What does I Walk the Line mean?

Johnny Cash: I Walk the Line Meaning

Tagged: Walking [suggest]
Album cover for I Walk the Line album cover

Song Released: 1956


Covered By: Craig Wayne Boyd (2014)


I Walk the Line Lyrics

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine
I walk the line

I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 18th 2012 !⃝

    It's about him staying faithful to his first wife, Vivian, when he was on the road.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 23rd 2012 !⃝

    It's about staying true to your lover

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 2nd 2013 !⃝

    I disagree with the above. It is a double entendre. If you have ever been in jail,... you must walk a line (literary) or get in trouble. It is about staying true to June, but also about staying out of trouble while being incarcerated.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 5th 2017 !⃝

    I read a lot about Johnny Cash's vita. Growing up in a rural area, quite modest and also very religious ... he wanted to stick with the rules of the society. He wished to be true ... and he wanted to show this somehow to his wife Vivian. In my opinion the song is a perfect declaration of love, regardless whether he could comply with these promises ... I think that he tried, but the escape of the borders of his Arkansas childhood, the love to his career, the temptation of his new life and of course also the love to June Carter were stronger.

  5. stephenmelinger
    click a star to vote
    Sep 20th 2013 !⃝

    Johnny Cash has an amazing voice and also plays guitar masterfully. His true birthname is also Johnny Cash. He seems like an artist true to his art. This song reflects his honesty and is an explanation for why he performs.

  6. DBagg
    click a star to vote
    Sep 12th 2011 !⃝

    This is one of the many songs that June Carter helped inspire. When the "Tennessee 3" first actually started out the overnight success really hit them like a ton of bricks. One day when they were supposed to play a Matinee in Nashville I do believe all of them along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, and Waylon Jennings were drunk and high and couldn't even walk. June confronted John about it and after he could even speak in complete sentences to her she decided to leave the tour. What she referred to when she told them all that they could not "Walk The Line" was that they could not handle what they were being handed. That they had well crossed the line that stands between destructive habits that could effect and even end their careers and the other side of that line where there is no risk and no edge at all.

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 10th 2011 !⃝

    Walk the line: walk the straight and narrow, hold down a job, stay out of trouble etc...


More Johnny Cash songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

Steve's Going to London anonymous
Yes I'm A Mess anonymous
Droppin' Plates anonymous
Rat anonymous
Cry for the Moon anonymous
And the Snakes Start to Sing anonymous
Gingerbread Man anonymous
Not Like the Movies anonymous
This Masquerade anonymous
Birthday Suit anonymous
Dollhouse anonymous
Death anonymous
Copy Cat anonymous
I Hate Jimmy Page anonymous
I Hate Jimmy Page anonymous

(We won't give out your email)