When I got my new job I indulged myself with two box sets Amazon is flogging for $23.97 apiece, the bargains of the century. I have not listened to the Sinatra set yet but am so enthusiastic about the Johnny Cash collection I want to pass my enthusiasm along.
Usually when I get hotted up about music here it is a rocker -- Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, Eric Clapton. Johnny cannot be characterized as a rocker, although he is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (You could look it up, as Casey Stengel liked to say). He wrote and sang American music that is truly timeless. Songs like "I Walk the Line" will be listened to as long as anyone listens to recorded music.
There are some great pictures in the set. One that grabbed me was of Johnny and Bob Dylan, the young Dylan smirking at the camera insolently. My favorite is of Johnny and June, her head on his chest. It makes you feel about 1000 times better about life.
Another good one: a line of fans waiting for autographs from Johnny, who was young at the time. The second woman looks at him with an expression of adoration. Not a dumb teen fan, a woman who knew what she liked. A simpler time for sure.
Johnny and Waylon. A couple of wild men.
There was something forbidding about him, something that made you think he was not a guy to mess with. (As the liner notes point out, he was never actually in prison, even though many people thought he was). You would want him to respect you. There are some of those pictures, too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UYT9SK/ref=ox_ya_os_productThere was a man.
UPDATE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7K4jH7NqUwAnother update, and now I'll shut up. The quintessential Johnny Cash:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgja26eNeY&feature=PlayList&p=E64FB399A242F2A4&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2Everything in life is on YouTube....
