Is Johnny Cash country?
 

I hear a lot that Johnny Cash is country, then others say he's the first rap artist and others say he's not country at all, more southern blues type or something.

I love me some Johnny Cash and I absolutely HATE country music and I gotta say, Cash doesn't sound like country music to me. Maybe I'm in denial that I love a country artist or something, but it doesn't sound like country at all to me.

So what have you Chiefsplanet. Is this legend country music or something else?

Some of it damn sure is.

Actually, Johnny Cash is DEAD!

woops, I failed the poll lol

I think you already have it figured out

There's good country out there. And it includes Johnny Cash.

This

I you say "Y'all" and use a slide guitar, you're country.

I guess if you wanna call it Classic Country. Patsy Cline? Classic Country.

I like Wilco, Alt-Country. I like Jenny Lewis, She has a Gospel/Country sound.

a friend of mine likes to play the game "Country or Western?"

I hate both.

I'm not a country fan but he's country. At least he was until the end of his career. I love anyone with that much soul. I'm not a motown guy but I feel Aretha Franklin's soul when I hear her. Same with the blues and Muddy Waters. It's like Reggae and Bob Marley.

All of those people are beyond genre I guess. It's something so rare that it's hard to pinpoint. I just know it has to do with soul.

He deeper than deep.

if you have to ask, then you really don't know, now do ya?

This is one of the reasons that made Cash great...he's hard to classify.

I would say country in the same sense that the Beatles were rock n roll. Looking back you don't necessarily call them that if you are comparing them to today's music. But without them neither genre is what it is today without them.

Johnny has listed Hank Sr., Ernest Tubb, The Carter Family, and others as influences on his muse. He has been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

How can that be classified?

Wow man.... and he should have been...

I am at a loss that this is even a question.

When I worked in a record store chain long ago there were a handful of artists listed on an index card near the register along with the classification where their albums were located. We had to know these because people would get frustrated looking in one genre trying to find an artist and the artist would be elsewhere. Johnny Cash headed up that list.... People looked all kinds of places for him.... Crazy...

Anyone who listens to Long Black Veil and doesn't think JC is country is dumber than a bag of pygmy dicks.

When 610 AM was THE country station in KC? sure.

When Taylor Swift tops the charts? Tougher call. But that speaks more to the [de]volution of country than anything.

I know it's confusing because people think that Rascall Flatts and lady Antebellum are country but they're not - they're shit! So does that answer your question? Wait I'm confused now.

I never realized a person could quantify the level of intelligence of a single pygmy dick... much less a whole bag of them.

Impressive sir.

is that right? cause the poll results are damn near 50/50

"The first rap artist?"

You're older than I thought. I listened to that as a kid when I was helping my grandpa pour basements. (or trying to help, anyway0

Lefty frizzell is another old timer that doesn't fit a genre.

His music was considered Outlaw Country for a reason. Definitely country. Definitely not Nashville.

Cash is an icon.. he doesn't fit in a box.

...

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I know he's worshipped but I think his music is garbage. It literally hurts my ears and his voice is worse than that maroon 5 guys although not similarly sounding. He absolutely destroyed Trent Reznors "hurt", no idea how ppl think that us a good rendering of it

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Okay, your music takes are hereafter discredited


Good to know

Hung my head by cash always makes me tear up a little. His american records made so many songs that others write his own. Much like Bob Dylan said all along the watchtower was a jimmy hendrix song, Trent Reznor said the same of hurt. Hurt is a modern classic, Video is sad as hell also.

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I think genres are kind of silly...music is so dynamic.

I often wonder about the line of separation between a lot of modern folk music I enjoy and country music.

Exactly i have a lot of friends who are hipsters that love mumford & sons and ague with me how I say they are basically a bluegrass band. They tend to argue that they are not because being a hipster you knew something is cool before anyone else beside the point i introduced them to the band in the first place.

NSFW

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You seriously have to have a black heart to not think mumford & sons kick ass. I know there is some old-timers on here but
this stuff is golden for all ages.
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Love that song and this video put to it...

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Great scene from Terminator TV series

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This and Hurt are better than the originals imo. Trent Rezner even said Johnny did it better and it's like it was written for him.

I took this picture about a month after Cash died. It was on an abandoned gas station by Shawnee Bend at the Lake of the Ozarks.

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Cash is a country pioneer. So he melded other influences into his music... so did/do a lot of other artists.

I'm not sure I'd want that as part of my resume (on the country side).

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As far as I'm concerned Johnny Cash blessed us with his Heart of Gold with his music rock n roll life style & country, soul & rhythm & blues.

I view the beatles as the first pop-rock band.

Cash is like Elvis of country. He IS country... but a lot of his music really isn't. He transcends genres. The guy had gospel albums and everything else. He didn't just do one thing. He was just a great musician.

Never seen the tv series but very much enjoyed that clip. :thumb:

He is kind of county but kind of his own thing too.

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Since we're posting JC vids I thought I'd post my favorite.


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plus one


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OK, plus 2


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Love this. Those American recording albums he made with Rick Rubin were great.

Right there with ya.

And there, you have the nexus of Roger Miller, Janis Joplin, Shel Silverstein and Barbara Streisand, . . . Kris Kristofferson writing for Johnny Cash.

Reaper told me that Johnny Cash is Death Country (or Black Country, I can't remember which).

IMO this is the epitome of Country Royalty

Got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout

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Conway and Loretta a close second.

This song is awesome

Kristofferson was such a great writer. Lacked as a singer but the man could write like few others.

Cash/Waylon/Kristofferson/Nelson was pretty Boss.

Ive always liked him as an actor too. Definately had a certain grizzled presence.

Another sentimental favorite

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Word. This song is great all the way through, but when JC comes in on his part in the 4th verse it just seems to take a leap to a different level to me.


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Wow, I'd forgot about that one. Nice.

When my daughter was younger we used to listen to one of my JC cd's in the car on trips a lot and her and I would share the parts on that one back and forth. She'd belt out June's parts, heh. Good times.

Here's a cool performance of Sunday Morning Comin Down with Cash and Kristofferson together.

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**** Elvis. Talentless thief.

I'm in no way a country music fan but I didn't even realize that Taylor Swift was considered by some as country music. For me Johnny Cash is definetly country. Mind you its all about the music industy putting artists in pigeon holes so there can sell them easier.

Taylor came out as a country artist and her early stuff was. Her cross over is more recent.

he is what country wishes it was

imaybe in your world.

Cash is a country artist. That shit you hate they call country is just pop garbage for the masses. masses of ****ing idiots.

Chuck D, is that you?

Anyone who says Johnny Cash is the first rap artist is doing nothing more than trying to legitimize rap. Johnny Cash made music, not rap.

For the longest time I would've said he was country, but I think he was actually a hybrid of country and something else. Not sure what. Maybe he was a forerunner of the southern rock genre.

What difference does it make? Call it whatever the hell makes you feel better. Only Reaper cares about this shit.

I credit Cash for Rockabilly and forerunner for Southern Rock.