Posted on 09/13/2003 5:04:18 AM PDT by knighthawk
Not a whole lot of 71-year-olds -- let alone 71-year-olds known primarily for their country and folk recordings -- could have commanded the youthful audience's attention at the recent MTV Video Music Awards. But even in absentia, Johnny Cash was one of the stars of the show -- not just because of the award given to his final video, but because so many younger artists paused to pay him tribute.
They had good reason. Of all the popular U.S. musicians of the past half-century, few have more consistently served as an authentic voice for ordinary Americans. Crafting an Arkansas upbringing into his "man in black" persona -- described by Rolling Stone as "a combination of outlaw mystique, spiritual humbleness and iconic individualism" -- Mr. Cash became a spokesman for a wide variety of downtrodden sects, from native Indians and Vietnam vets to the incarcerated. It didn't hurt, of course, that he was gifted with one of the most distinctive and solemn-sounding voices in music.
For all the poseurs among his contemporaries, Mr. Cash genuinely earned his reputation as a music outlaw. Going against the conventions of country music, he infused his songs with rock, blues, and gospel, all the while infuriating the conservative country establishment with his politicized lyrics and outspoken interviews. A man of contradictions, he performed before prison audiences despite a relatively clean personal record, and sang about some of society's darkest characters ("I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die", he famously sang in Folsom Prison Blues) while also infusing much of his music with a deep spirituality rooted in his Christianity. Criminality and redemption were interwoven themes: Despite his hard-edged appeal, he invested his time in a wide array of humanitarian causes, released a film and soundtrack about the life of Jesus Christ, and became close friends with Billy Graham.
When Mr. Cash re-emerged from a career slump in the 1990s, it was not just as a nostalgia act. His Grammy-winning 1994 album American Recordings was hailed as one of his best, and began a chain of well-received back-to-the-basics releases. If any other aging musician had recorded covers of songs by Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Beck, and other modern acts, it would have seemed a pathetic attempt to recapture his youth. But for Mr. Cash, who once helped launch the careers of legends like Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson, it seemed more like he was doing the younger artists a favour.
Although he drew upon a series of hardships (including his brother's childhood death) for lyrical inspiration, Mr. Cash may never have recovered from a final sadness -- the passing of his wife, June Carter Cash, earlier this year. After battling various health problems for the better part of the past two decades, he died early yesterday morning of complications from diabetes. But as long as there is country, rock, folk, or any of the other genres he helped popularize, the Man in Black will continue to influence modern music the way he has for the past half-century.
Looking over the spate of media eulogies emphasizing his social justice/political conscience component, I'm glad I can remember the man and can keep the hyperbole in its proper perspective. I'm reminded of what a decent guy Johnny was for such an "activist": he didn't rub peoples' faces in their beliefs, didn't shake his fist under everyone's nose, and didn't preach screaming hate for everything this country stood for. If he did, I certainly can't recall it clearly, and that in itself says something.
To me he is like an Abraham Lincoln, or Mark Twain, or even John Wayne, in that he just seems so... "American." But that isn't why I - and my dad to this day - continue to listen to Johnny Cash in a post-Beatles, (and post-Garth) world: he, like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, had the ability to take a song, record it right, and make it uniquely his. No, he wasn't a technically perfect singer, and yes, there is some forgettable material in his discography... but what a legacy of music he provided!
May the circle be unbroken.
I hear you on that. My dad was a depression-era child, growing up dirt-poor in a small Iowa town (where his widowed mother occasionally had to farm out some of the nine kids to relatives); maybe they could relate to some things in Johnny that the rest of us can't quite pick up.
I know I'm getting old when most of my CD collection consists of albums from the dear departed. When people like Johnny and Waylon go, there are no replacements. As someone sardonically said to me yesterday, "Well, we still have Madonna!"
All I could do was nod and roll my eyes.
I hear you on that. My dad was a depression-era child, growing up dirt-poor in a small Iowa town (where his widowed mother occasionally had to farm out some of the nine kids to relatives); maybe they could relate to some things in Johnny that the rest of us can't quite pick up.
I know I'm getting old when most of my CD collection consists of albums from the dear departed. When people like Johnny and Waylon go, there are no replacements. As someone sardonically said to me yesterday, "Well, we still have Madonna!"
All I could do was nod and roll my eyes.
I hear you on that. My dad was a depression-era child, growing up dirt-poor in a small Iowa town (where his widowed mother occasionally had to farm out some of the nine kids to relatives); maybe they could relate to some things in Johnny that the rest of us can't quite pick up.
I know I'm getting old when most of my CD collection consists of albums from the dear departed. When people like Johnny and Waylon go, there are no replacements. As someone sardonically said to me yesterday, "Well, we still have Madonna!"
All I could do was nod and roll my eyes.
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