The Genius of Johnny Cash

As many are aware, I do not like country music. It just doesn’t do anything for me. No, it’s not because it’s all about your girlfriend leaving you and stealing your pick-up truck (though, I do use that stereotype when talking about the music to others, just as they use stereotypes to describe my music of choice, hip hop). I just don’t care for it. I would say there is once exception, and that is Johnny Cash. Now, I never really got into Johnny Cash until college, but I do think the man has put out some excellent music. The other day while subbing a social studies class, a young girl and I debated on his genius. She was a product of the new school of country music, not appreciating the “grittier” country music that came before. It wasn’t until recently that I could say exactly why Johnny Cash was a genius, and this excerpt isn’t the only reason he is, but it explains a lot as to why he is. This is from Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

Here is the easiest way to explain the genius of Johnny Cash: Singing from the perspective of a convicted murderer in the song “Folsom Prison Blues,” Cash is struck by pangs of regret when he sits in his cell and hears a distant train whistle. This is because people on that train are “probably drinkin’ coffee.” And this is also why Cash seems completely credible as a felon: He doesn’t want freedom or friendship or Jesus or a new lawyer. He wants coffee.

Within the mind of a killer, complex feelings are eerily simple.

This is why killers can shoot men in Reno just to watch them die, and the rest of us usually can’t.

Like I said, it’s not the only reason that makes him great, just a simple explanation.