He created quite a stir too when he performed live at Folsom prison. He actually wrote a song about the prison and the conditions they had to live in! Check out that live performance ....he even talks about the nasty water that these poor guys were stuck drinking because there is nothing else !
Cash was actually very political. He was very supportive of the Native American population in the US and protested the poor treatment of them by the government
@@pluck8913 Yeah, kinda hard to nail him down. He was there before the labels solidified. The Nashville angle is hard to miss, and he is too hard rocking to be reduced to a Folk hero angelic archetype..yet his Gospel stuff is so genuine and beautiful. There is something for everyone.
When he performed this song for the first time in 1967. It caused quite a stir. He was the first country music star to come out against the Viet Nam War.
Johnny Cash performed for the prisoners at Folsom Prison. Merle Haggard was in prison and heard him sing. It inspired him to get out and change his life become a singer himself. Great reaction❤❤❤
'This was raw real Johnny having just wrote it and performing it as soon as possible for his TV Show '''The Ballad of Ira Hayes''' is another song I would recommend by Johnny Cash
Johnny’s first wife, Vivian was Black and beautiful! Sadly, in the South , they dealt with horrendous prejudice because of it. 😢 Folsom Prison Blues live at Folsom Prison is iconic.
Johnny’s TV show was in Nashville, as is Vanderbilt University. He had gone out to the campus to visit and that’s the basis for his opening comments about asking each other questions. He’d invited students to come to the next week’s show, so many did and that’s the audience that night. Amazing he was moved to write that over the weekend to perform it in that show.
First concert i ever went to was Johnny Cash. Love that man. ❤ Thank you, gentlemen! Next suggestions, "Hurt" (bring tissues), "Sunday Mornin Comin Down", and a couple lighthearted ones, "One Piece At a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue" ❤
Johnny Cash stood tall and proud for the underdog. He considered prisoners people who made mistakes but not necessarily bad people. I highly recommend his song The Ballad of Ira Hayes. It's about one of the Marines who raised the flag at Iwo Jima Hill in WWII.
Ira Hayes was an Akimel O'odham Native American (a.k.a. Pima tribe)and a United States Marine during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, located in Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona. I'm also Akimel O’Odham but from the Salt River reservation.
Guys Johnny was a rare breed as a musician and human being. He really cared and showed it through his music, clothing, and the somber look. He had a tough life and understood what many were going through. He was the real deal.
This made conservatives crazy when it was on television. He called out Vietnam,the upcoming drug issues,the poor ,the injustice of our prisons. At the time tv was all sunshine and Lollipops ad nauseam . He was so popular that he got away with that and he introduced young artists on his show that again staunch conservatives were falsely branding as dangerous. Johnny Cash was The Man ☮️
And yet, he simultaneously called out the American public for not being on the side of the troops while still speaking out against the war. He spoke as he saw it.
@@heyjoe9228 Edited: called out for talking about Nixon. Comment is removed because I was wrong. But the underlying point still stands. Republicans and Democrats are not always aligned with conservatives and liberals.
Loved your commentary and reactions. If you want the funny side of Johnny Cash, check out "A Boy Named Sue" or "One Piece at a Time". If you want something that is going to hit you in the feels, check out "Hurt". It's a song written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. This is the last video Johnny recorded a few months before his death. He's only 71 years old in the video, but looks much, much older because of the illnesses/diseases he was suffering from at the time. His sweet, beautiful wife, June, is in the video, and also passed away not long after the video was shot.
CoreyRoy mentioned how he was listening to every word and how every word meant something. That's what makes a good song a great song. Thank y'all for the video - well done.
There's a great documentary about Johnny on NF . In 1970 Nixon was avised to invite Johnny to the White House for a performance to reach "middle America", then they tried to tell him what to sing (just the old country). He didn't like that so he sang "What is Truth" . A great song to react to. Enjoyed your reaction
One Piece at a Time is one of my favorites of Johnny's, but his catalogue of music is immense. The Ballad of Ira Hayes is another great one, telling the true story of a forgotten war hero. If you really want something powerful from him, check out his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt". This was a song that Trent Reznor wrote about his own life, and was very personal to him. Trent was none too happy when he heard Johnny wanted to cover it, after Trent heard it, he said it is no longer his own, and that it belongs to Johnny now. Great reaction guys, keep up the good work, and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Johnny's cover of Hurt may well be the most powerful performance I have ever heard. Every time I listen to it I get hit in the gut. The last song Johnny recorded before he died. It is a must listen.
