walking that line

[lauralh]

I just finished Cash. I'll be the first to admit that I can't take his music, but it's a deep-seated prejudice that comes from being raised in the south. I am aurally incapable of distinguishing "good" country from "bad" country, the things that make it country just kill it for me. I know I'm not alone. [This is also why I cannot take Civil War books/movies.] But I can respect someone who has been doing it for so long, and he's a hell of a character.

So I have heard like 3 of his songs (and one is the NIN cover) but I read the wikipedia article when the movie came out, and then we saw High Fidelity when Steve was here - Rob says it's his favorite book - so I put it on reserve. It also goes well with my "drug memoir" theme this year. Although to be frank there's not a ton of drug stuff, which is understandable as it wasn't that much of a time chunk of his 50-year career. Still, as he put it, he was the first music star to be an asshole on drugs and trash hotel rooms and shit, although it's not exactly a legacy he's proud of.

The "assistant writer" really helped flesh things out, I thought. It's told in a manner more episodic than chronologic, and Cash the man's voice comes through. Even the Christian shit didn't piss me off too much, although him being friends with Billy Graham was a little yook. Anyway it's an imminently readable biography, once I got started. Kind of tempted to read his previous one now. And maybe interviews from the last few years.

Comments

[tyrven.livejournal.com]

I think Johnny Cash is who helped me set aside those biases of Country - well, that and childhood memories of listening to old westerns in the car with my grandfather en route to Palm Springs. But then, I'm not southern - I'm able to romanticize it without too much personal (negative) connotations.