A Boy Named Oedipus

I always thought that the song ‘A Boy Named Sue’ was slightly twisted but I never really could put my finger on it.  Maybe because it was coming form the voice of such an earnest singer like Johnny Cash or because I was just 10 years old the first couple of times I heard it, but  I could not see the kink in it. But at the heart of the song is an Oedipal conflict of a boy wanting to kill his father.

As it turns out, this song was written by Shel Silverstein (yes the same Shel Silverstein who wrote ‘A Light In The Attic’ that you so adored as a child).  Mr. Silverstein was quite the prolific song writer as well as cartoonist and author of epic children’s books. If you think back at some of the poems from ‘A Light In The Attic’ a lot of them were twisted too.  So it was no surprise when I came across this song Mr. Silverstein wrote in his twilight years called ‘The Father Of A Boy Named Sue’ which is written from the perspective of the dad in the original song.

Now, this one is way more twisted.  As the father tells it, the kid he named ‘Sue’ is a transsexual ninny who couldn’t bust a grape in Napa with a set of cleats on and he comes looking for revenge on the father.   After the father and son brawl it out into the streets the father sweet talks the son into living with him and has him cook and clean and sow ‘better than a daughter could do.’  But like the twist at the end of ‘A Boy Named Sue’ where you think Sue is about to say that he would name his own kid Sue, Mr. Silverstein pulls the carpet out from under your feet once again.  This carpet is woven of incest however.  He implies that on cold nights he has sex with Sue.  ”It sure is a joy having a boy named Sue.”  Have a listen.