Johnny Cash was a musician whose rockabilly style blended country music, blues, rock and gospel sounds. Known as ‘The Man in Black’, Johnny was born on the 26th day of February 1932 in Arkansas to parents Carrie Cloverlee and Ray Cash.
Growing up in a sharecropper community during the Great Depression this hard life instilled in Johnny a deep reverence for God, family and life which is expressed in his music … a music career which spanned over half a century.
I want to start the music with a song I remember from my childhood… and for the record I know the lyrics off by heart. It is not one of his classics but as in all his songs it shares a message about family, in this case a fathers love and his way of preparing his son to cope in life…anyway that is my take
A Boy Named Sue
Johnny Cash is one of the most important, influential and respected artists in the history of recorded music. From his monumental live prison albums, to his extraordinary series of commentaries on the American spirit and the human condition, to a mesmerizing canon of gospel recordings, to his remarkable and unprecedented late-life artistic triumphs of will and wisdom, his impact on our culture is profound and continuing.
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In 1954 Cash and his wife Vivien moved to Memphis Tennesee where Johnny worked as a salesman whilst studying to be a radio announcer. At night he would play guitar with Marshal Grant and Luther Perkins who were known as The Tennessee Two. In 1954 Cash plucked up the courage to visit Sun Studio’s and eventually in 1955 he landed a contract, releasing his first singles Hey Porter and Cry Cry Cry which had some success on the Country Hits charts.
Hey Porter
In the late 50’s Cash started drinking heavily and using barbiturates and amphetamines to stay alert during concerts. In the 60’s despite spiraling out of control he still managed to release a string of hits, his first release which charted on both pop and country was his version of Ring of Fire. Throughout the 1960’s Cash was arrested on snumerous occasions for various misdemeanours but never spent more than one night in prison. In 1967 Cash apparently had an epiphany, seeing God in his heart and after that managed to kick the drug habit.
Man in Black
Man, I am battling to try summarize this man’s life and musical career so I am going to quote from www.johnnycash.com and rather share some of his amazing music… (yeah, I know…cowardly but I have been led down the Johnny Cash rabbit hole for three hours now)
As Johnny matured as an artist, he took his disciples on soaring adventures of the mind and soul, including Ride This Train, a travelogue of the sights and sounds of his beloved country; Blood, Sweat and Tears, the Cash canon of working man blues; Bitter Tears, a searing examination of the treatment of Native Americans; The Holy Land, Hymns from the Heart and other deeply personal statements of faith and devotion; and, of course, the historic concerts at Folsom Prison and San Quentin, where he demonstrated that compassion and healing are more integral to humanity than retribution and disdain.
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I still miss someone
While most artists follow Neil Young’s adage, and either burn out or fade away, Johnny did neither. In his later years, new audiences flocked to hear his consideration of what it means to be human. His powerful statements on love, forgiveness and life and death spoke across time and generations, and still do today. At the end of his life, Johnny Cash had become not only the champion and the conscience of the American Experience, but a portal through which mortals glimpse immortality, an exemplar of overcoming adversity through honesty, and a role model in the everlasting pursuit of Redemption and the promise of the unclouded day.
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Walk the Line - one of his most popular and well known recordings
Johnny Cash was a prolific songwriter and performer. I strongly urge you to explore this artist some more.
Wide Open Road
An absolutely moving rendition of the Nine Inch Nails track HURT …. Read about this man and it seems an extremely appropriate end to this tribute. From that excellent publication Wikipedia …
- "In 2002, Johnny Cash covered the song for his album, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Its accompanying video, featuring images from Cash's life and directed by Mark Romanek, was named the best video of the year by the Grammy Awards and CMA Awards, and the best video of all time by NME in July 2011.,"* ###
Hurt
In my Music Legend series I only cover artists whose Vinyl Albums I have in my collection ...hence the opening photograph