Just one of many obituaries that are coming through now, and in days to come.
Another music legend, gone.
Shite. I watched a doco on Johnny Cash’s life just last week. Please tell me that the Australian Broadcasting Commission does not have preminatory visions.
Please?
He went so soon after his wife - funny how often that happens. In Johnny’s own words:
Oh, no I never got over those blue eyes
I see them every where
I miss those arms that held me
When all the love was there.
Sweet dreams, Johnny and June. You’ll never have to miss someone again.
I think I’m going to Cry,Cry,Cry.
Aww damn.
I expected he would die soon, after hearing about June.
The morning news was well into his obituary when I turned the television on this morning. What a crappy thing to wake up to. And right after that, they said John Ritter died. All I could say was, "What the fck?*
IMO Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt is superior to the original. The Nine Inch Nails version sounds like just another commercial-alternative rock song. Johnny’s version had feeling. Without Johnny Cash, Wall of Voodoo would not have made their excellent rendition of Ring of Fire. And I remember when I was a little kid, thinking that A Boy Named Sue was one of the funniest songs I’d heard.
I saw a skiing film back in the 1980s called Spirit where a guy in a frock coat and stovepipe hat was “hot dog skiing” (as it was called at the time) while reading a bible. It was filmed MOS, and they laid The Reverend Mr. Black over it. I don’t know if it was Johnny Cash singing it, but it sounded like him; and I liked it.
I’m not a country music fan. I prefer early punk, old-school New Wave, new alternative, and the commercial-alternative that gets all the airplay. But Johnny Cash’s music crossed the boundary. I like his stuff when I hear it, and even have two of his CDs.
Most celeb deaths are just like, “Wow. That’s too bad,” or “I thought he was dead already.” But losing Johnny Cash hurts.
Like I said in the Cafe Society thread, I’ve been expecting this for quite a while; diabetes + autonomic neuropathy is a setup for infectious disaster.
Johnny also looked 10 years older every time I saw a picture of him in the last few years. When he was too sick to make it to the MTV Video Awards (where his video–the best one ever made, if you ask me–was roundly screwed), I knew it couldn’t be good.
That doesn’t make it any easier, though. I could recognize Johnny’s voice by the time I was able to form complete sentences myself. As the years went on and I listened to more and more of his music, I only became more convinced of his uniqueness and his genius. Someone who can cover a Nine Inch Nails song at the age of 70 and make it his own is the gold standard for how cool someone can be, IMO.
We won’t see his like again.
Dr. J
Is the video of Hurt still available online?
amen to that
Oh no.
I’ll be sure to tell the girls down at the Ritz he said hello.
(I can’t beleive I’m actually shedding tears over a celebrity obit…but he was no ordinary celeb)