CASH

I've been listening to Johnny Cash and Hank Williams for about six days now non-stop (with a little Dylan sprinkled in there of course.) And I've come to the realization that Johnny Cash is IT. You know what it is; we all have different ideas of IT ; it's where you can't explain it to anyone who doesn't understand and to some one who does understand you don't have to say a word.

There are several reasons not to like Johnny Cash. 1. He's old. 2. He's "trendy." 3. He was just the subject of a major motion picture. 4. All the songs sound exactly the FUCKING SAME. 5. He's "country." 6. He hung out with Rick Rubin. But none of this matters when those songs start up and the patented boom chick a-boom sound moves and that freight train of a voice rolls on down the line.

I bought At San Quentin one day out of the blue (I guess I did know that it was a "classic album" but otherwise my Jesus Lizard and "My Black Ass" loving ways did not prepare me for "I Still Miss Someone.") I listened to that album sitting in the car waiting on my sister get out of the Bank of America right down the road from my high school. (I think I had skipped school that day for no real reason; life changing though.) I had the shittest pair of headphone that ever existed and they kept cutting out and one side was way louder than the other. But when HE says "Hello I'm Johnny Cash" before he kicks into "Big River," I got chill bumps and they stayed there for most of, if not all, of the hour long album.

I don't know where I'm going with this; I never do. But there's no reason to try to explain. Like I said earlier: either you get or you don't and if you don't I'm not gonna waste my time. That picture should say it all.