What can be said about a man who is a legend? Johnny Cash is by far the biggest name to receive our Artist of the Week. There are countless stories of his legend and mortality, but nonetheless Cash is LEGENDARY! Whether you consider him a country artist, gospel singer, rockabilly or rockstar, one theme remains: pure artistry!
I have always loved Johnny Cash and thanks to Joser I was able to rediscover him! Isn’t it odd how we forget about certain artists, but we hear a song and then we find ourselves listening to their entire catalog (or whatever we could afford to buy)? That was me a few weeks ago. Joser mentioned Cash and I had to immediately listen to all the music I had from him.
In his early career, Cash was addicted to drugs and touring, which ruined his first marriage. He also met his future wife, June Carter, while touring. They fell in love but June initially resisted Cash. But I guess love overcomes all obstacles!. After several marriage proposals, June Carter finally agreed to marry Johnny. Often times, Hollywood doesn’t really get their facts right but in the case of the marriage proposal in “Walk the Line,” they got it spot on. Johnny proposed to June Carter while performing in Ontario Canada and a week later they were married.
Cash was called the Man in Black because he wore black all the time. In his autobiography, Cash: The Autobiography, he says that his band wore all types of different clothes when performing. He said that they wore black to show solidarity, to be a group. Black was chosen because it was the only color that they could all coordinate. The legend stuck. What I typically liked about Mr. Cash is that he always began his concerts with, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” That shows me that he never got too big headed.
Cash was also very sympathetic towards prisoners. He often toured in prisons and 2 recordings surfaced: Live at San Quentin and Live at Folsom. I think that’s what struck a chord in every Cash fan. Cash was not scared of singing about what was on his mind. Like many of our greatest entertainers, Cash grew up very poor, but he always sang about the working man or injustices done by others. Take the song “Oney,” which talks about a supervisor who rides his employees. At the end of the track Oney gets his.
Also, Cash recorded the concept album Bitter Tears, which was released in 1964. The album depicted the wrongful nature of the U.S. when it mistreated its Native Americans. While doing some research on his ancestry, Cash traced half his ancestry back to Ireland and the other half to Cherokee Indian. This eight track album has some standout hits like “Apache Tears” and the very cult classic, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” In “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” Cash tells a story of a Native American named Ira Hayes. Hayes was a Marine who help win an unknown battle, and raised the U.S. flag afterwards. When he returned home there was no gratitude, he was homeless and a drunk. The government chose to ignore him, like they did with so many soldiers. Towards the end of the track, Ira Hayes dies unceremoniously.
In 1980 Cash was the youngest member ever inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Cash was a country mega star up until the early 80’s when his album sales started to decline heavily. Even after he formed a top-notch super-group named the Highway Men (which featured Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings), Cash seemed to drop out of the spotlight for several years.
In 1993, U2 released a pretty crappy album that no one remembers: Zooropa. Although I hate U2, I’ll give them credit for the last song on the album. The track, entitled “The Wanderer,” featured Cash on vocals. That song is crazy good partly because Bono doesn’t sing on it, but mostly because it features Cash with a great musical arrangement. I think at that point people started to remember Cash as a great singer.
As he got older, he continued to make music, releasing about five more albums. The song most younger listeners remember is one of his last. He covered Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” which is a good cover. I think the song was good, but the video is what made the song. It featured a very old Cash, and the vocals almost seemed like he wanted to burst into tears every time he sang a note. Our resident blogger/editor Sara agreed saying”I wanted to cry every time I heard it because you could actually hear the hurt in his voice after years and years of living. You could hear/sense the hurt!”
In 2003, his longtime wife June Carter died. Cash deeply loved his wife, who he was married to for over 35 years! Cash died 4 months later. It has been said that Cash recorded over 1,000 songs and released over 50 albums. That is a lot to cover. I know I couldn’t cover the scope of this great artist, so I apologize in advance to all the true Cash fans. As usual I will give you my top 5 songs, but I hope that you’ll leave comment of what your top 5 Cash songs are! Forever live the Man in Black!
Top 5
Useful Links
NPR Folsom Johnny Cash Interview
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
YEAH! Tribute to the Man In Black… awesome.