There are always two lyrics that come to mind when I think of Johnny Cash. The first is the opening line "Jackson:" We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout.... Perhaps, the credo to anyone who's ever eloped. The other is from "Flosom Prison Blues:" I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. I was far more a fan of his lyrics than the actual music. He was one of those writers who really took it close to the bone as good as anyone one in the history of US music IMO.
Nobody, but nobody, could sing a song about prison, trains, redemption, or shootin' your woman down like Johnny Cash. There's no eye for an eye, there's no tooth for a tooth. I saw Judas Iscariot carryin' John Wilkes Booth.
The coolest intro to any concert...EVER!!!"Hello...I'm Johnny Cash"and then just starts playing.Fuckin' classic.Let me just say that every rock star that goes to jail or trashes a hotelroom is just wishing/hoping/trying to be like Johnny Cash.One bad ass,cop fightin' son of a gun.How many other artists had prisons on their tour schedule?His family and Michael K. have my condolences. REST IN PEACE
The guy would jolt you even if you were watching him on TV. I heard a report several weeks ago saying that he'd responded to June's passing (4 months ago) with flurry of creative activity and that folks were surprised at his vitality. I wonder what it meant.
johnny cash is my favorite all time singer and too me the most important american artist of the postwar period. i will greatly miss him. he has been a huge influence on my life. johnny cash always stood for the oppressed and exploited, many will miss him as a champion.
Indeed. I didn't listen to Cash until I got to college and I was working in a restaurant kitchen. Sunday brunch shift was the good ol' boy shift and they usually played Nashville country, which I hate, but they mixed in some old goodies every now and then. The first time they put it in a Johnny Cash CD, I was sold. Great voice, greaty storyteller. There won't be another like him. - bungadiri: are we to expect one final album? That's what it sounds like.
The Man In Black Johnny Cash Well, you wonder why I always dress in black, Why you never see bright colors on my back, And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone. Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on. I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times. I wear the black for those who never read, Or listened to the words that Jesus said, About the road to happiness through love and charity, Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me. Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose, In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes, But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back, Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black. I wear it for the sick and lonely old, For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold, I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been, Each week we lose a hundred fine young men. And, I wear it for the thousands who have died, Believen' that the Lord was on their side, I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died, Believen' that we all were on their side. Well, there's things that never will be right I know, And things need changin' everywhere you go, But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right, You'll never see me wear a suit of white. Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day, And tell the world that everything's OK, But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back, 'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.
San Quentin San Quentin, you've been livin' hell to me You've hosted me since nineteen sixty three I've seen 'em come and go and I've seen them die And long ago I stopped askin' why _ 2. San Quentin, I hate evry inch of you. You've cut me and have scarred me thru an' thru. And I'll walk out a wiser weaker man; Mister Congressman, you can't understand. 3. San Quentin, what good do you think you do? Do you think I'll be different when you're through? You bent my heart and mind and you may my soul, And your stone walls turn my blood a little cold. 4. San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell. May your walls fall and may I live to tell. May all the world forget you ever stood. And may all the world regret you did no good. San Quentin, you've been livin' hell to me.
I just got in to his music this past year. I got a 3-CD best of & a tribute CD (Dressed in Black). I really dug his music. Rest in peace, Mr. Cash. I can't forget the day I shot that bad bitch down.