"Well you wonder why I always dress in black, why you never see bright colors on my back..."
I was speaking to a friend of mine at work about upcoming movies, and said how excited I was for the Johnny Cash biopic, "Walk The Line", to finally come out November 18th. Another of the guys working laughed and said he didn't understand the big deal about the Man in Black, and didn't know why I admired him and his work.
The more I thought about it, the more reasons I had for my admiration, and I also figured it'd be a decent topic to write about...
Johnny Cash represents family. I may have a craptacular family, but Johnny Cash has been there with three generations of us, a tradition passed from my Grandpa Don to my father to me. He also reminds me of my Grandpa Don, since he was a honky-tonk singer (and a damn good one) who was offered a deal by Decca Records many moons ago, but turned it down in favor of the bottle. Johnny reminds me of the choices, like this one, that can lead to either salvation or damnation.
Johnny Cash represents truth. He stood up for his beliefs before it was the "cool" thing to do. He fought for the rights of prisoners, Native Americans, the poor, the beaten down, the old, and the disenfranchised. He performed in prisons with the same (or maybe more) passion and fire than when he played for heads of state. Oh that reminds me...when Richard Nixon invited him to play the White House and sing "Okie From Muskogee," Cash accepted the invitation, but instead opened with "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," about how one of the heroes of the Battle of Iwo Jima was minimalized because he was a Native American. That's ballsy as hell. And on top of that, "The Man in Black" is the best protest song you will ever hear.
Johnny Cash represents the true meaning of "walking the line." He had the capability of singing about Jesus one moment and using an axe to chop into his guitarist's room in a drugged rage the next (true story). I think the best example of this is when he talked about the cover of his American Recordings album:
"You know my album cover with the two dogs on it? I've given them names. Their names are Sin and Redemption. Sin is the black one with the white stripe; Redemption is the white one with the black stripe. That's kind of the theme of the album, and I think it says it for me, too. When I was really bad, I was not all bad. When I was really trying to be good, I could never be all good. There would be that black streak going through."
When I look at everything wrong in our country today, I try to think of John's example and how he always stood up for the underdog, and I try to keep fighting the good fight, no matter how futile it seems sometimes, because that's how he would do it if he were still with us.
On those days when it feels like one person speaking out cannot change the system...I wear black.
The more I thought about it, the more reasons I had for my admiration, and I also figured it'd be a decent topic to write about...
Johnny Cash represents family. I may have a craptacular family, but Johnny Cash has been there with three generations of us, a tradition passed from my Grandpa Don to my father to me. He also reminds me of my Grandpa Don, since he was a honky-tonk singer (and a damn good one) who was offered a deal by Decca Records many moons ago, but turned it down in favor of the bottle. Johnny reminds me of the choices, like this one, that can lead to either salvation or damnation.
Johnny Cash represents truth. He stood up for his beliefs before it was the "cool" thing to do. He fought for the rights of prisoners, Native Americans, the poor, the beaten down, the old, and the disenfranchised. He performed in prisons with the same (or maybe more) passion and fire than when he played for heads of state. Oh that reminds me...when Richard Nixon invited him to play the White House and sing "Okie From Muskogee," Cash accepted the invitation, but instead opened with "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," about how one of the heroes of the Battle of Iwo Jima was minimalized because he was a Native American. That's ballsy as hell. And on top of that, "The Man in Black" is the best protest song you will ever hear.
Johnny Cash represents the true meaning of "walking the line." He had the capability of singing about Jesus one moment and using an axe to chop into his guitarist's room in a drugged rage the next (true story). I think the best example of this is when he talked about the cover of his American Recordings album:
"You know my album cover with the two dogs on it? I've given them names. Their names are Sin and Redemption. Sin is the black one with the white stripe; Redemption is the white one with the black stripe. That's kind of the theme of the album, and I think it says it for me, too. When I was really bad, I was not all bad. When I was really trying to be good, I could never be all good. There would be that black streak going through."
When I look at everything wrong in our country today, I try to think of John's example and how he always stood up for the underdog, and I try to keep fighting the good fight, no matter how futile it seems sometimes, because that's how he would do it if he were still with us.
On those days when it feels like one person speaking out cannot change the system...I wear black.