The man in black

16 Biggest Hits; Johnny Cash

I like movies. I like watching movies. I like going to the movies. I make it a habit to keep myself informed concerning upcoming movies, their directors, stars and film composers. The Apple website keeps a fairly thorough bank of trailers, teasers and previews and I visit that site frequently.

In the last five years or so before he passed away, Dad and I went to two movies together: “Jurassic Park” and “Independence Day”. I think he got a big kick out of both of them. After “Independence Day”, Dad looked at me and with a visage and tone of uber-dubiousness said, “Oh, really?”

Dad would have liked to have seen the movie “Walk the Line”. Johnny Cash fell into a somewhat exclusive club as far as Dad was concerned. Johnny Cash, the Statler Brothers and the US Marine Band stand at the top of a very select list of performers of whom Dad would allow himself to take the initiative to see and hear in concert. At the expense of perhaps lending a facet of laziness to Dad's identity, let me say that Dad, when I knew him, entitled to himself a certain degree of passiveness. He accomplished great things with the tools he received in order to better, or at least maintain, mankind. But I think he preferred that the parade of life come to HIM. Now, he never had the opportunity to actually see Johnny Cash. But I heard him say one time, during any one of many combination cow-checking gopher-hunting safaris, that he would have liked to have gone to a Johnny Cash concert.

The connection between Dad and Mr. Cash? Stories. As I’ve mentioned before, Dad liked to listen to, but LOVED to TELL, stories. Mr. Cash didn’t have time to wax poetic about winning and losing in the game of love. He preferred to follow the way of Christ, spinning a parable that speaks much more about the subjects than actually speaking about the subjects: “The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer”, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, “One Piece At A Time” and the great “Ghost Riders In The Sky”. I remember hearing Dad laugh the first time he heard “A Boy Named Sue”. The word “uproariously” had never meant anything to me before that day.

I haven’t listened to very much Johnny Cash. But I admire him a lot; his body of work, his musicianship, his heart and his ability to overcome difficulty in an industry that doesn’t handle difficulty very well. And when he passed away, I needed to download a musical memento of the Man in Black.

Mr. Cash received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1996 and the National Medal of Arts in 2001. The US Marine Band regularly provides music for the National Medal of Arts awards ceremony. The director generally tries to choose music that identifies the recipients of this award. That year, the director and the librarians struggled to find something appropriate in their repertoire for Mr. Cash. Since I had been tapped to play piano on the job, they asked me if I could play something that would musically honor Mr. Cash. The only song that I knew all the way through was “Ghost Riders In The Sky”. Thank God I didn’t have to sing it. I couldn’t even think of the words. I did, however, in the moments leading up to the point where I had to play “Ghost Riders”, realize that, if you wanted to, you could sing the closing credits to “The Beverly Hillbillies” to “Ghost Riders In The Sky”.

And now it’s time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin.

And he would like to thank you folk for kindly droppin’ in.

You’re all invited back next week to this locality

To have a heapin’ helpin’ --- of their hospitality.

Yippee I Yaaayyyyy --- Yippee I Yooooooooo

Hillbillies in the sky.

I have fun telling the following story. When I heard that Reese Witherspoon had been cast in “Walk The Line”, I had serious doubts. Now, she’s a fine actress, deserving of every accolade she’s garnered. But I really couldn’t see how she could pull this off. But then I saw the trailer. And, by gum, if she didn’t look JUST LIKE Johnny Cash.

Credits: To storytellers everywhere, for bringing narrative to our feats and accomplishments, and for taking the long way around in order to articulate the aspects of love when merely saying the word “love” just doesn’t cut it. Thank you.