Johnny Cash Has Died

KFWB Los Angeles | 09/14/03

[kingu]

Breaking news announced at top of news: Johnny Cash has died today.

[Tax-chick]

He died at 95, and was quite active until recently.

Good for him! Clean livin', or just good genes ...

[archy]

Listen to his Sun Records stuff, listen to his very early Columbia Records albums...

It's only been a few weeks since we laid Sun Records founder Sam Phillips to his eternal rest here in Memphis.

Everyone I know goes away in the end
You could have it all,
my empire of dirt;

I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

--Johnny Cash, Hurt

[50sDad]

Passin' Thru
-Words & Music by Randy Scruggs & Johnny Cash

I have stood upon the mountain
  I have seen the other side
I have wrestled with the devil
  I have wrestled with my pride
I have been down in the valley
  I have stood out in the rain
I have seen my love forsaken
  Felt the pleasure and the pain
There's one thing that's for certain
  One chord that rings true
It's a mighty world we live in
  But the truth is, we're only passin' thru

I have cried in tears of sadness
  I have cried in tears of joy
I have found a life worth livin'
  From the peace within the noise
I have turned by back on hatred
  Lyin', prejudice and greed
Found the future in the present
  Found hope within a seed
There's one thing that's for certain
  One chord that rings true
It's a mighty world we live in
  But the truth is, we're only passin' thru

Passin' thru, passin' thru
  It's a mighty world we live in
but the truth is
  We're only passin' thru

I have seen my bucket empty
  I have seen my well run dry
But there's water down the road
  And I'm only goin' by
If I'm settin' on dead ready
  When my chances come and knock
I'll make it where I'm going
  I'll be tall just like a rock

There's one thing that's for certain
  One chord that rings true
It's a wicked world we live in
  But the truth is, we're only passin' thru
Passin' thru, passin' thru

It's a mighty world we live in
  but the truth is
We're only passin' thru

Yea, it's a mighty world we live in
  but the truth is
We're only passin' thru

[mafree]

I kind of expected this but it's still a sad shock. RIP Man in Black.

[Feiny]

Hurt was a song he covered from Nine Inch Nails, written by Trent Reznor.

Johnny Cash was one of my all time favorites, I was listening to his new CD yesterday & crying while Give My Love to Rose played.

I found him by the railroad track this morning
I could see that he was nearly dead
I knelt down beside him and I listened
Just to hear the words the dying fellow said

He said they let me out of prison down in Frisco
For ten long years I've paid for what I've done
I was trying to get back to Louisiana
To see my Rose and get to know my son

Chorus:
Give my love to Rose please won't you mister
Take her all my money, tell her to buy some pretty clothes
Tell my boy his daddy's so proud of him
And don't forget to give my love to Rose

Tell them I said thanks for waiting for me
Tell my boy to help his mom at home
Tell my Rose to try to find another
For it ain't right that she should live alone

Mister here's a bag with all my money
It won't last them long the way it goes
God bless you for finding me this morning
And don't forget to give my love to Rose

Chorus:
Give my love to Rose please won't you mister
Take her all my money, tell her to buy some pretty clothes
Tell my boy his daddy's so proud of him
And don't forget to give my love to Rose

[Feiny]

A BOY NAMED SUE

My daddy left home when I was three
And he didn't leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.
Now, I don't blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me "Sue."

Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk,
It seems I had to fight my whole life through.
Some gal would giggle and I'd get red
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue."

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean,
My fist got hard and my wits got keen,
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame.
But I made a vow to the moon and stars
That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man who gave me that awful name.

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry,
I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew.
At an old saloon on a street of mud,
There at a table, dealing stud,
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Sue."

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had,
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye.
He was big and bent and gray and old,
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' How do you do!
Now your gonna die!!"

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down, but to my surprise,
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear.
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer.

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men
But I really can't remember when,
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile.
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss,
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first,
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help ya along.
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's the name that helped to make you strong."

He said: "Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do.
But ya ought to thank me, before I die,
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you "Sue.'"

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my pa, and he called me his son,
And I came away with a different point of view.
And I think about him, now and then,
Every time I try and every time I win,
And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him
Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name!

[Feiny]

DADDY SANG BASS
Written by Carl Perkins
Recorded by Johnny Cash on 7/30/68
Number one - County Chart; Number 42 - Pop Chart

---

I remember when I was a lad
Times were hard and things were bad
But there's a silver linin' behind every cloud
Just poor people that's all we were
Tryin' to make a livin' out of blackland earth
But we'd get together in a family circle singin' loud ...

CHORUS
Daddy sang bass, Mama sang tenor
Me and little brother would join right in there
Singin' seems to help a troubled soul

One of these days and it won't be long
I'll rejoin them in a song
I'm gonna join the family circle at the throne ...

