At parties, at concerts, on dates and even on job interviews, we’ve heard this dreaded phrase:
“I don’t like country music… except for Johnny Cash.”
Why is this so? Does Cash’s music really transcend his entire genre? Yesterday, Lost Highway announced that the Man in Black’s final recordings will be compiled on the forthcoming album “American VI: Ain’t No Grave.” Here at Click Track, our feelings are mixed. In our weekly Taking sides column, our contributors tackle the question: Has Johnny Cash been over-memorialized?
(Read the debate and join the discussion, after the jump.)
David Malitz: I’m not sure Cash has been over-memorialized as much as improperly memorialized. Yes, he was working on this final “American” series up until his death and there is a definite interest in his final work. But the series seemed to become predictable, with Cash as some guy who covers other people’s songs in a depressing manner. Give the deluxe reissue treatment to his Sun Records work or “At San Quentin.” That might inspire people to dig deeper into classic country more than these final karaoke albums.
Allison Stewart: I tend to think one can never have too much Johnny Cash, as long as it’s actual Johnny Cash, and not a covers disc, a remix disc, or Joaquin Phoenix pretending he’s Johnny Cash. This “new” Johnny disc could go either way: Besides Rosanne Cash, Rick Rubin is one of the few people I trust with Cash’s legacy, though he has been dining out on “American Recordings” for a while now.
But its release six years after Cash’s death begs the question: If it was so good, how come it hasn’t come out already?
Chris Richards: Every time I hear Johnny Cash’s voice I flagellate myself for missing the chance I had to see him perform live. But that’s not the reason I think we need to put a moratorium on his music. Over the course of the last decade, the man’s myth has spun out of control. Instead of serving as a gateway into country music, he seems to have become more of a token. Sad. And while none of that is Cash’s fault, until America’s youth can buy Waylon Jennings t-shirts at Hot Topic, no more “Ring of Fire” on the Starbucks stereo, please. Oh, wait.
Sarah Godfrey: If this is really, truly the last album in the American Recordings series, then I’d say Cash has been memorialized just enough. As long as the music is good (and, based on the other albums, it will be), I don’t think it’s possible to overdo it. But if we get to the point where someone is taking scraps of unreleased Cash material and splicing it with Carrie Underwood to create faux duets, then we have a problem. But Rick Rubin knows what he’s doing — he’s a trustworthy curator of Cash’s legacy. And I don’t think Rubin or these posthumous recordings encourage the obnoxious “I hate country music… but I love Johnny Cash!” contingent. I think that group mostly emerged after Cash died in 2003, and became louder and more annoying after “Walk the Line” hit theaters in 2005. But I don’t hear that expressed so much anymore. Or maybe those folks are just being drowned out by the extremely vocal “I hate pop music… but I love Michael Jackson!” set
