There are two aspects to Johnny Cash that I have kept with me over the past decade as I've grown increasingly immersed in his music and legend.
The first is Johnny's direct, sparse nature as a performer. From his simple, standard, concert greeting of "Hi, I'm Johnny Cash" to the sparse, direct nature of most of his music. Many people are fond of saying "when Johnny Cash sings, you listen." It's true - you have no choice. Not only is his voice so unique, but the music was arranged so as not get away. The original Tennessee Three sound and the first American Recordings album especially bring this to light.
It was that first American Recordings album that brought Johnny Cash out of the background and into my life directly. It's an amazing album - just Johnny Cash and an acoustic guitar. It's raw and pure and honest, and holds many of my favorite songs, such as the Cash originals "Drive On" and "Redemption" as well as renderings of "The Cowboys Prayer / Oh Bury Me Not," Danzig's "Thirteen," and Jimmy Driftwood's "Tennessee Stud."
Since the time of picking that up, the second aspect picked up. That is, as I started to go into the history of Johnny Cash, I found myself going into family history. I found a lot of similar characteristics with my Grandpa, who passed away last October. Over the past year, his music has helped me cope with this family death which impacted me more than I expected.
Songs like "Jacob Green," which tells the story of a young man arrested on possession hanging himself in jail are very powerful. This is Johnny's folk music aspect - this is a story (based on a true story that happened in Virginia) about corruption, about "if you turn your head away, somewhere in some dirty hole the scene will be rerun. Not only Jacob Green, but many more you've never seen. It could be someone you love gets done like Jacob Green got done." The song not only addresses prison suicides, even on small charges, but also corruption: "but like a tomb that looks so bright and shiny, inside you'll find corruption never seen..." He could definitely be pegged as a folk artist, but I think he has captured more of an audience for his stories than any other folk singer (Dylan included) because his voice and earnestness is just so arresting. The power of his original works continued up to the song "The Man Comes Around" which is a powerful romp through the book of revelations.
We had something fairly unique in Johnny Cash - here is an artist with an impressively long career whom we watched grow old. As his daughter Rosanne said, "he didn't become a parody of himself at fifty." There are other great country and bluegrass artists who are reaching similar age, such as Willie Nelson and Ralph Stanley, but they don't command the same audience and history as Johnny Cash (great though they are), nor have any of them yet had illnesses like Cash had in recent years. Other rock artists who are still recording and performing, such as the Rolling Stones, I doubt will be remembered like this. Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley are unique in history.
I went out dancing last night, although I would have preferred going out to a good quiet bar (or even a country/rock karaoke bar) to celebrate in my own way. But even at this club, there were touches everywhere. My favorite - one of the doormen had a name tag on that said, simply, "hello, my name is SUE." On two floors, they played "Hurt," off of American IV (many of the people at this club were probably familiar with the original Nine Inch Nails song). Each play was followed with somber but appreciative applause.
When June Carter Cash died in May, my friends and I all felt that Johnny would be gone in six months, knowing both his medical condition and the fact that he wouldn't have lived like he did without June. Of interest is that since her death in May, Johnny's been writing new songs and was preparing to fly out to California to record for the next American Recordings. I don't know what will be done with those recordings. There are plans to release a set of the sessions from the American Recordings (I-IV) series, called "Unearthed." It was planned to be released by the end of the year, according to this MTV news item that was put out a day or two before his death.
And finally, the song "The Man in Black" sums it up greatly: "But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back, Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black." We need more leaders like this.