"I Got Stripes" is a song featured on "The Heart of Cash", an album released in 1968. There is also a German version of the song, done by Johnny. Officially, the credits for the song go to Johnny Cash and a guy called Charlie Williams (whoever that might be). It is a song about a man being arrested (that's why he got stripes). There are many songs in the history of American music dealing with that topic. For instance, Hudson William Ledbetter - the man they called Leadbelly - recorded a song with the same theme, "On a Monday", way back sometimes. What would the American songbook look like without Leadbelly? Surely, most of the songs he made famous weren't written by him, being traditionals he saved for the future by his rendering of them.
Johnny Cash didn't steal a song by Leadbelly, he just took up a traditional song recorded by Leadbelly, did his own version and pretended to have written it.
Here is: Leadbelly, On a Monday & Johnny Cash, I got Stripes, English and German version.
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