Thirteen Danzig And Cash

Thirteen Album:Album: 6:66: Satan's Child (1999)
Thirteen Album: 1994 American Recordings (1994)
by Danzig

Glenn Danzig formed Danzig in New Jersey in 1987. The project is the singer's third major commercial venture, after the punk bands The Misfits and Samhain.

In 2009, Danzig's song "Thirteen" was chosen by director Todd Phillips to open the highly successful movie The Hangover. In 2011, Danzig recorded a new song called "Black Hell" specifically for the sequel, The Hangover Part II.

Glenn Danzig originally wrote "Thirteen" for Johnny Cash, whose acoustic version appears in an edited form on his 1994 American Recordings album, and in its full-length on disc 5 of Cash's posthumous 2003 Unearthed Box Set. Danzig recalled writing the song: "Suddenly one day in 1993 I was called and asked if I wanted to write a song for Johnny Cash. Of course! The original Man in Black! It was an honor. It took me about twenty minutes to write "Thirteen", which is my understanding of Cash and his career. Then I actually went down to him on his farm in Tennessee to teach him the song. He turned out to be a really nice man". The song is a mournful dialogue of a life blighted by bad luck and misery. Danzig's own version of "Thirteen" is gothic blues in style, and is featured as the opening song in the 2009 film The Hangover. "Thirteen" was covered by Mark Kozelek on his 2013 covers album Like Rats.

Bad luck wind been blowin' on my back
I was born to bring trouble wherever I'm at
With the number '13' tattooed on my neck
That ink starts to itch
Black gon' turn to red

I was born in the soul of misery
And I never had me a name
They just give me a number when I was young

Got a long line of heartache
I carry it well
The list of lives I've broken
Reach from here to Hell
And a bad luck wind been blowin' on my back
Pray you don't look at me
And I pray I don't look back

I was born in the soul of misery
And I never had me a name
They just give me a number when I was young

Found me with a preacherman confessin' all I done
Catch me with the devil playing 21
And a bad luck wind been blowin' on my back
I was born to bring trouble wherever I'm at

I was born in the soul of misery
And I never had me a name
They just give me a number when I was young
When I was young
When I was young
When I was young

Johnny Cash cover
Written by: Glen Danzig
Album: American Recordings
Released: 1994