Johnny Cash’s Thunderball
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black 1963-69
Here’s a musical curiosity — a James Bond theme written and performed by one of my favorites, Johnny Cash, but not considered by the 007 producers:
e|--0-3-5--0-0-0-| B|---------1-1-1-| G|---------2-2-2-| D|---------2---2-| A|---------0---0-| E|---------------|
There’s not much information about this one, even in the literature on Johnny Cash. Stephen Miller’s Johnny Cash: The Life of an American Icon says this:
One of the more surprising and incongruous moments in Johnny’s career occurred in 1965 when he recorded “Thunderball” — one of a number of contenders for the title song of that year’s James Bond film. Like ‘Five Minutes to Live’, recorded in an attempt to cash in on a film, the song was not one of Johnny’s most distinguished efforts, sounding more like a theme to a low budget Western than an international thriller. Unsurprisingly his offering wasn’t chosen, the honour going instead to the more conventional Tom Jones.
I believe this one was originally released in 1975 on the catch-all unreleased songs album Johnny & June.
As for the guitar work in the song, I’m not sure who does the playing, but a course in playing like Luther Perkins, of the backing band The Tennessee Two, is required before tackling Cash’s “Thunderball.” This is a James Bond theme with chicken pickin’ alternating bass, and I love it.
Take a listen for yourself, with this neato video in which YouTube user LuiECuomo has put the song together with the opening credits for Thunderball. Watch and wonder what might have been.
Love it. Thanks for posting.
Thanks, Kristopher! If only the Bond producers had chosen this one, I’m sure there’d be a lengthy and insightful commentary about it in your indispensable book!
I’ve never been totally convinced that this was really written as a Bond theme. Maybe it was, but like you say, hard evidence is tough to come by. They lyrics certainly don’t support it. Was there a train in Thunderball? That said, I still enjoy it, just as I enjoy Bob Dylan’s License To Kill, which has NOTHING to do with Bond. I like it when my favorite artists sings songs with Bond titles, related or not!
I was eying the three “Man in Black” box sets of Johnny Cash from Bear Family during the recent summer sale at deepdiscount, so the album art got my attention right away. I also wonder about this tune, but I really enjoy it. What a stirring voice! -Jason (Spy Vibe)
You guys are crazy! This is totally about Thunderball. Trains, Tanner? Perhaps you read the lyrics to Wabash Cannonball instead?
There is a rumble in the sky and all the world can hear it call
They shudder at the fury of the mighty Thunderball
The power of her engines, now, has drowned in the sea
But the deadly force from within her is somewhere running free
And Johnny Cash was a fan of Fleming. I remember reading his second Autobiography, and he talks about how he brought a property in Jamaica, which had the waterfall described by Fleming for Live and Let Die…Cash knew his Bond…don’t you worry about that!
All those lyrics sound like they’re describing a train to me, sure! Especially in the wider context of Cash’s songs–and frequent train songs. But now that you write them down, yes, I can see for the first time how they could apply to Thunderball as well. I still think of it as a train when I hear it though…
Oh, I can see that for sure then. That shuffle rhythm, meant to approximate the sound of a train, probably doesn’t help much either. It may have helped me that the first place I encountered this was in a book of Cash lyrics, and so didn’t have the audio clues to steer me wrong.