"I Hung My Head" is a murder ballad

Murder ballad

Murder ballads are a sub-genre of the traditional ballad form, the lyrics of which form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath...

 written by the singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Sting and released on the 1996 album Mercury Falling

Mercury Falling

Mercury Falling is the fifth studio album released by Sting. The album was marked by its tight studio production and use of brass reminiscent of recordings made at FAME Studios in the 1960s. This release was considered by many fans to signal the beginning of Sting's transition from heavier...

. In 2002, Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

 covered the song in the album American IV: The Man Comes Around

American IV: The Man Comes Around

American IV: The Man Comes Around is the fourth album in the American series by Johnny Cash, released in 2002. The majority of songs are covers which Cash performs in his own spare style, with help from producer Rick Rubin...

.

It tells the story of a man who accidentally kills someone, the resulting shame, and the consequences he faces.

Theme

The story is told from the point of view of a young man who takes his brother's rifle out onto the hill one morning. As a rider crosses the plain, the singer takes aim ("I drew a bead on him; to practice my aim.") The rifle goes off in his hands, killing the rider.

The man runs to the salt lands, throwing the rifle into a stream. (The Cash cover changes "salt lands" to "south lands", and "stream" to "sheen". Sting supposed the latter was due to a misprint in the lyrics Cash was using.) He is discovered by a sheriff, and is struck by the realization of what he has done.

He is brought before a judge and jury, where he begs forgiveness and wishes he was dead.

Awaiting execution on the gallows

Gallows

A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...

, he sees as a "trick of the brain" the rider return, so that they will ride together "till kingdom come". The man prays to God for mercy.

Compositional structure

The song is written in compound time

Time signature

The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....

 9/8 (2+2+3+2) and employs the use of syncopation

Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...

 throughout. In the Johnny Cash cover, the signature of the song was changed to standard 4/4.