Johnny Cash, "Hymns by..."

/ ARTIST: Johnny Cash / TITLE: "Hymns by..." / GENRÉ: Country gospel / LABEL: Legacy / FORMAT: CD /

For a long while, I've been in doubt whether I should review my absolute favorite performers, performers like Johnny Cash and Townes van Zandt. These people were that talented that my words simply wouldn't do them justice.

However, when it comes to Johnny Cash, the man together with Nathan Abshire, that made me discover American people's music, I think there's a lot of revisionism going on. Punks and skinheads, the scene I have belonged to and whose music I still listen to, have claimed him. Even out and out anarchists listen to the late master.

It's easy to see why. When you belong to a subculture as hated as skinheads are, then the outcast anthems of Johnny Cash are well appreciated. I am a labor man myself which I have stated when I reviewed Dock Boggs and although I'm not politically active, nor agitate, I appreciate the songs about social justice that only Johnny Cash could pen.

But, like Dock Boggs, Cash had another side than the social rebel's, he was a Christian. So am I.

Of course, everyone who has seen the Walk the line movie, will know how he started out as a singer of gospel songs and tried to cut a record deal as a gospel singer for Sun records. Which failed.

I have always thought that Cash brought a bit of gospel feeling into his rockabilly and country stuff. On this record, which gathers hymns performed by him between 1958 and 59, one can almost say that he brings a country/rockabilly attitude to his gospel music.

Must've come as a shocker for those who had thought of him only as a rebel. Today, Christianity means being a rebel in a world that has fallen into the sinful depths of fornication and consumption.

True, there are performers of gospel music who are better than Cash, I am thinking primarily of The Louvin Brothers, but Cash brings his Cash-ness to it all.

Of course, Cash's music is timeless and so is the message on this record. Christianity remains, however unpopular it is to say so, the way, life and the truth. The lyrics are thoughtful and not written by someone who wants to cash (no pun intended) in on the gospel scene. They reflect the living faith that mr Cash had on earth, which lead him to his social convictions. He still has this faith today, I'm certain, as he watches over all his fans on earth from Heaven.

I am sure that this little CD is one of the most relevant things Cash ever recorded, some of the tunes being his own, some being written by other and a few timeless classic and this part of his legacy should not be forgotten.

Cash shouldn't be made a rebel that refused to conform to society's norms alone. He had this side to him, true, but it was fed by a stronger conviction than provocation for provocation's sake. It was fed by the conviction that us Christians must make moral choices, love our neighbors and not fall into the trap of conventional sins.

This is one of the records in my collection that I value the most. It's a real gem of a plastic disc.

A perfect record like this get 100% in rate of satisfaction!

The Bob Marley and Desmond Dekker of country music

As an old skinhead, I am a fan of reggae music or at least was so until a few years ago. I can't stand modern reggae or "ragga", as they call it, though I really liked Willie Nelson's reggae album.

Anyhow, whenever one says that one likes reggae, you get the usual reaction. "Oh, you like Bob Marley". Which I, in fact, don't particulary do. Sure, some of his 60's stuff was great, but when he progressed to his rastafarian, drug-fuelled crap, it just got too druggie for my taste.

I do appreciate his role in spreading reggae music to a wider audience though, he was a fantastic embassador for the genre. It's just, I think, a bit arrogant to believe that the whole genre starts and ends with one man. I am a far bigger fan of Desmond Dekker, who was the first Jamaican reggae artist with a major smash hit abroad (no, I don't count Millie, cos she was ska and not reggae) and Toots or Jimmy Cliff.

Lately, it has been popular to like Johnny Cash and you get a lot of people talking about Johnny as people talk about Bob. You tell them you like country music and people say "Oh, I love Johnny Cash". Good for them, Johnny Cash was a genious, but can you truly claim to love a genre if you've only heard one man's music?

When it comes to country music, the Desmond Dekker of country is Hank Williams sr and Johnny Cash was the Bob Marley in my book any day. Johnny revolutionised country and brought it a social commentary it hadn't had since the days of Woody Guthrie, although Johnny was definitely not a bloody commie, like Woody was.

The social commentary bit is another reason why I think Johnny as the Bob of country and why I think Hank was the Desmond Dekker. Like Des, Hank stuck to easy listening like themes, most often about broken hearts and misery and never took the step into radical stuff. As a beacon of light for country music in a time when country was not all that it was to become after him, Hank changed a lot of things in the scene and is still an inspiration for many young artists.