Biography of Johnny Cash
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It is almost un-American not to like Johnny Cash. He sings songs about trains and God and farmers and Indians. And he's been around forever. Wasn't "I Walk the Line" in the '50s sometime? And wasn't he in jail for a while? No, he sang in jail -- that's right! He's the guy who sang "Folsom Prison Blues." And he's still making records, right? How can you not like him?The trick is to get past the myth and all the hype and just listen to some of the music.Pick a period -- there are lots to choose from. I'd recommend starting at the beginning, maybe with the aforementioned "I Walk the Line." Or you might go back several months to the original version of "Folsom Prison Blues." There are no convicts screaming in the background here, but it's a mighty fine record. In fact, many of Cash's early recordings for the Sun label are about as close to perfect as one can imagine. Things couldn't get much simpler. Perfectly simple, you might say.Cash's early 45s, even his first album, feature just Johnny Cash and his two-man band, The Tennessee Two: a minimalist electric guitar and acoustic bass. You might think, "If there are just the two of them, they must do some mighty fancy picking, right?" Put it this way: the musical limitations of The Tennessee Two make Johnny Cash sound like Pavarotti. Rather than embellish Cash's strikingly sparse sound, Sun Label owner Sam Phillips let the band's "boom-chicka-boom" and Cash's lonely baritone vocals hang in an eerie sea of echo that, just months before, had swathed the vocals of Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. These were friendly waters. The power of these early records (add "Train of Love" and "Big River" to the list) is unmistakable thirty-five years after they were made.To his credit, Johnny Cash's recorded sound has remained almost unchanged across the decades. Like many survivors of the halcyon days at Sun Records, Cash has battled a host of demons including substance abuse and personal tragedies. He has emerged strong and fit for battle. Considering the immense amount of material in his recorded legacy, there is little to be ashamed of. There are few artists with as instantly recognizable a sound and style as Johnny Cash, and few as worthy of the attention of a whole new generation of listeners.Johnny Cash should be approached chronologically. Stay away from his later (Polygram) work until you've digested his Columbia years (1958 through the mid '80s), and don't enter the Columbia years until you can pass a quiz on his Sun period. By 1993, Cash felt estranged from the new country movement and successfully freed himself from Polygram to join forces with rock auteur Rick Rubin on American Records. It turned out to be an inspired decision. ~ Hank Davis
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