Cash wore plain clothes to distance himself from the glitz of Nashville, earning himself the title “The Man in Black.”
Johnny Cash is a near-mythic figure in the field of country music. A fine songwriter and a powerful vocalist, Cash reflects the struggles of life through the dark, haunting lyrics and stark sound of his best work.
Cash was born in February 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas. Later, his sharecropping family was selected by the Federal Government for resettlement at the new Dyess colony in Tennessee. The colony was founded on reclaimed land on the Mississippi River. In 1937, the family was flooded out, an event later recalled in Cash’s song “Five Feet High and Rising.” By the age of 12, Cash had started writing songs, but his early adulthood found him floating from job to job until he joined the Air Force as a radio operator. He learned to play the guitar while stationed in Germany.
Discharged from the Air Force in 1954, Cash married and settled in Memphis. He worked by day and played country music at night, performing free at radio station KWEM with lead guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, later called the Tennessee Two.
In 1955, Cash tried to audition as a gospel singer at Sun Records in Memphis, but label-owner Sam Phillips (Elvis PRESLEY’S discoverer) had other ideas. Cash’s trio ended up recording the country song “Cry! Cry! Cry!” which was backed by “Hey Porter.” Their spartan instrumentation and Phillips’s ingenious use of echo provided the perfect backdrop for Cash’s forceful, booming voice. The single sold 100,000 copies and launched Cash’s career. Other substantial country hits followed, including “Folsom Prison Blues” and the million-selling “I Walk the Line” (both 1956).
Cash moved to Columbia Records in 1958 and continued to score hits. However, he also began to take drugs to keep him going during his gruelling schedule of 300 dates a year. Personal problems mounted, and in 1965 he was arrested twice, and divorced. After hitting bottom, Cash conquered his drug addiction with the help of June Carter (from the legendary CARTER FAMILY), whom he married in March 1968. The brilliant live Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, Cash’s finest recording, was released the same year and remains one of the best country albums ever.
Cash wore plain clothes to distance himself from the glitz of Nashville, earning himself the title “The Man in Black.”
The 1969 album At San Quentin was not such an artistic success, but yielded the pop hit “A Boy Named Sue.” His guest appearance on Bob DYLAN’S Nashville Skyline album, also in 1969, raised his stature among rock fans. Cash continued to perform and record after his commercial peak in the late 1960s, as well as acting occasionally in movies and television. In 1994, he released American Recordings, a critically-acclaimed return to the sparse, haunting sound of his best work. Cash’s talent remains as potent as ever, a pointed reminder that artistic honesty never falls out of fashion.
Greg Bower
SEE ALSO:
COUNTRY; GOSPEL; NASHVILLE SOUND/NEW COUNTRY.
FURTHER READING
Ewen, David. Great Men of American Popular Song (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972);
Moriarty, Frank. Johnny Cash (New York: Metro Books, 1977).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
The Essential Johnny Cash 1955–83; Hello, I’m Johnny Cash; The Sun Years.