"Busted" is a song covered by Johnny Cash (with The Carter Family) for Cash's 1963 album Blood, Sweat and Tears. "Busted" was written by Harlan Howard in 1962, and has been covered by several notable artists, including Ray Charles (also in 1963) and Patty Loveless (2009).
The song is about a dirt-poor farmer struggling to support his family, bemoaning a stack of bills, his family's needs, animals that won't produce and land that is barren. He even tries to ask his brother for assistance, but his brother was actually going to come to him for help. Finally, he admits he's going to pack up his family and leave to find a better life.
Cover versions
- Johnny Cash, with the Carter Family, reached #13 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in 1963.
- Ray Charles reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963. This was from his album Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul. A live version with Willie Nelson was included in Charles' 2005 duets album Genius & Friends.
- Nazareth covered it on Expect No Mercy in 1977.
- John Conlee reached #6 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart in 1982.
- Patty Loveless released a version in 2009 from her studio album Mountain Soul II. This version contains a lyrical change which alters the occupation of the narrator from a cotton farmer to a miner ("Cotton is down to a quarter a pound" is replaced with "We've had a hard time since they closed down the mine"), but the overall theme is the same.
- Chris LeDoux covered it on Used to Want to be a Cowboy in 1991.
- Green On Red covered it on The BBC Sessions released in 2007.
- Hazel Dickens covered it on her 1980 Hard Hitting Songs For Hard Hit People album.
- Wanda Jackson covered it on her album The Party Ain't Over (2011).
- The Waldos covered it on their album Rent Party in 1994.
- Andre Williams covered it on his album Red Dirt in 1999.
- Tim O'Brien covered it on his album Cornbread Nation in 2005.
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