So, I've got a little confession to make:

[xiphias]

I really never listened to much Johnny Cash. Dunno why. But I know that nearly ALL my friends love his work. So I finally went to http://www.johnnycash.com and it's got this link where you can stream eighteen of his songs from various points in his career..

And I've been listening to those songs over and over 'casue they're all awesome. Starts out with "A Boy Named Sue", by everyone's favorite Playboy cartoonist and David Mamet collaborator, Shel Silverstein. Includes "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", his cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt", "The Man in Black", and his paean to the show "Dukes of Hazzard" called "General Lee." This is not an artist who took himself too seriously.

Comments

[cowgurrl.livejournal.com]

Isn't there a Johnny Cash movie coming out soon?

[not-the-angel.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it stars Joaquim Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon as the, ahem, happy couple.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Red Cross commercial using his cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" yet?

Man...heart-rending version of that song.

Yup

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

and if you edit that URL by adding // after the : then people could actually click on it. ;-)

Re: Yup

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Fixed; thanks.

[vonbeck.livejournal.com]

You got to love that he was known as "The man in black".

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

And the song "The Man in Black" explains why. It includes some Christian theology in it, but, y'know, the GOOD kind of Christian theology -- the kind that says that you're supposed to treat people well and fight injustice and stuff like that -- you know, the kind of stuff that politicians who call themselves Christian are usually against. . .

[bimmer1200.livejournal.com]

Johnny Cash was an amazing artist. I sometimes kid that he was Goth before Goth was cool, dressing in black, singing about emotion and the darker aspects of life. While his voice is not polished, the raw emotion in every word of every song...

I have a collection called God, Love, Death of his: three discs with songs grouped by which of the three subjects they reflect upon. There are some of those songs that mist me up regardless of what I'm doing when it comes up. I hope the movie will be enough of a success to introduce a whole new generation to The Man in Black.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

I had a lit professor who made the same joke about Nathaniel Hawthorne.

[copperpoint.livejournal.com]

I think that's the appeal of him. Yes he was grim and morbid, but he understood that being grim and morbid didn't mean he couldn't be funny or have a good time.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

I like Johnny Cash, too - I'm surprised you didn't hear his music growing up cuz there was a time that I was listening to it. I was especially interested in his work in the prisons. Heard about it from singing friends who performed in Massachusetts prisons. Do you want to see the movie with us when it comes out? Maybe we could get a group to go. It was fun to go with a group to see the Firefly movie. I'm up for another night out.

[(Anonymous)]

Johnny Cash was my cousin - really.

His music was pretty phenomenal. There are few artists that become so firmly entrenched in "Americana". Johnny was one of them.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

And for good reason -- he stood for what was right with America -- social concience, a sense of fun, actually DEALING with problems when you have them instead of blaming others. By the way -- who are you?

[(Anonymous)]

I changed my user ID to anonymous when I admitted JC was my cousin... Gotta protect the identity, you know :-)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I won't pry, then. But now you're opening yourself up for guesses! I'm guessing. . . hmm . . . papersky! You're actually a Welsh fantasy writer, correct?

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

I love a good base, and Johnny's is in the basement. I think he's so good at evoking emotion because he's been through so much in his life. His music goes from his heart to the listener's.