Johny Cash gone - not forgotten
Brett Meeks
Issue date: 9/18/03 Section: Editorial
He was arrested in '65 for trying to smuggle amphetamines through El Paso, Texas in his guitar case. He then divorced his first wife and married Carter shortly thereafter.
It was June who would give him a little more religion than he had previously practiced. She taught him about her fundamentalist Christian beliefs and he fell in love with everything about her.
In the late '60s, he released a concert series including, "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison" and "Johnny Cash at San Quentin," part of his tour of U.S. prisons and his political crusade toward the lightening of sentences.
His success would not yield, and he was asked by Bob Dylan to help with his Nashville Skyline album. Cash returned the favor by asking Dylan to appear on his new ABC television show,properly titled, "The Johnny Cash Show."
But most well known to the true outlaw country fans are the albums he released with three other rebels: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings - The Highwaymen.
This was a group of real men who sang true to the hard lives they led, never relenting to the desires of record promoters or producers, just singing from the soul.
More recently, Cash released four albums with American Records under the supervision of its owner, Rick Rubin.
Rubin gave Cash the most artistic license he had ever been given by a studio and was told to record whatever songs he wanted.
His most recent, "American IV: The Man Comes Around," is a testament to the state he was in prior to his death last week.
The album, which features mainly covers, is quite simple, considering most tracks consist of Cash playing his guitar and singing the sad songs that rang through the back of his mind.
His cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt" turned an already depressing song into an anthem for pain and depression.
Reznor's lyrics combine with writer and director of "One Hour Photo," Mark Romanek's directing, and the raw emotion that only Cash could bellow to form a surreal video that goes so far as to parallel Cash with none other than Jesus Christ.
And though, unlike John Lennon, Cash would never have made the comparison himself; the suffering of Christ during the Passion is fit perfectly to Cash's final days of solitude and remorse.
The video leaves us with a chilling image of Cash closing his piano, looking down in despair, the lyrics blaring, "And you could have it all / My empire of dirt / I will let you down / I will make you hurt."
But for people new to Cash, look back on some of his more glorious moments. The good ol' days when a man wearing all black held a guitar in front of a packed house and opened with, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."
The loss of such a man shouldn't leave fans in remorse, but should force them to look back to the moments when Cash was happiest or when he made them happy.
Because even if "life ain't easy for a boy named Sue," Cash made it that much easier for all of us to be better prepared "when the man comes around."
Cash was 71.
It was June who would give him a little more religion than he had previously practiced. She taught him about her fundamentalist Christian beliefs and he fell in love with everything about her.
In the late '60s, he released a concert series including, "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison" and "Johnny Cash at San Quentin," part of his tour of U.S. prisons and his political crusade toward the lightening of sentences.
His success would not yield, and he was asked by Bob Dylan to help with his Nashville Skyline album. Cash returned the favor by asking Dylan to appear on his new ABC television show,properly titled, "The Johnny Cash Show."
But most well known to the true outlaw country fans are the albums he released with three other rebels: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings - The Highwaymen.
This was a group of real men who sang true to the hard lives they led, never relenting to the desires of record promoters or producers, just singing from the soul.
More recently, Cash released four albums with American Records under the supervision of its owner, Rick Rubin.
Rubin gave Cash the most artistic license he had ever been given by a studio and was told to record whatever songs he wanted.
His most recent, "American IV: The Man Comes Around," is a testament to the state he was in prior to his death last week.
The album, which features mainly covers, is quite simple, considering most tracks consist of Cash playing his guitar and singing the sad songs that rang through the back of his mind.
His cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt" turned an already depressing song into an anthem for pain and depression.
Reznor's lyrics combine with writer and director of "One Hour Photo," Mark Romanek's directing, and the raw emotion that only Cash could bellow to form a surreal video that goes so far as to parallel Cash with none other than Jesus Christ.
And though, unlike John Lennon, Cash would never have made the comparison himself; the suffering of Christ during the Passion is fit perfectly to Cash's final days of solitude and remorse.
The video leaves us with a chilling image of Cash closing his piano, looking down in despair, the lyrics blaring, "And you could have it all / My empire of dirt / I will let you down / I will make you hurt."
But for people new to Cash, look back on some of his more glorious moments. The good ol' days when a man wearing all black held a guitar in front of a packed house and opened with, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."
The loss of such a man shouldn't leave fans in remorse, but should force them to look back to the moments when Cash was happiest or when he made them happy.
Because even if "life ain't easy for a boy named Sue," Cash made it that much easier for all of us to be better prepared "when the man comes around."
Cash was 71.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
don pollard
posted 12/17/07 @ 7:30 AM CST
I loved johny the very best , my singing hero Im in Adelaide Australia .
Jason Ebbers
posted 3/12/08 @ 9:06 AM CST
I LIKE TOAST
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