For those of you who will miss Johnny Cash

[SuperShyGuy]

Here's a simpy fabulous article someone has written about him. He did this a few months ago, now for obvious reasons the article has been reposted by him. Give this a read, it's outstanding.

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=1309&st=0&#entry10360

 

[tonitits]

His death did not really surprise me too much. He has been very ill lately and he was 71. I grew up with Johnny Cash. I remember as a kid we would watch his show on tv with his wife.
It seems that all the pop icons of our youth are all dying and disappearing. And even though there are some very talented performers they are not of the same caliber as some of these. He will be missed by many.

 

[SuperShyGuy]

True, his death was not shocking. He'd been in poor health for some time. Still, I'll miss him. I grew up on him too, even if by then he was considered a has-been by some... boy did he have them eat those words later on.

 

[69forever]

.

Here's a simpy fabulous article someone has written about him. He did this a few months ago, now for obvious reasons the article has been reposted by him. Give this a read, it's outstanding.

http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/index.php?showtopic=1309&st=0&#entry10360

I like old country. Heard a song as a tribute, on a rock station
here this afternoon, and I wept. Don't remember the name of it,
but he was singing of his addiction to heroin. Never heard it
before. So fucking honest and poignant.

Great article. I quote.

The fact that he is well over seventy years of age and is still
recording some of his most resonant music in decades is a singular anomaly worth contemplation on its own merits.....

and....

Then, the music was for the working man, performed by professionals who knew what it was to get hustled out of a payout at the end of the night. Men who sang of angels and
devils, all too cognizant of how the lines between the two blurred.

Nice thread. RIP Johnny.

 

[SuperShyGuy]

Re: Re: For those of you who will miss Johnny Cash

.

I like old country. Heard a song as a tribute, on a rock station
here this afternoon, and I wept. Don't remember the name of it,
but he was singing of his addiction to heroin. Never heard it
before. So fucking honest and poignant.

I'd have to guess the song in reference would be "hurt". Originally by either Trent Reznor or Nine Inch Nails, can't remember which. Cash's cover of it on his last album simply exceeds brillance.

 

[Soron]

Despite Cash’s dalliances with counterculture figures from the 1960s onward, it is difficult to see him as anything other than a musician driven by an essential, heartfelt conservatism. His is not the flag conservatism of Lee Greenwood and his successors, who understood that a serviceable, overtly patriotic country song cannot help but chart and find resonance among those Nebraska ranchers and Kentucky miners for whom country music seems crafted. A conservatism of the heart, the mind, and ultimately, the soul drives Cash’s music, from his original lyrics to his more recent interpretations of songs written by men who count him as a formative influence.

I've heard him do Springsteen songs as if they were his own. I've heard him sing on record with U2. He was at the big celebration for Bob Dylan a few years ago AND he's in the Country and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.
Like Springsteen and Woody Guthrie and Dylan and even as far back as Walt Whitman, Johnny Cash wrote songs about 'real' people. That, I think will be his legacy. I'll certainly miss him.

 

[69forever]

Re: Re: Re: For those of you who will miss Johnny Cash

I'd have to guess the song in reference would be "hurt". Originally by either Trent Reznor or Nine Inch Nails, can't remember which. Cash's cover of it on his last album simply exceeds brillance.

There isn't that much lately that will bring me to tears, such has
been my anger over recent events, but that song cut me to the quick. Been there...done that.

Like the article said, the resonance of his voice. I will miss him.

 

[Arden]

Video and audio of "Hurt"...

http://krockradio.com/cash/

Darn, the vid isn't working for me...

 

[69forever]

Video and audio of "Hurt"...

http://krockradio.com/cash/

Darn, the vid isn't working for me...

Yeah, tried to.

 

[sheath]

I live and work in Nashville, and in the last few days, one common theme has been rolling around town:

Johnny Cash was one of those rare men who became a legend simply by being himself. He was absolutely brilliant, but no matter what musical heights he reached, his true worth was always measured by the love and loyalty to family, both his own and the extended family of Music Row.

We all miss Johnny, but as he said after the funeral of his beloved wife, June: "One day soon, Junie, I will walk through those gates and into your arms."

Rest well, Mr. Cash.

S.