Over the summer, I spent a bit of time on my Johnny Cash act. I played a wedding, a few charity events, the Sunflower Festival, and did a little busking. I even had the Tennessee Two for some of these. We are ‘Cash Only’!
It’s not an impersonation, exactly. I don’t do the hair or the speaking voice. I do the songs in the style – boom-chicka-boom, ‘sharp like a razor, steady like railroad train,’ as Reece Witherspoon puts it in the film. It’s certainly a tribute.
But my attraction to Johnny Cash has been confusing for me. Apart from Cash, I don’t think I own any music made before 1991. Definitely no country. A few years back I realised that Cash’s guitar and vocal style seemed to suit my abilities, such as they are. But that’s only part of it.
The main reason I love Johnny Cash’s music is the lyrics.
He’s sings about everything. Love and lust, crime and injustice, hope and sorrow, places and travelling, faith and fear. It’s all there.
And so many of the songs are stories.
A prisoner hears a train and fills with regret as he imagines the freedom of the passengers (Folsom Prison Blues).
A naive and cocky boy is shot dead because, against pleadings of his mother, he carries a gun (Don’t Take Your Guns to Town).
A traveler talks to a train worker about his excitement at going home (Hey Porter).
A heartbroken man searches for his lover along the course of the Mississippi river (Big River).
A boy who shines shoes explains to a customer the secret of his unfailing good mood (Get Rhythm).
Characters, settings, plots and morals. Awesome ones too – these are just a few. And at the risk of sounding like the grumpy old man that I am, where are the stories in pop music nowadays? Are there any? A few, maybe, but they prove the rule.
In fairness, some of this is down to the conventions of the genres. Storytelling is more of a thing in country/folk. Pop has always been about broad and repetitive statements.
But I can’t help thinking that pop music lacks stories because all those the poor silly pretty pop stars just don’t have any stories to tell. Which is a shame, mainly for all their fans who have only bland, fragmentary and often meaningless words to sing in the car or the streetlight or to their babies. No stories to sing into their lives. No big ideas to guide them.
All of which is to say that the world needs more Johnny Cash and I intend to play my part. ‘Cash Only’: coming to a minor community event near you!
David Mitchell 