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| From | "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com> |
| Subject | Re: Roseanne and Johnny Cash |
| Date | Thu, 03 Jul 2003 01:12:25 -0500 |
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> Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 20:23:16 EDT
> From: JIMSOULS@aol.com
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: Rosanne and Johnny Cash
> Message-ID: <171.20e70f9b.2c34d174@aol.com>
>
> As I drove home that night, I thought of how difficult it must have been
> for
> him to come out and perform given his particular circumstances. I thought
> of
> how it could well have been the last performance the man will ever give. I
> also
> thought of how often we as music fans jump the gun and refer to artists as
>
> "great" after one or two decent albums. True greatness, of course, plays
> out
> over a long period of time and is reserved for a select few. Johnny Cash
> fits the
> bill. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
>
Johnny Cash is The Man. He's had living-icon status for so long now
that sometimes you just have to put on one of his albums to remind yourself
why.
When he was young and strong, that booming baritone of his had the
muscular authority of a musical James Earl Jones. But now it's possessed of
the same amazing but difficult gift that the old bluesmen had, the gift of
being able to imply a long and hard life behind the voice itself. It's a
gift that has really come out in the four albums he's done with producer
Rick Rubin over the past decade; in addition to serving as the vehicle for
transforming his own estimable songs, the craggy gravitas of his voice has
turned him into the sort of interpreter that can imbue a modern rock song
with layers of meaning that the songwriter (Tom Petty, Glenn Danzig, Trent
Reznor, Nick Lowe, etc.) didn't even know was there in the first place.
I've read that even in his weakened condition Cash has continued to
record new material in the wake of his wife's death. I certainly hope so.
Johnny Cash is one of the heads on the Mount Rushmore of American music, and
it would be a true shame if his death were to be preceded by his silence.
Gregory Sager
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