You guys should absolutely listen to his song " Hurt". It's a cover but the original song writer said it became Johnny's once he heard it. It was Johnny's last song/hit just before his death.
Johnny didn't really have skeletons in his closet, he showed them all right out there and owned them. He lived a tumultuous, often troubled life, but was full of sincerity, caring and activism for the vulnerable and the underdogs who needed help. He was a sweet man, very old school country, and I'm always glad when people discover him. Even if his music isn't always to one's taste, we can appreciate the man himself. Johnny Cash will always be the Man in Black.
So many people across genres love Cash. I was in the punk scene and punks love him. His message transcends generations and musical genres. That’s what grips people. He was a freaking wizard.
That Johnny Cash television show was a popular variety series at near the peak of his fame in the 70's. My parents were big fans so we watched this every week. He had rock people on there, like Bob Dylan. People who didn't normally do t.v. would do this because they respected Johnny Cash. Once, he had Neil Young on there. Neil played the harrowing song about heroin addiction "The Needle and the Damage Done". I have heard that network executives were worried about this and had asked Johnny: "Are you really gonna put that hippie on an American network television show in prime time and let him sing a song about a junkie dying?" And that Johnny said: "Yes. Yes I am. I'm gonna put that hippie on an American network television show in prime time and let him sing a song about a junkie dying"...
First off, wishing you guys many blessings during the holiday season. Great song choice by a great artist, someone who is so desperately needed now. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Hoping for peace and happiness for the coming year, but feel we all have to step forward and do the right thing. God Bless you guys for your positivity, keep them coming.
The performance was at a college and was considered quite scandalous! My Momma had me listen to this on the radio when I was a child. I will always be grateful for her introducing me to his music! Love watching you guys….thanks! 😽🎶🖤
"Ragged Old Flag" - "Custer" - "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" - "One Piece at a time" - "Oney" the list could go on forever but these are some to get you started!
Guys I'm from the UK and got into JC during the very late 60s, he's done some really incredible stuff over the years, but during his last decade on the this planet, Rick Rubin helped JC BRING OUT HIS FINEST SONGS, in particular look up JCs video version of the song "HURT" A REALLY REALLY BEAUTIFUL VERSION, here's hoping you can have a very emotional time listening to the the very very best musical artist thst the USA has ever exported to the UK
Great reaction. This song was released in 1971, which was the same year Marvin Gaye released “Inner City Blues,” another protest song about the conditions and injustices of that time. Unfortunately, both songs are still relevant today as they were in 1971. We must understand what was at stake for each of these artists ‘ careers when they decided to release these songs.RIP MARVIN. RIP JOHNNY.
He battled drugs and alcohol most of his life. He liked to sing about criminals. And Jesus. And performed at many Billy Graham Gospel Crusades. A very tough and very tender man who was well loved by the public.
He was such a great song writer, he would take people in regardless of there background and people with a criminal record he would do everything he could to try and help them live a better life definitely a Icon who earned his title. San Quinton live at San Quinton is a great song to listen to, of course my favorite is the man comes around.
This is very much like his early, stark "Walk The Line" type songs. He had ones with a bigger band and a bigger arrangement. He did a lot of thought-provoking "message" songs, but a lot of more upbeat pure country, near rockabilly as well. He had a few songs that were played for pure comedy. He never, ever adopted a persona or a cause because he thought it would make him popular, or because it was fashionable, or because it would make him look hip. He was extremely sincere, even at the risk of his own career or livelihood, if it came to that. You'll want to hear his live Folsom Prison cover of "Cocaine Blues" and the live San Quentin performance of "A Boy Named Sue". Would certainly recommend his latter-day incredible cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt". The video of this he appears in is I believe the last project he worked on before he passed...
