Friday, May 6, 2011

The Original Bad Boy

Throughout the history of music, from the very earliest of modern song in the wee years of the 20th century, all the way through good ol' 2011, there have been, arguably, only three real bad boys. There is the great and unlikely Neil Young, long and tall, bearded and hairy, the man who does not care, whatsoever what anyone else thinks about how he looks, plays or sings. There was the legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker, whose smiling face could disarm the meanest of mean, and whose sweet voice could bring rapture to the saddest souls around. And then, there was the One. The bad boy to end all bad boys, the Man in Black, Mr. Johnny Cash. Born in Dyess, Arkansas in 1932, he grew up to be one of the most influential country music stars of all time. Despite his ongoing struggle with drugs, alcohol and a self-destructive personality, when Johnny cleaned up his act in 1968, he became an all-American hero, projecting rebellious cool while at the same time keeping his act fairly clean, especially considering what it could have been. Today, I want to talk about the great man himself, and his fantastic contribution to music.

Johnny Cash first gained recognition as Nashville agency Sun Record's newest recording artist in the summer of 1954. Sam Phillips of Sun signed him after an impromptu audition with Cash and his two mechanic-turned-band mate buddies, Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant. The group, called Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, cut and released their first singles "Hey Porter" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!" in '55, and started touring with several other groups around the south, and a bit out west as well. In 1957, Johnny's career took off with his album "Folsom Prison Blues", and he began touring around the country with other up and coming stars like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. During the 1960s, Johnny enjoyed success as both a recording artist and a performer; he notoriously played shows for inmates at penitentiaries, most notably at San Quentin and Folsom Prison, both in California. Despite his struggle with amphetamines and his troubled marriage, he managed to emerge victorious as a hugely successful singer and songwriter.

His earlier work differed greatly from some of his later stuff, and I'd like to talk particularly about the latter. In 1994, Johnny Cash released his first of six albums produced by the great Rick Rubin, called "American Recordings". The album featured only a couple of original Cash tunes, and was mostly comprised of acoustic covers. This album, and the next five American Recordings, were a turning point for Cash in his slowly fading career. In the past, Johnny had been backed up by a basic band, and his tunes tended to be jaunty and upbeat. But, on "American Recordings" and his next five albums, many tracks featured just Johnny, alone with just his guitar, sometimes backed by another singer or a bluesy slide guitar. As he grew older, Cash began to lose the golden voice he once had, and his songs, no matter what the feel or tempo, became slower, sweeter, and sadder than ever before. His deep, rolling voice became scratchy and throaty, giving the listener a feel for the hard times that he had seen, and the tough heartbreaks he'd been through.

"American Recordings" was fairly successful on the charts, but his last three albums, "American(s) IV, V, and VI" were met with high sales revenue on one end, and serious scrutiny on the other. There were some longtime Cash fans who found themselves moving away from him, considering him just another old man trying to stay alive in a changing music business. His dozens of covers over the last ten years of his life were, in my opinion, some of his best recordings, though many music critics did not feel this way. You see, over the years, Cash had lost his voice, and, though many fans like myself enjoyed the hardcore, scratchy quality of his once-smooth baritone, there were countless masses who condemned Cash for "butchering" the tune to traditional, meaningful songs such as "Danny Boy" and "Desperado". The former, "Danny Boy" was a favorite target of these critics, citing Cash's wavering vocal ability unfit to perform such a beautiful tune. They said it was for Mario Lanza or Andy Williams to sing, someone who could always hit every note, not for an emotional singer such as Cash.

Despite the record's high sales and popularity, this criticism always stayed with me and struck me as unnecessary. I feel like Johnny had earned the right to sing whatever he damn well pleased, being such an old soul and one of the founders of real country music, most notably the outlaw movement of the late 60s and 70s. In conclusion, I want to let all of you know that Johnny Cash will always be in my heart as one of the greatest performers of all time, and that, if you haven't heard his more recent stuff, (some of the posthumous releases) do yourself a favor and go out and buy the CDs, or mp3s, or whatever the kids do today. Even take a quick look on Youtube first to take a listen to a couple of sample tracks...that will get you started. I hope you've enjoyed this opinion, and I hope you take the time to listen to the Man in Black sometime soon.

-A