Johnny Cash can be considered one of the best country artists of all times, but the soul of his music is rooted in the blues. Many of Cash’s songs are about the complications that come with love. The four songs listed above are only a few parts of the story Cash teaches us about the world of love. Most importantly, Cash does a wonderful job of explaining the complicated nature of love and how it really is the most powerful force in the world. Before diving into each of these songs, one must first understand how Cash is a blues artist just as much as he is a country artist.
Johnny Cash was born and raised in Arkansas. He was the son of a poor Southern Baptist sharecropper who moved his family to new farms when Johnny was only three (“Johnny
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Cash”). There, Cash started picking cotton for his family, while living in the five-room house with 6 siblings and his parents (“Johnny Cash”). Johnny worked those fields for fifteen years when he decided to enlist in the air force (“Johnny Cash”). This childhood is what made Johnny Cash, and just like the great blues artist Charlie Patton, he learned how to channel the sharecropping hardships into his music. In addition, another musical inspiration to the young Johnny was growing up listening to his mother singing hymns and the workers in the field singing their work songs (“Johnny Cash”). Cash also shared another quality with many blues artists like Georgia Tom and Sister Rosetta Sharpe. Cash loved gospel music and exclusively played it, but was convinced by Sam Phillips of Sun Records that there was no market for gospel music and instead play more pop (Beck). Finally, Johnny Cash’s music is sung from the heart and soul. He sings the truth and you can feel his pain in his words. All of these reasons are why Cash is just as much a blues legend as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and even Muddy Waters. Johnny Cash’s love life is the epitome of complicated and his music describes how very well.
His song, “I Walk the Line”, is a good first example of the nature of love. There are two interpretations of this song, one marital and the other spiritual, but for this argument the marital interpretation will be used. This was Cash’s first number one Billboard hit which he recorded in 1956 (“I Walk The Line”). This song was inspired by Johnny’s wife Vivian, and is about how their love will stay strong and how he will stay faithful through his rise to stardom (Beck). He opens the song with “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine; I keep my eyes wide open all the time” (Beck). Before his career even took off, Cash had to prove his love for his wife. Simply being married to her for years and raising your children was not enough prove it. This song also shows the twisted hold that love can have on your heart, visible in the lyrics, “You've got a way to keep me on your side; you give me cause for love that I can't hide”. Here, Cash tells us that he is blinded by love and that he has no option other than following his love for his wife. Ironically, this turns out not to be true. Cash’s marriage ended up falling through as he fell in love with his singing partner, June Carter. So, “I Walk the Line” tells us that love is binding, powerful, and cannot be
forgotten. Carter wrote the song, “Ring of Fire”, which Cash performed. This song is about how it was falling in love with Johnny Cash. Johnny’s daughter Rosanne said in a BBC article, "The song is about the transformative power of love and that's what it has always meant to me” ("Cash Family Denies..."). This song refers to love as a ring of fire that once you fall into it you just keep falling deeper and deeper as it burns you ("Johnny Cash Songs: The Romantic Lyrics Edition"). This is a fantastic metaphor for love. June Carter is saying that it is not easy to fall in love and that it can be painful and an uphill struggle. However, she then writes that it is worth it by saying, “The taste of love is sweet; when hearts like ours meet” ("Johnny Cash Songs: The Romantic Lyrics Edition"). Carter is saying that the pain and endless desire are worth it, that when love is right, it is the best feeling in the world. This song, “Ring of Fire”, tells us that love is unstoppable and potentially dangerous. The last two songs performed by Cash are very similar in their messages. The songs “I Love You Because” and “I Promise You” were both written about Cash’s love for June Carter ("Johnny Cash Songs: The Romantic Lyrics Edition"). In the former’s chorus, Cash sings, “I love you for a hundred, thousand reasons; but most of all I love you ’cause you’re you” ("Johnny Cash Songs: The Romantic Lyrics Edition"). Cash loves June for so many reasons that he cannot pick just one; he simply loves June because she is June. This tells us how love is unexplainable, unique, and absolute. The final song, “I Promise You”, is basically Cash’s wedding vows with June ("Johnny Cash Songs: The Romantic Lyrics Edition"). The unique thing about this song that highlights the power of love is how Cash sings about the seasons. As the song progresses Cash refers to June’s age as a season, from young in the spring to old in the winter. He goes on to promise her what he will do for her at each age ("Johnny Cash Songs: The Romantic Lyrics Edition"). This song teaches us how when you fall in love, you fall in love forever. Johnny Cash was a legendary musician, in both country and blues. He would sing from the soul, most often about love. Cash’s love life was a complicated story and his music portrayed how complicated love real was. “I Walk the Line”, “Ring of Fire”, “I Love you Because”, and “I Promise You” each tell the listeners something different about love such as, it is powerful, confusing, never-ending, dangerous, and absolute. Just by listening to Johnny Cash’s soulful baritone for a few songs, it is impossible not to understand how love is one of the most complicated forces on earth.
I have chosen to do two songs waiting on a woman by Brad Presley witch the whole song makes a gender stereotype about woman always making a man wait. The second song I choose to do is George Straits A fathers Love which enforces it’s hard to be a father and what a good strong dad role model is. Both songs spoke to me in different ways.
The story “The Old Man Isn’t There Anymore” by Kellie Schmitt is about a lady who lives in China that tries to make friends with the people in her apartment. She does this by sending sympathy flowers to the family of the old man that passed away. She then later attends the funeral of the old man. In the end Schmitt creates a funny twist. Schmitt created an intriguing story about a person’s experience in China.
