The Man in Black

I'll admit that I came to appreciate Johnny Cash late in my life, the whole country music thing blocked my appreciation for one of the guys that I can now call "the man". The movie Walk the Line opened the door to more than just a passing interest in Ring of Fire and hemorrhoid's jokes. My younger brain, not to be confused with the old fuck brain, wanted reverb and strong rhythm with some aggressive adolescent angst. Actually...I still do gravitate that way, I will always be the rock n' roll kid in my heart, but a healthy appreciation for talent in other genres has grown as I have grown. Like Bob Marley and Leonard Cohen before him, Mr Cash became a later in life appreciation.

Last night I saw the movie Logan with my kids. It was pretty good and while I didn't cry at the end or anything like that, as some people have claimed to do, I thought it a fine film. It was kind of dark with the whole ageing theme...losing a step or two and suffering from the passage of time, even for super heroes is never any fun. And then to put it all in perspective, as music so often does, as the movie ended The Man in Black's "The Man Comes Around" began playing as the credits rolled.

Time is the ultimate equalizer for us all...we are term limited in one way or another, all of us. Cash knew it as well as anyone. And one could argue that he lived his life on his terms, for better or worse, demons and angels fighting with him every day. He did it and he did his way. It would be interesting to talk to him and find out if he had any regrets. Living that large he left a swath of destruction a mile wide at different points in his life and one wonders if he came down with a case of the what if's from time to time.

I'm not advocating for a life of excess or chemical happiness, far from it actually, as I feel that I can be quite happy without the use of any sort of "help'. No, my advocacy would be for the seeming theme that runs through his life and his music. Twangy picking aside, his almost spoken word music speaks to the heart, to the soul of us all. He stands for the marginalized, the down trodden and the forgotten ghosts of our world. Under the Jesus preaching and soul saving embroidery is a simple message of loving one another, in the way that Jesus probably would have actually wanted from all us 'sinners'. The other message is also quite simple I think...fuck you. "Johnny, why are you dressed in black?" Because fuck you, that's why. "You can't be serious about playing a prison?" Fuck you...I am.

If you've read any of this exercise in self indulgence you have have probably some across enough examples in my own life as to why this fuck you attitude appeals to me. In a nutshell I have been doing this since at least grade nine and I keep getting better at it. Sure, I can be politically correct on occasion, mostly out of not wanting to be rude, but at the end of the day, fuck you is my natural instinct...a la Johnny Cash.

Cash is complicated and I think that's why I like him. I suspect he'd have given you the shirt off his back and in the next breath cut your heart out for crossing a line. There is gravitas to go along with the bottle of bourbon and cigarette hanging from his mouth. If in doubt check out his version of Hurt That's raw and telling.

This post seems pretty funny in light of my last post on hugs...hahahaha Next I will write about bunnies juxtaposed with my skills with a butchers knife. I keep trying to tell you my brain works funny.

Ciao
D