Bret Harding
Hello gentle reader and thanks again for joining the team each week. This week’s missive stems from my reading of a great biography of Johnny Cash written by Robert Hilburn, lead music journalist for the Los Angeles Times. Johnny Cash you may have heard of; Robert Hilburn maybe not; so a little background first.
Mr Hilburn first came to my attention whilst reading an Elton John biography by Phillip Norman. As it turns out, it was an article by Mr Hilburn that helped break Elton in the US (well ahead of his success back home in England). The momentum gained from that one little article in 1970 in effect set up what would become known as the ‘Elton John Years’ – 1970-76 – when it became the norm for Elton albums to top the charts – eventually the norm to enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number one.
Obviously Elton had a knack for a catchy tune and this may have played a part in his success as well, however, the first ripple in the pond came from Mr Hilburn’s article. Or at least it did for the purpose of this piece. I digress.
Mr Hilburn took on the mammoth task of condensing the life and times of Johnny Cash into something which could be published and read by the average punter – no mean feat. Seems Mr Cash had a number of extraordinary moments in time, both on his own and with others who were ground breaking in their own right – Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and the family at Sun Records, not to mention the Carter Family, arguably the true ground zero for county music in America.
Mr Cash had his ups and downs, trials and tribulations and several family challenges that no family should ever have to process. But they did and he did and along the way he wrote and sang some of country music’s most treasured songs.
No longer with us, Mr Cash has moved on to bigger and better things in the hereafter. Mr Hilburn is still with us. I commend this man and his book to you. With respect to Mr Cash, rather than pick one of the early tracks to showcase here, I have gone with something from his later work with rap producer Rick Rubin’s American Records; in this instance it is the Trent Reznor song originally performed by Nine Inch Nails.
Enjoy.
www.amazon.com/Johnny-Cash-Life-Deckle-Edge/dp/0316194751
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