| Author | Message | ||
| Rus Bowden
New member Username: rusbowden Post Number: 6 Registered: 03-2007 |
. I thought this was very good: Poetry Northwest: Unchained (by Gill Dennis): In which a screenwriter listens to Johnny Cash and considers the origins of a sound and in so doing sheds light on the subject of voice in poetry Here's an excerpt from the beginning: In a second, he was on his feet, pacing. Agitated. "You want to know about my daddy? I’ll tell you about my daddy. When my daddy was on his deathbed and said he’d made his peace with God he was still a racist. Do you think that’s possible, to have made your peace with God and still be a racist? Well, he was. You want to know about my daddy? I’ll tell you about him. His brother was a county sheriff in Louisiana, who didn’t want black people in his cells. When a warrant would come in for a black man, my uncle would deputize my daddy and they’d go out to the man’s house, knock on the door, and ask, ‘Is Leroy in?’ And when Leroy appeared, they’d take him around back and shoot him. That’s who my daddy was." John studied me. He looked down at the tape recorder. "Is that thing on?" "Yes." "Turn it off." . . . . And here's an excerpt from the heart of the article: The casualness of his voice gives it a striking intimacy. It is close to you. The voice encloses you. It sometimes sounds as if it is inside you. Once in Hendersonville, Tennessee, going out to John’s farm in his truck, I asked him what he’d sing in the fields picking cotton with his family. He thought a moment and then sang “My Grandfather’s Clock,” the whole thing from beginning to end with great care about a clock that “kept its time with a soft and muffled chime…/ And it stopped…short, never to go again, when the old man died.” He sang quietly in that deep voice. It was as if he was speaking to you, you alone in the car with him, finding his way into the song to get it to you, as if there was no one else in the world but the two of you. It was riveting. What you wanted was everyone you love to be there. You thought, I wish I could make a few phone calls here. . . . . | ||
| Helen Margaret Rees
Valued Member Username: cinnamonbrandy Post Number: 179 Registered: 09-2006 |
Yep - and one of the few biopics that bears repeated re-watching. And all the extras do too. Helen I'm the best at what I do.... And what I do is 'make people want to kill me'. | ||
| Jim Doss
New member Username: jimdoss Post Number: 1 Registered: 12-2003 |
Rus, Thanks for that link. I'm a big Johnny Cash fan and it was a pleasure to get this insight into the man and his music. Rick Ruben returned Johnny to the core of his being (after years of wandering in the wilderness) for his last 5 CDs and the power of those CDs as well as all of his greatest recordings lies in the honesty and believability of his voice. Jim |
