of Johnny Cash
Peter Stone Brown
and in some crazy sense I thought he would always be there. The first Cash
song I truly remember was "Ring of Fire" which was a big hit when I was a
kid, but there were others which I didn't necessarily first hear by Cash:
"I Still Miss Someone" and "Big River" were some of the others. I didn't
appreciate him at first. I bought my first Johnny Cash album "Live At
Folsom Prison," not long after it came out. At first I didn't see what all
the fuss was about, but a couple of days later one of the songs (I can't
remember which one) was stuck in my mind and I had to hear it again, and
then again and again. I was hooked.
In 1969, PBS broadcast a documentary on Cash, "Johnny Cash: The Man and His
Music." I was living in New York city at the time, and I remember a bunch
of us crowding into someone's apartment to watch it mainly because word had
gotten out that Bob Dylan was going to be on it. None of us had seen Bob
Dylan since his motorcycle crash and when he finally appeared about midway
through dueting in the recording studio with Cash on "One Too Many
Mornings," it was something of a shock since Dylan was singing in a totally
new voice, not to mention they were singing the song to the Johnny Cash beat
and Dylan was chewing gum.
That documentary however was important for many other reasons. Living up to
the title, it showed who Johnny Cash the man was. His Arkansas roots,
singing in prison, his concern for American Indians, taking the time
backstage to listen to some unknown songwriter. It showed that Cash was for
more than some shallow country music hitmaker.
I finally got to see Johnny Cash in concert in 1976 at the Temple University
Music Festival in the suburbs of Philadelphia. By this time I was heavy
duty into country and western music and had seen many country performers.
The Johnny Cash Show was totally different than any of the others. Back
then country performers (with the exception of Merle Haggard) either didn't
know or pay attention to the advances in live sound. The Cash show was
professional in every way.
In the country tradition, it was a whole show with other acts, The Statler
Brothers, the Carter Family. Cash's band, The Tennessee Three was augmented
by piano player Earl Poole Ball as well as the Tennessee Trumpets (two
trumpet players) who played on exactly two songs, "Ring of Fire" and another
one, though I can't remember which one.
The greatness of The Tennessee Three is often overlooked, but their dynamics
were amazing. This was no small venue, but Cash's Martin D-45 (he had two
actually with capos in different positions so he never had to tune) which
was neither plugged in or miked could easily be heard over the band. Cash's
presence on stage was overwhelming. Even though you knew he was going to do
it, when he took the stage and said, "Hello I'm Johnny Cash," it was
thrilling.
The show was carefully structured with various parts, a "Ride This Train"
sequence, a gospel part near the end, and of course the duets with June
Carter. One of the highlights was when he did his current hit, "One Piece
At A Time" and a screen appeared and they had a (comical) movie of the car
in the song, long before rock videos.
I didn't see Cash again until the late '80s or early '90s when he played the
Keswick, a fairly small theater outside Philadelphia. The show had been
scaled back somewhat. The Statler Brothers were gone and so was Les Ball.
In a nod to tradition, Marshall Grant mostly played the upright bass. Again
it was a totally amazing show.
The next time I saw Cash was at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary tribute and
then I saw him deliver the opening speech and sing some songs from his
forthcoming first album on American at the South By Southwest Music
Conference in Austin.
In 1995 I saw him again at the Keswick in a show that wasn't all that
different than the previous one. His voice seemed deeper, richer and more
powerful than ever. It was beyond magnetic and one of those shows you left
feeling totally dazed.
Two years later it was announced he had Parkinson's disease and cancelled
touring and an appearances to promote his new book. It turned out he didn't
have Parkinson's disease and whatever sickness he really had wasn't
diagnosed for years. More records appeared and by the time of his third
album, "Solitary Man," it was obvious that his voice, a voice like no other
was weakened.
When he appeared on the tribute to him at Radio City, there was no doubt he
could still sing, but he looked like he was at death's door. Johnny Cash to
me was something of an indestructible force, but it was difficult to watch
him in this condition. It was just too sad.
But he persevered and continued to make music. And music is what Johnny
Cash ultimately was about. Defying odds, he went way beyond the confines of
country music and made songs you never dreamed he'd do his own.
In the past day a lot has been written and much has been said about what
made Johnny Cash great. In the end I think it comes down to this: he was
real. I don't think you can get any more real than Johnny Cash. And in a
time that is marked by fear and peril, when out country appears to have lost
its direction and ideals, Johnny Cash stands as a shining example of a great
American.
