9. Ah Bos Cee Dah
9. Ah Bos Cee Dah (by J.R. Cash)
I found this song on a cd I got at Borders called "The Johnny Cash Children's Album". It's
a terrific collection of mostly original songs that was put together by his son, John Carter
Cash. I loved this song because it was fun to sing. If you ever get a chance to hear his
album, some of the best stuff is the stories he tells between songs about his kids, nieces
and nephews. And the liner notes written by his son are just beautiful. It certainly paints
a different picture of the "Man in Black" and makes me love his music even more. My
version is not very original- it's pretty much word for word and note for note an exact
copy of Johnny Cash's version. I added some backups, but his was so nice and simple
and I wanted to keep mine that way, too.
This song was probably the most difficult to acquire permission to use. Apparently this
song was written in the 70's but had never been released. "The Johnny Cash Children's
Album" just became available earlier this year, right about the time I found it at Borders,
so it was too new to be listed in any databases yet. I looked for months, searching
online, writing his publishing company, calling my old contacts in Nashville. Nobody
could find it. Then I mentioned it to my good friend Larry Jon Wilson one day who said
"Why don't you just get in touch with John Carter and ask him about it?" Well, yeah, but
how on earth am I gonna do that? Oh, of course, Larry Jon knew how. (He NEVER
ceases to amaze me!) So I did get in touch with John Carter Cash ("JCC here, how can I
help you?") who talked to me a little about the song and his dad, and then put me in
touch with his publisher who got the ball rolling. Quite an adventure for such a tiny little
song.
AH BOS CEE DAH
Well if you'd like to learn your ABC's
Then listen very carefully to me.
You can sing them like a funny foreign song
and very very soon you'll sing along
The first 8 letters go like this:
Ah Bos Cee Dah Ee Fah Ga Ha
Ah Bos Cee Dah Ee Fah Ga Ha
A B C D E F G H
Ah Bos Cee Dah Ee Fah Ga Ha
The next 8 go like this:
I Jah Ka La Me Nah Oo Pah
I Jah Ka La Me Nah Oo Pah
I J K L M N O P
I Jah Ka La Me Nah Oo Pah
Now that's 16 letters, and there's 10 more you know
so let's take these next 10 slow
Qu Rah See Tah Uu Vee Wah X Yah Zee
Qu Rah See Tah Uu Vee Wah X Yah Zee
Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Qu Rah See Tah Uu Vee Wah X Yah Zee
Now let's put it all together:
Ah Bos Cee Dah Ee Fah Ga Ha
I Jah Ka La Me Nah Oo Pah
Qu Rah See Tah Uu Vee Wah X Yah Zee
means
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z