Heartbeat and a Guitar By Amanda on November 11, 2009 7:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
This is tremendous news. Someone has written a full length book on one of my favourite records and, in my view, one of the most significant and interesting records of popular music.
Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indians by Johnny Cash.
That someone, Antonino D'Ambrosio, has an article in Salon which covers the ground much more briefly but is a must-read. I'm glad he hits upon the point of Cash being a folk singer as much as a country singer, that's a song I've been singing for years and is the only way you can appreciate him in full.
Cash demanded that the industry explain its resistance to his single. "I had to fight back when I realized that so many stations are afraid of Ira Hayes. Just one question: WHY???" And then Cash answered for them. "'Ira Hayes' is strong medicine ... So is Rochester, Harlem, Birmingham and Vietnam."
This is a great video I hadn't seen before, Cash doing "Apache Tears" live in 1988.
By cm
on November 11, 2009 9:25 PM
that is such a heavy song delivered with such grace
By Jo
on November 12, 2009 4:52 PM
It's a great album and a really important one. I read the Salon article and forwarded it to a couple of friends, suggesting they file it under 'Johnny Cash - Integrity Defined'.