I remember when I was a kid and my parents listened to country music. Man how I hated it. As I was growing up one of my favorite radio stations was an alternative rock station that I could pick up out of Cleveland Ohio. They played all the cutting edge stuff. One day as I was listening to it I was shocked to hear them advertising a Johnny Cash concert. What the hell, that's the stuff my dad listens to, why are they plugging it on an alternative rock station? I just didn't get it.Quite a few years later, after my music horizons had broadened considerable I was watching Mtv. Mike Ness, who is the front man for one of my favorite bands, Social Distortion, was on. He sang a Johnny Cash cover. Ok, I'm definitely missing something here. What is all this excitement about a monotone old country music singer. Especially by punk bands. Bands that are young, angry, rebels..... Ok, that's starting to make a little sense now. Standing up for the little man, being angry, being a rebel represents both what Johnny Cash & punk music stand for. As I got a little older and started to appreciate country music I stared to like Johnny Cash more and more.
Over the past year and a half I have had 2 ex-girlfriends relate how when they watched "Walk The Line" it either reminded them of me or me and my dad. I still haven't watched that movie yet, but I have been planning on it for about a month now. In fact I have been listening to a lot of Johnny Cash this last month. I have been a fan for a while now, but over the last month I have really connected with the music and a lot of the lyrics. So tonight as I was coming home from my second job and heard some Johnny Cash on my mp3 player. It kinda got me in a mood for some reason. There is a bar that has karaoke on Sunday nights. The singing sucks, but they always play old country music, and it always puts me in the same mood. Reflective & a little remorseful. So when I get home I crawl into bed with my laptop and que up some Johnny into my mp3 player, while I download some stuff that I don't have yet. So I'm surfing the internet and decide to Wikipedia Johnny Cash. Holy crap, would you believe that he would have been 75 today? That's just kinda odd, that I would be in the kinda mood that would cause me to randomly stumble across that. So at this point I realize I should write this blog. What's even more odd is as I'm writing this I was talking to a friend. She asked me about why people thought of me and my dad when they saw "Walk The Line". I didn't have a good enough answer so I pointed her to a previous blog that was about a Johnny Cash song that reminded me of my dad. When I went to find the link I noticed that the date on the blog was a year ago and 2 days. Uncanny!
So if your wondering what kinda mood or thought process this puts me in, here is another Johnny Cash song that sums it up nicely.
Johnny Cash - Sunday Morning Coming Down
Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.
I'd smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and songs I'd been picking.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playing with a can that he was kicking.
Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken.
And Lord, it took me back to something that I'd lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way.
On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.
In the park I saw a daddy
With a laughing little girl that he was swinging.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school
And listened to the songs they were singing.
Then I headed down the street,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringing,
And it echoed through the canyon
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.
On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.
