Continuando con Johnny Cash hay una canción que a este marinero - soldado le deja la mimeta de color blanco y es la "The Ballad of Ira Hayes". La canción fue escrita por Peter La Farge. Pete Segeer y Bob Dylan también hicieron su propia versión de este tema, pero es el suave tintineo de Johnny Cash el que ha conseguido darle al tema una temperatura superior a la media.
Ira Hamilton Hayes (12 de enero de 1923 – 24 de enero de 1955) fue uno de los seis marines que se hicieron famosos al ser captados en la fotografía Alzando la bandera en Iwo Jima, durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Hayes o Jefe Nube Caída era un indio pima nacido en la reserva del río Gila, en Sacaton, Arizona. En 1942 dejó la escuela para unirse en el Cuerpo de Marines de los Estados Unidos, donde fue capacitado y más tarde enviado a la isla de Iwo Jima, donde participó en la invasión del lugar. Cuatro días después de su arribo, Hayes junto con 5 marines más subieron a la cima del Monte Suribachi con la finalidad de reemplazar una bandera de los Estados Unidos en la cima. El momento fue plasmado por Joe Rosenthal, fotógrafo de guerra de Associated Press.
Después de la publicación de la fotografía, el Presidente Franklin D. Roosevelt
ordenó que los sobrevivientes a la batalla que habían aparecido en la
fotografía regresaran al país con la finalidad de patrocinar una colecta
de bonos de guerra.
Posterior
a la guerra tuvo una vida marcada por el abuso del alcohol. Aunque tuvo
una efímera fama e incluso apareció en la película de John Wayne Arenas de Iwo Jima,
vivió con la culpa de haber sobrevivido a la guerra. Fue arrestado
quince veces hasta su muerte, a los 32 años de edad. En su honor se
filmó una película biográfica sobre su vida y el cantante Peter La Farge compuso una canción en su honor, The Ballad of Ira Hayes («la balada de Ira Hayes»), que fue versioneada por numerosos otros cantantes, entre ellos Johnny Cash.
Fuente: Wikipedia
"The Ballad Of Ira Hayes"
Ira Hayes,
Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land
Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped
Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again
And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand
But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone!
He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died
Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian
A proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land
Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped
Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived to walk back down again
And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored; Everybody shook his hand
But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Then Ira started drinkin' hard;
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone!
He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes
[CHORUS:]
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war
Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died
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