . The curious offbeat rhythm has the effect of alternating 4-beat and 5-beat bars. The drum beat is syncopated, on the 3rd and 8th beats. In the title: I Hung My Head text: story is told from the point of view of a young man who takes his brother's rifle out onto the hill one morning. As a rider crosses the plain, the singer takes aim ("I drew a bead on him; to practice my aim.") The rifle goes off in his hands, killing the rider. The man runs to the salt lands, throwing the rifle into a stream. (The Cash cover changes "salt lands" to "south lands", and "stream" to "sheen". Sting supposed the latter was due to a misprint in the lyrics Cash was using.) He is discovered by a sheriff, title: I Hung My Head text: Johnny Cash cover, the signature of the song was changed to standard . Johnny Cash's cover version of the song was used in the Season Six premiere of "The Shield", and was played over the opening and closing of the episode. The episode dealt with the aftermath (guilt, recriminations and anger) of the murder of a central character by his partner, who mistakenly believed that the victim had betrayed him. Cash's cover version also appears in the film "The Green Hornet". Bruce Springsteen covered the song at the 2014 Kennedy Center Honors where Sting was one of the honorees. I title: Hang Down Your Head text: Hang Down Your Head Hang Down Your Head is a song by Tom Waits appearing on his 1985 album "Rain Dogs". It released as a single in 1985 by Island Records. The song is in the same vein as Tom Waits' earlier work, featuring a more conventional melodic structure in comparison to other songs on his "Rain Dogs" album albeit featuring an idiosyncratic arrangement. Allmusic critic Stewart Mason called the song "among the most direct and effective things Waits has ever written." Vocalist Lucinda Williams recorded a version of the song for the soundtrack of the crime/drama series "Crossing Jordan",