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Monday, Sept. 15, 2003 - 9:39 p.m.

Discovering Cash

I came to listen to Johnny Cash quite late in his career. I was in college by the time I bought myself a cassette (1. Because it was like $4 at Meijer, the Midwest's regional equivalent of Target and 2., because then I could listen to it in my car, but really it was just because of 1.) of his greatest hits. I'd heard of him, of course, but my father isn't really "into" music -- that is, he listens to the radio and likes his certain groups, but he rarely buys CDs, which kinda makes birthdays and holidays pretty easy. So I had no Cash growing up. My country-loving uncle never even introduced me to it, and I can't for the life of me figure out why now. He'd pull out his new country crap, and his Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey (weird fucking tastes that guy has) and his Loretta Lynn, but I never remember any Cash from him.

Anyway, it was up to me to discover Johnny Cash on my own. I knew of the classics -- "I Walk The Line," "Ring of Fire," "Folsom Prison Blues" and, of course, "A Boy Named Sue." I think what sparked me to buy the cassette back then -- and the 16 Greatest Hits CD a few years ago -- was his appearance on Zooropa singing with Bono and U2. Someone on my hall would play "The Wanderer" loud at times, and I remember thinking, "I've got to get me some Cash."

Upon purchasing the tape and, later, the CD, I came to enjoy other songs I hadn't known before, at least not the actual tune. I might've heard the titles of some -- "Sunday Morning Coming Down" among them -- but I could've have named that tune when it came on the radio.

So, in my own little tribute to the Man In Black, here are my favorite Cash tunes, which may become a CD for my car in a day or two. (They're not all Cash originals, because he was so good at recording covers, and not all his most popular tunes were ones he penned. So these represent my favorite Cash recordings, then. In no particular order. Subject to change.)

1. "Folsom Prison Blues" -- "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash ..."
2. "Personal Jesus" -- yes, the Depeche Mode song
3. "The Legend of John Henry's Hammer" -- a classic 8-minute epic tale
4. "In The Jailhouse Now"
5. "Ring of Fire" -- June Carter Cash wrote it about falling in love with Johnny
6. "I Still Miss Someone"
7. "Daddy Sang Bass"
8. "Sunday Morning Coming Down"
9. "I Won't Back Down" -- on which Tom Petty provides backing vocals
10. "Man In Black" -- explains it all
11. "It Ain't Me Babe" -- live at the Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert in NY in '93
12. "One Piece At A Time" -- about putting together his own car, literally
13. "I'm On Fire" -- Springsteen cover
14. "Girl From The North Country" -- a duet with Dylan on Dylan's Nashville Skyline
15. "Long Black Veil" -- and Dave Matthews does right by it
16. "Beans For Breakfast" -- "I couldn't hear you for the TV/I didn't know you said goodbye" a great opening line
17. "One" -- beautiful, maybe even better, cover of U2's song
18. "A Boy Named Sue"
19. "Danny Boy"
20. "We'll Meet Again" -- the last song on the last album released while he was alive

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