Friday, September 12th, 2003
The Man Comes Around
I watched Johnny Cash on Larry King Live two weeks ago, and was struck by how strong he was in his thought and speech, though he was so physically frail. I think losing his wife June in May of this year took a heavier toll on him than his health problems did. There’s a transcript of the interview here. Godspeed, Johnny.
On the subject of outlaw country, I got Steve Earle’s Ain’t Ever Satisfied compilation yesterday. It covers all his pre-prison records for MCA (a period I refer to as “Skinny Steve”), a section of his catalog that for some reason I can’t fully explain, I’d been avoiding. Maybe it was the ‘good ol boy’ stigma that I’d attached to Guitar Town and Copperhead Road, on account of the first time I heard of Steve Earle was from drunk yahoos back in university praising those albums. But seeing as how I’m out of post-prison (“Fat Steve”) albums to get, and each one kicks my ass like Mr T as Clubber Lang, it was time to investigate the older stuff. And I’m pleased to announce it’s solid. It’s less introspective and political than his more recent works, and the production is pretty slick, but the songwriting chops are definitely there and the man still had attitude to spare. I’m a little surprised I only knew one of the songs on the whole comp (the title track) since he had considerable mainstream success back in the day, but I think I was still avoiding CMT like the plague in my salad days. How little I knew.
RIP John Ritter. As LHB pointed out, however, at least he didn’t take all his secrets with him. Interestingly, there is actually a Regal Beagle pub down the street from me. I should go by tonight and see if there’s any sort of memorial service there.
I am on cold medication. My nose is clear but I have that lovely antihistamine-induced haze where you’re not really sure if you’re in real life or on a really well-built movie set.
np – The Sadies / Tremendous Efforts
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9/12/03 12:36 pm
I’m not suprised about Johnny Cash, I mean, I’m suprised he made it this long… Look for the movie of his life with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Whitherspoon. http://…/
John Ritter on the other hand.. The man was a genius… here’s the video link to that secrets thing http://…/