Johnny Cash: Walking the Line

Born in Kingsland, Arkansas, in 1932 and raised in Dyess, Arkansas, Johnny Cash was typical of the raw talent which made its way into Sam Phillips’ studio: poor, rural, southern protestant, and working class.   These young men would be transformed into music royalty by Sam Phillips’ expert marketing and by their own good fortune and skill, and by the fact that something new was happening in music that was receiving a lot of attention.  Biographer Steve Turner writes, “People schooled in white church music, country, and pop were blending their sounds with blues and gospel, creating a new sound called rock-‘n’-roll.”

That sound would not only perpetuate itself and become the new world standard, but it would also sponsor a change in lifestyle which would sweep the youth culture and change, in turn, the world’s art, fashion, and views on morality.  Sam Phillip's studio was the nucleus of that change.  It is difficult to imagine any four walls burgeoning with more talent than the offices of Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1950's.  Entering the studio on a given day might be Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, or Jerry Lee Lewis, the foursome Sun owner Sam Phillips called “The Million Dollar Quartet.”

Cash could be forlorn, tragic, and lost as in his song Sunday Morning Coming Down but he could also bring his audience around with songs of irony and humor, like One Piece at a Time and A Boy Named Sue.  "The Man in Black," as Cash was called because of his signature dark clothing, could be melancholy at one moment, and energized at the next.  Walk the Line, a deliberate ballad of love, is as much Cash's own anthem as it is a testimony to the quiet struggle of passions versus commitment:

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line

Although Cash’s career was filled with stunning and unforgettable moments like his concerts at Folsom and San Quentin prisons and the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award, Johnny Cash, like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, was plagued by personal problems involving substance abuse and recklessness.  However, in creativity and performance, in charisma and behavior, and in many, many more respects, these young men established the traditions alive in rock and roll today and the canon of Sun music maintains a mighty presence on the stage of world music.

Referenced:The Man Called Cash by Steve Turner, W Publishing Group (Nashville), 2004.