You can't have failed to notice the recent Johnny Cash revival, mainly due to the release of the Walk the Line biopic last week. I was reading a lengthy article about the great man in Word Magazine this morning, and it got me thinking about my Johnny Cash-associated memories:
1. Going to a dodgy club in Shoreditch on the day he died. This club played a lot of 'electroclash' (remember that?) and choons of that ilk. And then in tribute to Cash they played Get Rhythm. The place erupted.
2. Having a bath while listening to Man Comes Around for the first time, and being moved to tears upon hearing his rendition of First time ever I saw your face.
3. Sat on a nightbus back to Tooting with my sister. A girl - a complete stranger - sat in front turned around and insisted I listened to the song she had on her Discman. It was 'I hung my head', again off Man Comes Around. She said she had never heard a song like it. She said she had had the song on repeat for the whole jouney, and she just had to share it with someone else.
4. I Walk the Line being played at my grandad's funeral.
Blaspehmy though it may be, I think (like you do with Talking Heads) there is such a thing as too much Johnny Cash. That's not to say he's rubbish, but any more than an albums worth is a bit much. I prefer his early stuff meself, and oddly for my atheistic ass, the spirituals.
ReplyDeleteThen again, Live At San Quentin is one of the best live albums ever made
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Ever seen the video for 'Hurt'? That has to be one of the best videos ever made.
ReplyDeleteMy dad bought a Johnny Cash album today. Sorry, I'm not trying to make you feel old, I am trying to make my dad feel young! =)
ReplyDeleteyou've just reminded me that i still haven't seen the film. my stepmother wants to see it and i'm supposed to take her. i am a bad son.
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