I spent most of the night thinking about whether or not people are still listening to Johnny Cash now that he has passed and is up in heaven with June. They must be together. Of that I have no doubt.
I’m not being dramatic either, I know people are still listening to him. He is mixed in on a gazillion Spotify playlists. Probably 20 of them are mine. Its a sad thing in life how you don’t get to meet all of your heroes. With all the technology and crap this basic human desire is rarely if ever fulfilled and probably serves as the authentic basis of the now perverse existence of celebrity.
I was always blown away by his view that men in prison were worthy of a concert. There is such humanity in that gesture. Sadly the kind of humanity that has eroded from much of the world. Maybe that was why we were all so drawn to him because he knew the humanity in us all. Bob Dylan said he was the North Star – now that’s a compliment. Ive spent days thinking about what that mean and like everything genius it makes complete inexplicable sense. The minute you start to describe it or break it down it loses its perfect meaning.
I’ve also been fascinated for decades about how Rick Rubin “Resurrected” his career. I mean how could he have not known how amazing he was just his voice and a guitar. Breaks my heart that he spent so many years not feeling confident. Im surprised Dylan and company didn’t go and pick him up for before Rick Rubin did. They are all heroes of mine. I’m just oblivious, clueless and confused. Maybe they all revered him so much. They like me never thought it would be necessary. I wish more artists if not all artists would make a hard line distinction between celebrity and the art that made them famous. They are two wheel houses. Its fun to be popular but popularity has nothing to do with your art. I wish someone did and I assume in summation of Rick Rubin’s time with Johnny it was made evident that you sing and play guitar and that’s your art. It’s probably easier to stay like Dylan as an artist who entertains. Entertainers usually run out of material and reasons for touring.
I’d love to talk to somebody over Crown Floats about their favourite Johnny Cash album under the stressor that you can only save three albums. I put him right up there with Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi, etc as one of the greats of man and womankind.
I do think we are all deeply indebted to the musicians who ended up working with Johnny. I marvel at the notion of the person who helped him or told him what key to sing in.
Im trying to figure out about the nature of his immortality through art. Sadly although his art might live on he is certainly as of the last ten years talked about much less. That sadness aside I do take great joy in catching children picking up songs 20 or 30 years before their time. In their sing alongs I see the immortality of music and pop culture. they might never get as deep in the woods as we did because we lived while it was coming out and at the time there was nothing else new for us. But they dont need to in order to enjoy it. My 6 year old nephew asked me to play him an ELO track the other night. I was blown away and delighted. So I have been experimenting on them. My goal is to play them something and get them to ask me what is this…..and then I’ll say this is Johnny Cash.
Leave a Reply