Post by ***@aol.com (Noah Tall)Seriously, it's common knowledge that if you ever wanted to get Johnny
Cash MAD, all you had to to was mention Merle Kilgore.
Is that why Kilgore was best man at Cash's wedding?
Seriously...........
Otto Kitsinger, liner notes for "Anita Carter -- Ring of Fire" (Bear
Family Records BCD 15434, 1989)
The story of the writing of (Love's) Ring Of Fire is much better known
than the title by which it was originally recorded. June Carter went
on her first tour with Johnny Cash in 1962; also on that tour was
singer-songwriter Merle Kilgore. On the tour and afterwards they
worked on writing songs. The two lived only about four blocks apart in
the Nashville suburb of Madison, and would meet each day in the late
morning to write together. As Kilgore calls it ''we were grinding out
songs then.'' Before (Love's) Ring Of Fire, Kilgore says several of
their joint compositions "were recorded but no big hits."
June had a book of Elizabethan poetry that had been her uncle A.P.'s.
and had noticed that he had underlined the words Love is like a
burning ring of fire. She explained to Kilgore that her uncle would
often write songs from such phrases, and suggested they try to get a
song out of it. They started on the song but couldn't finish it.
Kilgore's mind was on supper and they lost their creative direction.
While he was on the way home, Anita [Carter] called from the studio
and told June that she needed another another song for the session.
June called Kilgore and told him to come back quickly so they could
finish the song. Within 15 minutes of his return, they had finished it
and it was promptly recorded [Nov 1962]. Billboard magazine accorded
the record a spotlight pick in its country section, describing it as
follows: "a most unusual tune is sold in winning fashion by the thrush
who shows off her own individual and exciting style here, supported by
blue grass guitar work. Could go pop, too."
Johnny Cash heard Anita's record and awoke one morning from a dream in
which he had heard Mexican horns on the record. He told Anita "I'll
give you about five or six more months, and if you don't hit with it,
I'm gonna record it the way I feel it." In fact, he recorded it in
March 1963 (with Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters singing
harmony) and it became an international hit for him, starting in June
1963.