Book Reveals Johnny Cash Sick, Grief-Stricken

fox ^ | 8/15/04 | johnny jerome

[Godfollow]

Mine was Ring Of Fire... I think it was actually the first time I listened to the words of a song and realized that songs (some anyway) were more than simple rhythmic lines strung together with music.

[VOA]

he held strong Christian beliefs and often quoted the Bible.

I HATED this song until I heard Cash's cover of it:
"Personal Jesus"

That just about knocked Kristofferson's "Why Me Lord?" out of my pick for
"rugged, realistic song of faith".

[nmh]

I'm not a country western fan but I like Johnny Cash. He is a man of faith.

[Osage Orange]

Mr. Cash knew his earthly end was in sight......when he made that song & video. It's hauntingly beautiful...IMO.

[Skooz]

"The most male voice in Christendom. Every man knows he is a sissy compared to Johnny Cash." --Bono.

Before I could even talk, Johnny Cash provided my first intense musical experience. When "Ring of Fire" would come on the radio, I would jump and stomp my feet and bang on anything around--deeply moved by that incredible feeling of musical bliss.

As a result, when I was still in kindergarten, my dad bought me "Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash" and I wore the grooves off of it.

Cash is still The Man.

[Terabitten]

His best performance ever was his cover of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt". I almost cried when I saw it.

I have to agree. Very few songs move me so deeply that I can't even listen to the entire song. To this day, I can't get past the first chorus. When Trent Reznor sings it, it just sounds whiny and self-pitying... but when the Man in Black does it, I hear a lifetime of pain from a cracked seventy year old voice. It's the most despairing thing I've ever heard.

I hurt myself today,
to see if i still feel,
I focus on the pain,
the only thing thats real,

The needle tears a hole,
the old familiar sting,
try to kill it all away,
but I remember everything,

what have I become,
my sweetest friend,
everyone i know,
goes away in the end

[SealSeven]

He was a good man. The 24 years I lived in Hendersonville, TN I had the privledge of meeting him several times at local grocery stores (even wal mart). He always had a smile and a firm handshake. Never rude and always polite. His health was fading and escalated after his wifes death but, his big smile and firm handshake never wavered.
A real sweetheart of a man-

[Old Professer]

[Lazamataz]

I have to agree. Very few songs move me so deeply that I can't even listen to the entire song. To this day, I can't get past the first chorus. When Trent Reznor sings it, it just sounds whiny and self-pitying... but when the Man in Black does it, I hear a lifetime of pain from a cracked seventy year old voice. It's the most despairing thing I've ever heard.

You must have had a drug issue. This is totally about the hell of drug addiction. It speaks to me deeply.

[Capriole]

I am terribly sorry, Laz, that dreadful things have happened to you, and that you haven't experienced the lasting love of a fine woman. They're out there. Sometimes our own psychic pain keeps us finding and/or making contact with the people we most need to find. But please never doubt that there are good women, as many as there are good men.

I have faith that there are good men, despite deep hurt I've had.

[Thumper1960]

Anyone who heard Cash's intro of himself in concert: "Hello. I'm Johnny Cash." couldn't help but feel the spirit of the man on stage. His energy radiated wall to wall and consumed the audience in his performance. Even by the medium of television, he grabbed hold of you by the collar and you were locked eye to eye with him as the music and the lyrics invaded your very being. Musical history lists Elvis and Hank Sr. as greats in the art of musical communication, but Cash was in a league unto himself.

[Lazamataz]

I am terribly sorry, Laz, that dreadful things have happened to you

Seriously? Most bad things I have done to myself.

and that you haven't experienced the lasting love of a fine woman.

I'm not angry at you, so don't take this that way at all, but I no longer f***ing care.

[Thumper1960]

I have to agree. Very few songs move me so deeply that I can't even listen to the entire song. To this day, I can't get past the first chorus. When Trent Reznor sings it, it just sounds whiny and self-pitying... but when the Man in Black does it, I hear a lifetime of pain from a cracked seventy year old voice. It's the most despairing thing I've ever heard.

You must have had a drug issue. This is totally about the hell of drug addiction. It speaks to me deeply.

Dam*ed right! And, don't ever play Cash's version when you're alone, with a bottle and a loaded weapon in the house.

[SamAdams76]

Big Johnny Cash fan here but I keep going back to "Ring Of Fire" as my favorite song of all time. Not just my favorite song by Johnny Cash but my favorite song of alltime by anybody!

This was the first real song I remember hearing as a kid (that wasn't a nursery rhyme). My father had an 8-track tape of this song and he played it as we drove to Alabama when I was about six years old. Even though I've hear the song a few thousand times since, hearing it still brings back memories of driving through the rolling hills of Pennsylvania and Virginia on the way to my father's childhood home in Dixie.

[tallhappy]

Mine was Ring Of Fire... I think it was actually the first time I listened to the words of a song and realized that songs (some anyway) were more than simple rhythmic lines strung together with music.

June Carter wrote Ring of Fire.

[tallhappy]

I HATED this song until I heard Cash's cover of it: "Personal Jesus"

Whomever wrote it was ignorant enough to think he was writing a sarcastic and blasphemous song.

[tallhappy]

Musical history lists Elvis and Hank Sr. as greats in the art of musical communication, but Cash was in a league unto himself.

I like Johnny Cash a lot. But as far as ouevre Hank Williams was head and shoulders above him.

And at that Williams is second (or third, I guess) to Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.

[dfwgator]

Yep that same band that wrote Personal Jesus, Depeche Mode, also wrote a song called "Blasphemous Rumors" that had the following line:

I don't want to start any blashpemous rumors
But I think God has a sick sense of humor
And when I die
I expect to find him laughing.

Blasphemous indeed!

[highpockets]

LOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

His best performance ever was his cover of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt". I almost cried when I saw it.

ditto. I'm a HUGE Cash fan, and the video hit me like a bomb. Unbelievably personal and powerful. The most haunting image was June Carter Cash hovering over him like a mother lion - you could just feel the bond between them. Old John sure went out on a high note artistically.