I think that's why his appeal spanned generations and affected people from
every walk of life. I know this from singing his songs myself. Johnny Cash
was always my ace in the hole for playing to a disinterested crowd. Someone
would always know a Johnny Cash song. Play one and they'd want to hear
more.
Waking up to the news Johnny Cash was gone was startling, but not
surprising. It was time, but a numbness set in but at the same time I
couldn't stop thinking about him and still can't stop thinking about him.
Last night on TV, they showed a brief clip of him at June Carter's funeral.
I barely recognized him. Even though I'd just seen him on a rerun of recent
Larry King interview, he seemed to have aged another 50 years overnight.
The love he and June Carter shared was like a beacon every time you saw them
together. There was no doubt that here were two people who truly loved each
other and were made for each other. Even from the relative distance of a
stage it came through.
Yet, it's a measure of his greatness that Johnny Cash carried on till the
end, still recording still making plans. This was a man who appreciated
life in the face of genuine devastation.
Almost all of the great musicians who first recorded in that almost mystical
tiny studio in Memphis are now gone. Interestingly enough, the biggest hell
raiser of them all Jerry Lee Lewis survives. But for someone whose life
(for some insane reason I'll never be able to explain) is based around music
and what these people created, things are sad and only getting sadder.
In Johnny Cash's case however, we can rejoice and be grateful we lived in
his lifetime and experienced the more than vast treasure of music he gave
us. And grateful for all the other things he gave us as well. His music
will live on for years to come. This has already been proven.
But as great as those songs are, no one can sing them the way he did. It
was that unnamed "thing" in his voice. You can't put a name on it, but it
expressed a thousand feelings all at once and perhaps said everything his
lyrics left out.
So as the tributes pour in and accolades come from all over the world, there
's one difference with Johnny Cash and that's that they are true. There
have been few people in my lifetime that really lived up to the words legend
and hero. Johnny Cash did, and lots of other things as well.
--
"I'm having a hard time believin' some people were ever alive" -Bob Dylan
e-mail: p...@peterstonebrown.com
http://www.peterstonebrown.com
Skirmishd
him.
I only got to appreciate the man much later, but he'd always been around. Just
a couple of months ago neighbors cut us a more recent CD of his and I loved it.
These neighbors are 20-something, and I thought it was nice that they could
see his greatness. I hope the Carter/Cash traditon lives on forever.
Not as eloquent,
karen
harry haller
this mountain of a man was,is,will be.(Cash became my first musical
hero,odd since I played sax.King Curtis I heard ,too).Johnny Cash
elevated the standards,improved the climate-if you were cold,he'd turn
it up.If you were hot,he'd bring an ease to your life. He let you
know he'd lived awhile,maybe centuries,and you got to go on,live
it,enjoy and suffer,they're closer than we thought.In 1970, after
winning a Grammy for "Best Liner Notes"for "Nashville Skyline",Cash
brought Dylan to a national audience,meaning the "country(regulated
country)"audience. We know the others Cash had on that
series.(Cash singing "What is Truth",Haggard doing"The Fighting Side
of Me":Cash was of course fair.On "San Quentin",he plays around with a
song,then feels it,"I don't know where I'm bound",the highlight of
the show-the line "San Quentin,you been living hell to me."(Itreminded
me of "Dylan's,"sometimes I think this whole world's just one big
prisonyard/some of us are prisoners,the rest of us are guards>"(George
Jackson",single-for non-Dylanologists).Cash wrote a good number of
great,amusing,tender,mean("I shot a man in Reno just to watch him
die")and ask June ,love songs.Those last CDs,including the Petty
collaboration,make me glow that he found an expanding audiece,while
bringing back strays.I never strayed.Brown likely never did.He knows
too much more than most,including me.and like T Bone says,"When you
realize you're humble,you're no longer humble."On many days I ain't
.but maybe a part of the character of Cash was a "gentle,genuine
humility.greatness he carried well"HH.
Tom Lace
Thank you for writing and posting this. I too was a fan that came to him
only after some time, but then I was hooked beyond release. It's painful to
lose someone so authentic in a world so barren of real folks.
Tom
On 9/14/03 7:08 PM, in article
rx69b.11336$NM1....@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net, "Peter Stone Brown"
Joe Martines
special just after the death of June Carter Cash. One of her comments
stuck with me; she said that the one thing about Johnny Cash was his
huge presence. No matter what other performer or performers they were
with, with Johnny came on stage everyone deferred to him.
I can't say I know the work of Johnny Cash overly well, being mostly
familiar only with his greatest hits. but I look forward to exploring
his work in great detail in the next few months.
Joe Martines