Why I miss the Man in Black

[thatcrazycajun]

Five years ago this past September, we lost Johnny Cash. I grew up listening to his music—hard to avoid in a household where the father loves his country music and plays it on the workshop and truck radios and living-room stereo constantly*—and came to respect him, even though we likely diverged on many things socially and politically, because of his willingness to speak out about things we both saw as wrong even when his musical community condemned such views...and because of his refusal to be pigeon-holed as solely a country singer, willing to try everything from low-down blues to self-parody ("The Chicken in Black") to a Nine Inch Nails song.

This video I ran across on YouTube shows Johnny in his prime, singing what came to be his signature tune...and wearing the look that also became his visual signature. It opens with one of his contemporaries (and very few equals), Merle Haggard, explaining why it was so tough being the Man in Black. The performance is vintage, quintessential Johnny: spare, unadorned by glitz or artifice, just the man and his acoustic guitar singing from the heart. I don't know that we'll ever see his like again...more's the pity.

*During the week, that is; Saturdays and Sundays it was all Cajun music, all the time and French-speaking DJs...which explains the other part of my cultural/ethnic roots I can never get away from.

Comments

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

If you want to know more about Cajun music, this Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_music) is as good a place as any to start.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

One of my memories is in the late 60s or early 70s, during Vietnam, when he had Arlo Guthrie on his network variety show. If my sketchy memory isn't failing me, the song was "I Could Be Singing Forever," and there may have been a bit where someone planted a flower in a rifle barrel. Ah, the 60s!

Seems to me he also had Merle Haggard on, singing "If You Don't Love It, Leave It." Might have even been on the same show. Equal time and all that.

Another country singer I miss is Hoyt Axton. "Della and the Dealer" - now THAT is country music at its best.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]