He wanted to do a live album from Folsom Prison, and the record company was dead set against it. But Johnny wouldn't budge. The album wound up being a huge hit record and he went on to play live shows for other prisons as well. He was for prison reform, and against the excessive, draconian prison sentences being handed out for even the most non violent crimes. He grew up the son of a poor sharecropper, and his older brother was nearly cut in two in a table saw accident when he was really young. He suffered crippling drug addiction and multiple arrests. So he actually lived what he sang about. He wasn't a phony. That's why he spent the last half of his life championing many causes against poverty, prison reform, drug addiction, etc. He was the man in black.
Cash was the goat, and the real deal. He stood up for the poor, minorities, women...and gave opportunities to countless unknown artists. Read up on him. He caught hell for the song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", about a Native American Marine that radio stations refused to play; A Boy Named Sue, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Ring Of Fire, Flesh & Blood, too many to name. President Nixon wanted him to play a particular song at the White House & he refused because he felt it was racist. You should also check him out with the supergroup "The Highwaymen" - Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. The closest we have today to a Cash is Robert F. Kennedy Jr....we sure could use more men like Cash today.
Love this one! Love Johnny Cash! "Folsom Prison Blues" is a huge favorite of mine also "God is Gonna Cut You Down" and his cover of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage".
A Boy Named Sue is great. Has a similar feel to The Man in Black. Folsom Blues, Ring of Fire, Hurt, Cocaine Blues, I Walk The Line, I’ve Been Everywhere, God’s Gonna Cut You Down. This man has a deep and wide catalog of his own music as well as covers he performed in his old age.
I love the fact that when he performed this for the first time, he was facing straight at the "Confederate Gallery" right there at the Ryman Auditorium, at the " Grand ol Opry". Stickin it right in their faces. That was his style.
Downtown Sacramento has an entire mural of Johnny Cash facing east towards Folsom prison on the east side of a building. Drive up 16th st and look to your left. Can not miss it.
Divayenta already mentioned it, but Hurt is one of his last songs that is phenomenal. It's a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song. Both songs are great, but they present totally different perspectives. I view them as totally different songs rather than someone doing a cover of a song. Now that I am a bit more mature, I like Cash's version more than the original even though the original was something that was big for me in high school which I still really enjoy. Please consider it. Other good Cash songs I would recommend would be ring of fire (though at least one of you have already heard that one), I Walk the Line, A Boy Named Sue (I am not the biggest fan on that one though a lot of people really enjoy it), and the Highwaymen which is a collaboration of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. Yes, whistler from the blade movies. He played music first before people start replying in comments. lol
Johnny Cash is one of my most beloved artists of any kind. I feel like he has touched the souls of so many people that he has impacted humanity or the universe in a permanent way. If there is a heaven in the way that some religions propose, then he is in present there in a place of high honor. To understand why, for anyone not familiar with the scope of his work, I suggest they listen to the trilogy of CDs entitled Love, God, and Murder.
Guys Have you seen and reacted Johnny's final song, Hurt? Johnny's version is cover from another band called Nine Inch Nails or NIN. Johnny wanted to cover this song. But Trent Reznor have some reservations about Johnny covering NIN's Hurt. Then Trent given his ok. Trent seen video of Johnny's version and stated that this song is now Johnny's
His final song, soon before he died, was "Hurt" and it is incredibly powerful. You'll definitely want to check it out. A couple of powerful songs about life and consequences are "Cocaine Blues" and "Delia." And "Ring of Fire" has really interesting instrumentation. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about all of these!
Johnny Cash crossed many genres there was a time when the country music industry turned there back on him and other genres welcomed him with open arms you've seen the pic of him flipping the bird, he was flipping a bird to the industry trying to control him .
The man was awesome! The trumpets in Ring of Fire came to him in a dream. In another dream the queen of England (who he knew) said to him "it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks." Its in one of his songs he did with Rick Rubins. He was the #1 artist for his longtime label for the entire decade of the 70s. Sometime after that they wouldn't even talk to him about renewing his contract. Idiots.
While some people think (and thought at the time) that his first wife, Vivan Liberto, was part-black, she was Italian-American (her father was Sicilian, her mother was German-Irish) - with that bronzed "dark" Mediterranean look. Johnny made a point of how the racists completely misread her ethnicity in their search for something to attack him with - "they're too stupid to figure it out".
