Vinyl Diving
Johnny Cash recaptures a generation.
I don’t think anyone under the age of thirty understood the profound coolness of Johnny Cash until Walk The Line was released in 2005. I knew Cash played in prison and had a drug problem, and I thought both of those things were pretty cool – but I had no idea he liked to pretend his guitar was a gun. I never knew what the epitome of rock n’ roll was until I saw him shoot that six stringer straight at the crowd. Wearing all black? That’s pretty cool. Using an instrument as a firearm? That’s really cool.
There isn’t much to be said about Cash that most people won’t already know. He fell in love with June Carter, did a lot of drugs (with Elvis, apparently) and made some pretty well known tunes. The thing I find most interesting about Cash is something that actually had nothing to do with his music. Cash invited Joaquin Phoenix to his house for dinner until he decided whether or not Phoenix was worthy enough to play Cash’s likeness in a movie. It’s interesting that Cash had so much control over the actor who would play him – it’s even more intriguing that he took advantage of this power granted to him. He either really cared about how he would be portrayed – or he just wanted to flex the muscle that the producers gave him.
I know about five or six older people that have tattoos involving the Armed Forces in some way, shape or form. Of this group, I think all of them like Johnny Cash. He is pretty hard not to like, though. Cash was number thirty one on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artist of All Time list – and anybody who utters the line, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die,” is once again – pretty cool.
This particular record is The Very Best of Johnny Cash, yet is missing “Folsom Prison Blues.” I think the first Johnny Cash song that everyone hears is “Ring Of Fire,” so here it is in all its record crackling goodness..
STREAM: Johnny Cash – Ring Of FirePosted by Wes Soltis on Feb 04, 2008 @ 12:00 am
