gregorygalloway:

When Johnny Cash released “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” in June 1964, as the first single from his forthcoming album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian, he was surprised and then angered at not just the lack of attention the song was receiving by radio stations, but opposition to it (some writers and DJs demanded that Cash resign from the Country Music Association).

Cash had wanted to make an album addressing the plight of Native Americans as early as 1955, but did not have the commercial clout to get his label’s approval.

After 1963, however, Cash had achieved major success and insisted on making Bitter Tears. He had also found suitable material in songwriter Peter La Farge, who had recorded “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” in 1962, and who wrote 5 of the 8 songs on Bitter Tears.

In response to the industry’s opposition to the single (Cash’s label, Columbia, had refused to promote the song), Cash took out a full-page ad in the 22 August 1964 issue of Billboard.

“D.J.’s – station managers – owners, etc., where are your guts?” Cash asked in the ad. “I’m not afraid to sing the hard, bitter lines that the son of Oliver La Farge wrote.”

“Classify me, categorize me – STIFLE me, but it won’t work,” Cash continued, arguing that there was an audience for the song among the “teenage girls and Beatle record buyers.”

“The Ballad of Ira Hayes” would go on to reach #3 on the Billboard country chart in September, and the album would reach #2.

Cash would continue to work on Native American issues (he had grown up thinking he was part Cherokee, but later learned it was family lore and not fact).