No, the circle won't be broken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye ...
Daddy'll sing bass, Mama'll sing tenor
Me and little brother will join right in there
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.

Now I remember after work,
Mama would call in all of us
You could hear us singin' for a country mile
Now little brother has done gone on
But I'll rejoin him in a song
We'll be together again up yonder in a little while.

CHORUS
Daddy sang bass, Mama sang tenor
Me and little brother would join right in there
Singin' seems to help a troubled soul

One of these days and it won't be long
I'll rejoin them in a song
I'm gonna join the family circle at the throne ...

No, the circle won't be broken
Bye and bye, Lord, bye and bye ...
Daddy'll sing bass, Mama'll sing tenor
Me and little brother will join right in there
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.
In the sky, Lord, in the sky.

[hilaryrhymeswithrich]

Warren Zevon was just a couple of days ago...that's three.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

He could barely carry a note, had a vocal range of less than an octive, and wrote some of the poorest excuses for country songs ever.

There are few lyrics in country music that top Folsom Prison Blues

"I Shot a Man in Reno, Just to Watch Him Die."

[gdani]

Johnny Cash was one of the least talented, most overrated country singers of all time

You Billy Ray Cyrus fans are so annoying.

[happygrl]

Very moving.

I loved that man!

Thank you, thank you, lovely and trenchant lyrics from the Man in Black.

[radiohead]

Damn, sniff sniff...

ps - have seen your tagline before and wanted to comment. star trek tng, right? i'm a star trek nerd from way back...

[happygrl]

Really only one true great left now from the old days who still has that legacy thing.....Ralph Stanley.

Amen to that.

Bill Monroe's gone, and now Johnny Cash.

They were (are) all the genuine article.

The world they represented is now, sadly, replaced by ersatz and gloss. They sang and lived both Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

[Technogeeb]

And who's Edward Teller

He's the reason you're not speaking Russian right now. He was one of the most brilliant men of the 20th century, falsely maligned by the leftists and communists in the U.S. for a variety of reasons (pointing out that communists were infiltrating our nuclear weapons program, creating 2nd and 3rd generation nuclear designs allowing smaller nuclear devices, etc.)

This thread is devoted to Johnny Cash; who rightfully deserves such a memorial. But it is a terrible shame that Teller, who may have very well helped save the human race from the eternal slavery of communism, wasn't at least equally honored. That even many "conservatives" don't know who he is (or that he died) shows just how controlled the media and education organizations in the United States are.

[leadpenny]

An excellent article at 188. Thanks

[Theodore R.]

Bronson died last week.

[Reagan79]

I penned this a few minutes after I heard Johnny Cash died this morning. I wanted to share it with other Cash fans.

The First time I saw you, you were in black at the Memphis fair
For all those people you touched,
there was excitement and anticipation in the air
You sang your new songs like "Meet me in heaven"
and how could I forget "I've been everywhere"
You're Johnny Cash, you even spent time in the Starkville City jail

Sometimes my brother and I would sit around and pick Folsom Prison Blues
And when I lost that pretty girl
You helped me put on my dancing shoes
But most of all your gospel songs comforted my soul
A constant reminder He washed all my sins away
Especially when you sang "The old account was settled long ago"

Your conversion story always reminded me of being on my knees
and I thank you on those days I felt alone,
I could always listen to "I walk the Line" and "One Piece at a Time"
Remember the times you brought the gospel alive singing,
"He turned the water into wine"

So for the songs you penned and sang
All the great ones about rebellion, forgiveness, heartbreak, and shame
I tip my hat to the man in black,
A man who didn't forget about the downtrodden and locked away
Whether you were in prison or Unchained.

[EagleMamaMT]

I always liked his music. I grew up listening to him back in the '60s. I guess my favorite is this one, though, which came out around the time of the Gulf War in 1990-1991. He didn't write it. It was written by a man named Chester Lester, but no one in the world could've done it justice except Johnny Cash:

Going By The Book

(1)
You can see it in the movies, in the paper and the TV news;
Somebody's army is always on the move.
There's gonna be a battle, the lines have been drawn,
they've got guns and tanks and planes.
The wells have gone dry and the water is bad,
and the air is acid rain.

(2)
War after war and rumors of war from the east;
There's a rumbling in the ground and they're talking about the peace.
Good mothers cry cause the rivers run high with the blood of too many sons.
Some people say peace is on the way, but the worst is
yet to come.

CHORUS:
'Cause the prophets wrote about it and Jesus spoke
about it and John got to take a look.
And he told us what he saw and it's easy to see,
it's going by the book.

(3)
There's armies in the cities and the missles stand
ready to fight.
A pale horse rides like the wind across the night.
And that rumbling in the desert like thunder
getting closer, are the trumpets getting ready to blow?
There's gonna be a shout that will wake the dead;
We'd better be ready to go.

(Chorus)

[wardaddy]

Indeed, Teller does not get the respect he deserves.