Johnny Cash: A Rebel to the End

[Low D]

Johnny Cash: A Rebel to the End

By Alexander Billet - March 12, 2010

Since Cash's death in 2003, there have been no shortage of forces who have sought to manipulate and reclaim his legacy for themselves...[T]he conservative right have been notably smug in morphing this most rebellious of country legends into one of their own...It's easy to imagine the likes of Glenn Beck squirming at this batch of songs, though...And in their own way, they reveal a stunning answer to any confusion on whose side this artist stood.

Read more:

http://www.zcommunications.org/a-rebel-to-the-end-by-alexander-billet

[philipchevron]

Johnny Cash: A Rebel to the End

By Alexander Billet - March 12, 2010

Since Cash's death in 2003, there have been no shortage of forces who have sought to manipulate and reclaim his legacy for themselves...[T]he conservative right have been notably smug in morphing this most rebellious of country legends into one of their own...It's easy to imagine the likes of Glenn Beck squirming at this batch of songs, though...And in their own way, they reveal a stunning answer to any confusion on whose side this artist stood.

Read more:

http://www.zcommunications.org/a-rebel-to-the-end-by-alexander-billet

I couldn't help noticing that in the proposed conservative amendments to Texas school books [which would have a national effect: publishers default to Texas prescription because they sell more books in the state than anywhere else], alongside all the propaganda about God and Guns and Dinosaurs is the proposal to add "country and western" to America's indigenuous achievements. Only the American Right could be so insecure about Country's part in American culture that they feel it must be spelled out. Mind you, if I was on a staple diet of Pouty McHunk's albums from Country music radio, I might begin to feel insecure about "country and western" too.

[Low D]

I couldn't help noticing that in the proposed conservative amendments to Texas school books [which would have a national effect: publishers default to Texas prescription because they sell more books in the state than anywhere else], alongside all the propaganda about God and Guns and Dinosaurs is the proposal to add "country and western" to America's indigenuous achievements. Only the American Right could be so insecure about Country's part in American culture that they feel it must be spelled out. Mind you, if I was on a staple diet of Pouty McHunk's albums from Country music radio, I might begin to feel insecure about "country and western" too.

Yeah, but i'll bet you a fiver they don't mention Cash's "Man In Black" in that part of the textbooks if it happens.

Jello Biafra had a good talk about the schoolbook publishing industry in the US, and that was 20 years ago so I imagine - after the merger wave of the 1980s continued through the 90s - that it is only worse. But even i high school in what - 1988-90? - in Toronto, Canada, I had a biology teacher who handed us out a photocopy of Genisis at the beginning of our section on the theory of evolution. He was very curt, explaining that he was required to include this in the curriculum, it wouldn't be on the exam, and talk to him later if you had any questions.

[Mike M]

I'm not going to venture to guess how others on this board might feel about Johnny Cash, but in my opinion this final album is a masterpiece. To write and sing a song like "1 Corinthians 15:55", in which you basically "call out" death, is easy when you're young and believe you'll live forever...it's an entirely different proposition when you are literally looking death right in the eye. I can only hope that, when my time comes, I can face eternity with have the strength, dignity and grace that Johnny showed in these songs.

[James]

I'm not going to venture to guess how others on this board might feel about Johnny Cash, but in my opinion this final album is a masterpiece. To write and sing a song like "1 Corinthians 15:55", in which you basically "call out" death, is easy when you're young and believe you'll live forever...it's an entirely different proposition when you are literally looking death right in the eye. I can only hope that, when my time comes, I can face eternity with have the strength, dignity and grace that Johnny showed in these songs.

I think the latest is without a doubt the strongest set of the American Recordings. It astonishes me how good Cash was right until the end.

[RoddyRuddy]

Beatha agus ceòl Johnny Cash. The life and music of the Man in Black.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ohnny_Cash

Not yet watched this but will do when I find the time.