Johnny Cash was born February 26, 1932. His parents called him J.R. because they couldn’t settle on the name of John or Ray so they called him JR. His father was a poor farmer who moved the family several times while Johnny Cash was a child. This made for a lot of instability in his younger years. His father farmed and when the farms were not doing so well in the beginning of the 30’s his father packed his family up and moved them to Dyess County in northeastern Arkansas. There was government assistance there to be had. The government provided Johnny’s family with a house, barn and some farm land. This was so that their family could raise cotton. His family stayed there and made a home finally.
Country music is one of the most popular genres of music throughout America. There are many influential figures that have changed the way country music sounds, and how people interpret it. Two important people who have made a huge impact on country music overtime are Johnny Cash and Luke Bryan. From their early life, their career, and how society views them, they have opened the minds of people and country musicians all over the country. Johnny Cash’s songs help people to experience his life growing up through the Great Depression and how people lived back then. Through Luke Bryan’s songs people could understand what life was like for Luke growing up in Georgia and all the hardships he faced. Johnny Cash and Luke Bryan are two of the many country singers that have influenced country fans to be more optimistic and hopeful.
President Jimmy Carter was born October 1924 in a little town called Plains located in Georgia. As a young boy, he grew up in Archery a little nearby community and Jimmy Carter was drawn into farming just the same way his father James Earl Carter was. His family was surrounded by peanut crops, politic talk and being faithful to the Baptist religion. While he attended school in a public school of Plains his father took care of the crops and worked as a business man; his mother Lillian Gordy Carter was working as a registered nurse.
There are many phrases that have several different meanings and interpretations. One phrase is slightly more difficult to decipher; the title of Tim McGraw’s latest hit “Humble and Kind”. The songwriter, Lori Mckenna, takes important characteristics people should possess and incorporates them into a song. This song describes many life situations and is directed toward the general youth of today. McKenna writes while thinking of her children and the life lessons they should learn (Lyrics Uncovered). McGraw then puts them into a melody that is calm, as if he is teaching as he sings. The single “Humble and Kind” is packed full of life lessons for all to hear.
Elvis was born in 1935 in Mississippi, he was supposed to be a twin but his brother was stillborn. He grew up an only child. In 1948 the Presleys moved to Memphis, where in his high school days would hang around Beale Street where B.B. King was known to perform at, drawn into the music style of the blues. After graduating in 1953, he planned out his normal life of becoming a truck driver, and in his spare time recorded a couple songs at a recording service Sam Phillips started up that anyone could record a song for four dollars. Upon going back to the studio he met Sam Phillips who
According to wikipedia Johnny Cash was born in kingsland arkansas, though he was never given a real name, he was called J.r while a child, then when he got older people called him Johnny.When he turned five Johnny helped out on his fathers farm with his mom, dad, and older brother.Johnny had a rough childhood, not only the untimely death of his brother, but his abusive father made things worse.Johnnyjoined the air force as a radio operator in Landsberg am Lech, Germany.where he joined a band called the Landsberg Barbarians.afterhis term he married Vivian Liberto and moved to Memphis where he was a radio salesman, and studied to be a radio announser. Cash where for a record deal at sun records, where he sung mostly gospil, and Sam Phillips the owner of sun records said " go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell.", cash won over sun records and relese...
The son of Southern Baptist sharecroppers, Cash began playing guitar and writing songs at age 12. During high school, he performed frequently on radio station KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas. Cash moved to Detroit in his late teens and worked there until he joined the Air Force as a radio operator in Germany. He left the Air Force and married Vivian Liberto in 1954; the couple settled in Memphis, where Cash worked as an appliance salesman and attended radio announcers school.
The raw emotion that goes into a Country song is how I can relate to the song. The artist`s lyrics and the way the artist sings the song is how I can relate to what the artist is trying to say. For example, artists write their lyrics about many different things that they have been through
His songs are a narrative of his personal knowledge and wisdom from growing up in the bush, the stories of the people he’s met and the places he’s been.
Joe Louis was born and raised in Detroit Michigan. Although throughout his life he lived in many places including Las Vegas and Chicago, he still always considered Detroit home.
The song I chose is called “Before He Cheats”. It was composed by Josh Kear and Chris Tompkins, and it was performed by Carrie Underwood. It is about when a guy cheats on Carrie Underwood so she demolishes his truck. I chose this song because it is hilarious and I like it. It also has a lot of imagery.
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, to the parents of Vernon and Gladys Presley in Tupelo, Mississippi. His mother gave birth to he and his twin brother Jessie Garon, who was still born, this causing Elvis to grow up as an only child. He and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1948, where he attended elementary school and graduated in 1953 from Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Growing up, his family didn’t have a lot of money, so they moved frequently. Elvis was a devoted son to both of his working class parents, but especially his mother. This resulted in him being raised to have a strong faith in God, and attend church regularly. Elvis went to the Assembly of God church with his parents; this is where gospel music came into play as an influence in his life.
The song “Free Fallin” by Tom Petty is one of his most famous tracks. Not only was it his most popular track but, this song was very popular and still is. The way Tom and Jeff wrote the lyrics to this song has a pretty funny story behind it. The song was of course written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. The song was produced in only two days which is pretty amazing. The way Tom and Jeff wrote the lyrics to this song has a pretty funny story behind it. When it came to Tom Petty’s lyrics he always had something to relate his songs to.