Live Fast Die Young: Johnny Cash
John R. “Johnny” Cash is true blue American icon. The legendary singer-songwriter, author, actor, is much more widely known these days to a younger audience due to a movie about his life that came out in 2005 called Walk the Line. Prior to that, he was an acknowledged legend even before his death in 2003. Two artists came out of Sun Records in 1954. First there was Elvis and then there was Johnny Cash. Although Elvis Presley made a big splash, Johnny Cash had charted his own unique style and sound in the rockabilly niche. There were many other recording artists at that time trying their hand at a similar sound but few gas tankless water heaters distinguished themselves the way these true artists did. Johnny Cash began recording for Sun Records at the Memphis Recording Service studios, which were owned and run by Sam Philips—the studio and Sun Records both—in 1954. Originally, Johnny Cash wanted to record gospel music but Sam Philips saw that like Elvis, Johnny Cash had that dog wheelchair something special, so he steered him toward rockabilly. Even though Johnny had recorded some outstanding rockabilly tunes, he was always drawn much more powerfully toward country music. So while some of his other contemporaries branched of into popular rock and roll, Johnny headed off to redefine microdermabrasion machine country music. His early Sun recordings are similar to Elvis’ in some ways; they were sparsely arranged numbers that usually just featured Cash and his acoustic guitar, a stand-up slap bass played by Marshall Grant, and lead guitar by Luther Perkins. But that’s as far as the similarities went. Johnny Cash’s rockabilly metal detector numbers featured classically understated lead guitar style that the deadpan Perkins became famous for. Perkins’ style didn’t aim to bring thrill or excitement to the music the way most other rockabilly guitarists did. He instead delivered a steady alternating bass line that immediately became Cash’s signature sound. Even early in his career, it was pretty clear that Johnny Cash was not made to be a typical anything. He was not cut out to be a standard country crooner, not meant to be a rock and roll pioneer, not your regular folk or blue grass artist; in short, he’s hard to put into a box and label. He’s an original combination of a gospel singing country rebel, with a distinctive deep bass-baritone voice, who can crossover musical genres from rockabilly to rock and roll to country to gospel with ease. He’s an artist unto himself. In both his personal and professional life, Johnny cash was a man full of contradictions. He viewed himself as a devout but troubled Christian. Even in the beginning of his career, Cash had a penchant for consuming alcohol. From heavy drinking, he moved on to taking amphetamines and barbiturates. This was an addiction that would follow him for many years of his life. All throughout the 1960s, he had brushes with the law but was always lucky enough to avoid real jail time. Incidentally, Johnny Cash’s performance of Folsom Prison Blues in Folsom Prison was a big hit for him. In an album, At Folsom Prison, released in 1968, his career was practically revitalized with very little effort on the part of his recording company. The album went number one on the country charts and climbed as high as the thirteenth sport in the pop charts. Through his many ups and downs, the many turns his life took, Johnny Cash remained the same. He was quiet man; and he had a somewhat somber and humble manner. He had a rebellious streak. Through all his success and setbacks he learned what was important to him: his music and the people he loved. He stuck with both.