Remember Everything: More On The Man In Black

"Stretch him out no longer." -- Kent, King Lear (5.3.316)

Johnny Cash's death yesterday has been big news, but I think it's important for people to know the breadth and depth of his career that spanned almost fifty years. Today's Times has a lengthy tribute to him that gives a fairly good overview of his truly sprawling career, and addresses (however passingly) the extents to which Cash was always influencing and being influenced by new music, to which he was always redefining himself and music in general. His American Recordings is a brilliant album, well worth the listen, as are the successors to it. And even if Johnny didn't die on stage as he said he wanted to die, at least he died at a kind of career apogee, at a point when even people of the crassest tastes were recognizing his significance and greatness. I'd also encourage people to read the tribute from New Music Express, which rightly remarks that we should observe the passing of Cash with the same kind of awe that people observed the passing of Elvis; but where Elvis became tired and self-caricaturing, Cash remained a figure of great dignity and passion. The comparison of Cash with King Lear at the end of the tribute strikes me as rather fitting. He died like Lear, after suffering and great loss, his vanity stripped away, but suddenly and finally recognized for who he truly was, a kind of titan.

"June loved flowers. I want her to have lots of flowers."

It's also worth reading the tribute from Rolling Stone, which claims that a box-set will be released of the remaining material (around a hundred songs in total) for American Recordings. Anyone not affected by Cash's words quoted near the end of the article has absolutely no soul.

(For my Canadian readers, a bit of trivia: it was in London, Ontario that Johnny proposed, on stage, to June. Cash said he always had a special affinity for Canada, in part because he toured the country so intimately, small town to small town. It's hard to imagine any major musician doing that these days.)

Johnny Cash was a legend-- a legend that never forgot he was also a man. I fear we shall not look upon his like again.

Click here to go to the official Johnny Cash website.

Addendum: Check out, too, this slideshow from the Times.