JOHNNY CASH, MUSIC & NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVISM

Johnny Cash

Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home and listening to some songs written by Johnny Cash, the American songwriter and actor who died on a day like today in 2003. The Grandma thinks that the best way to pay homage to Johnny Cash is talking about his life, his career and his activism for Native Americans.

John R. Cash (February 26, 1932-September 12, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 90 million records worldwide.

His genre-spanning music embraced country, rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk, and gospel sounds. This crossover appeal earned him the rare honor of being inducted into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame.

Born to poor cotton farmers in Kingsland, Arkansas, Cash rose to fame in the prominent country music scene in Memphis, Tennessee, after four years in the Air Force.

He was known for his deep, calm bass-baritone voice, the distinctive sound of his Tennessee Three backing band characterized by train-like chugging guitar rhythms, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor, free prison concerts, and a trademark all-black stage wardrobe which earned him the nickname The Man in Black. He traditionally began his concerts by simply introducing himself, Hello, I'm Johnny Cash, followed by Folsom Prison Blues, one of his signature songs.

More information: Johnny Cash Official Site

Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his career. Alongside Folsom Prison Blues, his other signature songs include I Walk the Line, Ring of Fire, Get Rhythm, and Man in Black. He also recorded humorous numbers like One Piece at a Time and A Boy Named Sue, a duet with his future wife June called Jackson, followed by many further duets after their wedding, and railroad songs such as Hey, Porter, Orange Blossom Special, and Rock Island Line. 

During the last stage of his career, he covered songs by contemporary rock artists of the time; his most notable covers were Hurt by Nine Inch Nails, Rusty Cage by Soundgarden, and Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode.

Cash was born J. R. Cash in Kingsland, Arkansas, on February 26, 1932, the son of Carrie Cloveree and Ray Cash. He had three older siblings named Roy, Margaret Louise, and Jack, and three younger siblings named Reba, Joanne, and Tommy who also became a successful country artist. He was primarily of English and Scottish descent. His paternal grandmother also claimed Cherokee ancestry. He traced his Scottish surname to 11th-century Fife after meeting with the then-laird of Falkland, Major Michael Crichton-Stuart.

Johnny Cash

Cash Loch and other locations in Fife bear the name of his family. He is a distant cousin of British Conservative politician Sir William Cash. His mother wanted to name him John and his father preferred to name him Ray, so J. R. ended up being the only compromise they could agree on. When Cash enlisted in the Air Force, he was not permitted to use initials as a first name, so he changed it to John R. Cash.

In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he started using the name Johnny Cash.

In 1969, Cash became an international hit when he eclipsed even The Beatles by selling 6.5 million albums. In comparison, the prison concerts were much more successful than his later live albums such as Strawberry Cake recorded in London and Live at Madison Square Garden, which peaked at numbers 33 and 39 on the album charts, respectively.

The Folsom Prison record was introduced by a rendition of his Folsom Prison Blues while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single A Boy Named Sue, a Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song that reached number one on the country charts and number two on the U.S. top-10 pop charts.

In 1965, Cash and June Carter appeared on Pete Seeger's TV show, Rainbow Quest, on which Cash explained his start as an activist for Native Americans.

Columbia, the label for which Cash was recording then, was opposed to putting the song on his next album, considering it too radical for the public.

More information: Johnny Cash-Youtube

Cash singing songs of Indian tragedy and settler violence went radically against the mainstream of country music in the 1950s, which was dominated by the image of the righteous cowboy who simply makes the native's soil his own.

In 1964, coming off the chart success of his previous album I Walk The Line, he recorded the aforementioned album Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian.

The album featured stories of a multitude of native peoples, mostly of their violent oppression by white settlers: the Pima (The Ballad of Ira Hayes), Navajo (Navajo), Apache (Apache Tears), Lakota (Big Foot), Seneca (As Long as the Grass Shall Grow), and Cherokee (Talking Leaves).

Cash wrote three of the songs himself and one with the help of Johnny Horton, but the majority of the protest songs were written by folk artist Peter La Farge, son of activist and Pulitzer prizewinner Oliver La Farge, whom Cash met in New York in the 1960s and whom he admired for his activism. 

Johnny Cash

The album's single, The Ballad of Ira Hayes, about Ira Hayes, one of the six to raise the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima, was neglected by nonpolitical radio at the time, and the record label denied it any promotion due to its provocative protesting and unappealing nature.

Cash faced resistance and was even urged by an editor of a country music magazine to leave the Country Music Association: You and your crowd are just too intelligent to associate with plain country folks, country artists, and country DJs. Later, on The Johnny Cash Show, he continued telling stories of Native-American plight, both in song and through short films, such as the history of the Trail of Tears.

In 1966, in response to his activism, the singer was adopted by the Seneca Nation's Turtle Clan. He performed benefits in 1968 at the Rosebud Reservation, close to the historical landmark of the massacre at Wounded Knee, to raise money to help build a school. He also played at the D-Q University in the 1980s.

Johnny Cash used his stardom and economic status to bring awareness to the issues surrounding the Native American people.

Cash sang songs about indigenous humanity in an effort to confront the U.S. government. Many non-Native Americans stayed away from singing about these things.

More information: ACLU

In 1970, Cash recorded a reading of John G. Burnett's 1890 80th-birthday essay on Cherokee removal for the Historical Landmarks Association (Nashville).

In 1980, Cash became the Country Music Hall of Fame's youngest living inductee at age 48, but during the 1980s, his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, although he continued to tour successfully.

In the mid-1980s, he recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making three hit albums, which were released beginning with the originally titled Highwayman in 1985, followed by Highwaymen 2 in 1990, and concluding with Highwaymen-The Road Goes On Forever in 1995.

In 1997, during a trip to New York City, Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy–Drager syndrome, a form of multiple system atrophy.

Cash died of complications from diabetes on September 12, 2003, aged 7, less than four months after his wife. He was buried next to her in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

More information: Rolling Stone

I love to go to the studio and stay there 10 or 12 hours a day.

I love it. What is it? I don't know. It's life.

Johnny Cash