A father leaves his son when he is three. He leaves him only one thing: a girl’s name. Sue.
Learn from Songs · Unit 2: Past time · B1–B2
A Boy Named Sue
A funny story song with a serious heart: the past perfect (my father had left before I was three), past simple and past perfect together, by the time, before, after, and a father’s very strange gift, with a young man in Alexandria called Thersites.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
That’s terrible! Everyone would laugh at him.
PHILO
Like Thersites in the Iliad. Nobody would call their son Thersites.
SOPHIA
That, Philo, is today’s gamebook.
Before you listen: the song
San Quentin Prison, California, 1969
“A Boy Named Sue” was written by Shel Silverstein, a poet, cartoonist and writer of funny children’s books. Johnny Cash sang it for the first time at a concert for the prisoners of San Quentin, in 1969, reading the words from a sheet of paper. It became one of the biggest hits of his life.
In the song, a man tells his story. His father had left home when he was three, and he had left nothing behind but an old guitar, an empty bottle, and a name: Sue. Everyone laughed at the name, so the boy grew up fighting, and he swore he would find his father one day.
Years later, he found him in a bar in Tennessee, and they had a terrible fight. Then the old man explained: he had known he wouldn’t be there, so he had given his son a name that would make him tough. Sue understood, and they made peace. But if he ever has a son, he says, he’ll call him Bill or George: anything but Sue!
Note: the original live recording has some strong language, which was bleeped out on the record.
Anything but Sue!
Listen: the story
DEMETRIA
Listen once. Why did everyone laugh at him? Where did he find his father? What happened?
SOPHIA
Johnny Cash almost talks the song. Listen for the story, not every word. Then answer Section A.
📛 Listen to the song: “A Boy Named Sue” (Shel Silverstein, sung by Johnny Cash, 1969).Watch the official video →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “A Boy Named Sue”, Johnny Cash.Read the lyrics →
The past perfect: what had happened before
PHILO
His father had left before he was three. He had left only a guitar and a bottle.
SOPHIA
had + past participle for something that happened before another past moment: When I arrived, the train had left (it left first). Negative: hadn’t. Question: Had he…?
Past simple or past perfect?
MARCOS
He found his father. His father had named him Sue years before.
SOPHIA
The past simple moves the story forward; the past perfect goes back in time. With before and after, the past simple is often enough (after he left…). With by the time and already, we need the past perfect: By the time he was ten, he had had a hundred fights.
Sophia’s comparison: names that make you
SOPHIA
The Greeks believed names could shape a life. Odysseus’s grandfather named him “the one who is hated”, because he himself was angry at so many people. And Odysseus had to live with that name all his life.
DEMETRIA
So Sue’s father wasn’t the first to give a hard name on purpose.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| had + past participle | an action before another past moment | His father had left before he was three. |
| hadn’t / Had…? | negatives and questions | He hadn’t seen him for years. |
| by the time + past simple → past perfect | completed before a point | By the time he was ten, he had had a hundred fights. |
| before / after | often with past simple | After he found him, they fought. |
| grow up, swear, find, understand | irregular verbs in the story | He grew up fighting. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. How old was Sue when his father left?
2. What did his father leave him?
3. How did people react to his name?
4. Where did he find his father?
5. Why had his father called him Sue?
6. What will Sue call his own son?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. When I got to the station, the train . (leave)
8. His father had him Sue. (name)
9. By the time he was ten, he had a hundred fights.
10. He seen his father for twenty years. (negative)
11. He grew fighting.
12. He finally his father in Tennessee. (find)
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “When we arrived, the film already started.”
14. “He had never seen the sea before that day.”
15. “By the time I was twelve, I have read all his books.”
16. “After he left, she cried.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Retell the story from the father’s point of view: what had he done, and why?
Discuss. 1. Was the father’s idea cruel, clever, or both? 2. Do names change who we are? 3. What does your name mean? Who chose it?
Write (100–130 words). My name. Write the story of your name: who chose it, why, what had happened before you were born, and how you feel about it.
Now play the gamebook: a young man named Thersites goes looking for his father.Play the gamebook →