A few workweek after the song ’s release , 24 - year - old Johnny Cash performed “ I take the air the personal credit line ” onThe Grand Ole Opry , with Ben A. Green of theNashville Bannerin the audience . “ The haunting words of ‘ I Walk the line of descent ’ start to tumesce through the construction , ” Green wrote ( in a review laterfeaturedinThe Man shout out Cashby Steve Turner ) , “ and a veritable tornado of applause rolled back . The son had struck home , where the heart is , with his birdsong that is Number 2 [ on theBillboardcountry chart ] in the nation today . As his words filtered into the farthermost corners , many in the crew were on their feet , cheer up and hand clapping . ”
With its gradualboom - chickarhythm , hummed verses , and wrangle of vigilance against moral lapses , “ I Walk the railway line ” ( release on May 1 , 1956 ) stood out among the fast and frisky strain on the radio receiver . “ It was different than anything else you had ever heard , ” Bob Dylanonce toldRolling Stone . “ A voice from the middle of the Earth . ”
hard cash wrote the lyrics while tour in Texas . It was a promise to abide close to his first wife , Vivian , amid the temptations of the road , with the rudimentary spiritual theme that ’s weave through much of Johnny Cash ’s work .
As for the air , it ’s honest-to-god and came about in a more ghostly path . In 1951 , Cash was a U.S. flier , send at a base in Landsberg , Germany . He and a few other military personnel played in a body politic and western band call the Landsberg Barbarians . InCash : The Autobiography , the creative person said that he purchased a bobbin - to - reel recorder “ with savings from the eighty - five dollars a month Uncle Sam pay up me to fight back the Cold War . ” hard cash further recount :
The melody was down , and Cash had the unique chord progressions when he first begin record for Sun Records in 1955 . His original was slower , but , according toJohnny Cash : The Lifeby Robert Hilburn , Sun Records proprietor Sam Philips wheedle him into recording an up - tempo version and secrete it without tell Cash . Cash was surprised to hear that translation on the tuner while on tour and telephone Philips .
“ Give me just two week , ” Philipsreplied . “ If it does n’t do what I reckon it ’s run to do , I promise you right here , I ’ll pull the disc and we ’ll release the boring ballad . ”
He never released the slow ballad .
