Johnny Cash - Man In Black - from the albums "Man in Black" (1971), "The Essential Johnny Cash" (2002) and "The Legend of Johnny Cash" (2005)

"Man in Black" is a protest song written and sung by and about Johnny Cash, originally released on his 1971 album of the same name. Cash himself was known as "The Man in Black" for his distinctive style of on-stage costuming (always wearing black clothes) and he wrote this song to help explain why:

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.
(...)
Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

At first, Cash and his band wore black shirts because it was the only matching color they had in their wardrobes. Cash wore other colors on stage early in his career, but claimed to like wearing black both on and off stage.

The first performance of the song took place in front of an all-student audience at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville and it was recorded on a special called “Johnny Cash on Campus” which aired on February 17, 1971.