Johnny Cash's American Recordings

by Tost, Tony

• ISBN13: 9781441174611
• ISBN10: 1441174613
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-28
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

When Johnny Cash signed to Rick Rubin's record label in 1993, he was a country music legend who, like his fellow Highwaymen Willie, Waylon and Kris, remained a fondly regarded yet completely marginalized Nashville figure, unheard on the radio and unseen on the charts. Cash's odyssey from oldies act to folk hero pivots on his first American Recordings album, a document of almost unbearable solitude and directness. It is a singular record, an instance in which a musical giant has been granted a kind of midnight reprieve, a chance to regain and renew his legend. Tony Tost illuminates the ways in which American Recordings is the crossroads where cultural, spiritual and mythic archetypes come together in the figure of The Man in Black. Ultimately, this is a guidebook to myth and mystery, a means of apprehending the stark beauty of Cash's greatest record, the sound of a man alone and fighting for his soul, one song at a time.

Author Biography

Tony Tost is a scholar and poet who lives in Seattle, Washington. The author of two poetry collections, he was the recipient of the Walt Whitman Award in 2003. He is currently completing a dissertation on myth, technology and the poetic imagination at Duke University.

Table of Contents

Preface                                                        Permanence (1)Permanence (2)Americana (1)Independence DayThe GiftAmericana (2)DeliaLet the Train Blow the WhistleThe Beast in MeDrive OnWhy Me, LordBad Luck WindCowboy PrayersPrecedenceTo Be FreeHe Had the Nerve and He Had the BloodWhere Are Your Guts?Where the Train Goes SlowRedemptionLike a SoldierPermanence (3)The Man Who Couldn't CryThe Old, Weird American