Johnny Cash Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Kris Kristofferson (1936-2004)

singer/songwriter

The music of Kris Kristofferson seemed to have bookended my adult life until now. During my first marriage, we had an album the record company had just reissued as Me and Bobby McGee, previously called Kristofferson. It had many songs that other people were making famous, such as Help Me Make It Through The Night and For The Good Times. After the Rhodes scholar, working as a janitor, landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s lawn, the Man In Black covered Kris’ Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.

But I particularly enjoyed a couple of other songs on that premiere album. The first track, Blame It On The Stones, features a chorus swiped from Bringing In The Sheaves and lyrics telling us to “blame it on those Rolling Stones.”

Another great song was The Law Is For Protection Of The People. “A rule’s a rule, as any fool can see.” We don’t need certain people “scaring decent folk like you and me. No, siree.” I love that album, and I might still have it on vinyl.

I also had the next album, Silver Tongued Devil and I. It featured The Pilgrim, Chapter 33. I used to quote the line, “He’s a walking contradiction; partly truth and partly fiction,” inordinately frequently. It seems particularly apt to describe many people I’ve known.

A find

While going through my father-in-law’s music collection after he died in 2020, I discovered a two-CD set of Kristofferson’s music titled Singer/Songwriter. One disc features him singing his songs and the other features about a dozen and a half artists covering Kris. It’s quite a fine album. He doesn’t have the prettiest voice, but it has a certain amount of character.

Speaking of character, on “Oct. 16, 1992, Columbia Records threw its longtime artist Bob Dylan an event at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his first album with the label.” Sinead O’Connor, who had made a controversial appearance on Saturday Night Live, was booed by the MSG audience, but Kris supported her onstage.

Kris Kristofferson did his final live performance at Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday party concert in April 2023. With Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris gone, Willie’s the surviving Highwayman.

Oh yeah. He was in the movies, too, but I only saw a few, all at the cinema. In the early 1970s, he appeared in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The only reason I saw Rollover (1981), also starring Jane Fonda, was that part of it was shot at the UAlbany campus. My family saw the two Dolphin Tale (20111, 2014) films.

More songs

Jody and the Kid – Kris

Help Me Make It Through The Night – Kris

For The Good Times – Ray Price

Me and Bobby McGee – Roger Miller

Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down – Johnny Cash

To Beat The Devil – Waylon Jennings

Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again) – Waylon Jennings

Why Me – Kris

I’d Rather Be Sorry – Kris and Rita Coolidge

Nobody Wins – Rita Coolidge

Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends – Ronnie Milsap

The Hawk – Tom Verlaine

Highwayman – The Highwaymen (a Jimmy Webb song)

Paperback Writer – Kris (Lennon/McCartney)

Lent 2023

Requiem

Some random bits for Lent 2023.

No Earthly Good – Johnny Cash. This is a song John wrote. It was on The Rambler album in 1977 and the posthumous Unearthed Collection in 2003; this is the latter version. “Some people are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good” was attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The lyrics of the song include:

The gospel ain’t gospel until it is spread
But how can you share it where you’ve got your head
There’s hands that reach out for a hand if you would
So heavenly-minded, you’re no earthly good

I’ve come across responses suggesting the premise is false because they didn’t know anyone so focused on heaven that one could forget their neighbor on earth. In my experience, I have known a few who are so captivated by the hereafter that their Now is bereft of compassion.

I was taken by John Green’s recent four-minute vlog post Empathy and its Limits. Among other things, he notes, as I have noticed for decades, about the word invalid. One meaning is “a person made weak or disabled by illness or injury.” Another is “being without foundation or force, in fact, truth, or law.” They are spelled the same, though pronounced differently. And often, the sickly are invalidated.

Requiem pieces

I’ll admit to feeling a bit grumpy about a snippet of Lacrimosa from the Mozart Requiem being used for a pain reliever advertisement. I was so annoyed that my brain blocked out the product’s name. I’ve sung the Mozart Requiem thrice, the last time on September 11, 2002.

When I was at my former church back in the 1990s, we sang the Rutter Requiem. My favorite section is Out Of The Deep.

How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place is from Brahms’ German Requiem, done in English. Members of the choir of my old church, some other singers, and I sang it at the funeral of my friend Jim Kalas in 2022.

The inverse pedal point in music

Van Halen, Chopin, Johnny Cash, Samuel Barber

Jaquandor, as is his tradition, was playing his Your Daily Dose of Christmas. One post highlighted the oratorio L’Enfance du Christ by Hector Berlioz. I had not heard that work.

Well, there is one exception. The Shepherd’s Farewell is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music. And the best moment is when the soprano note remains on the same note, but the rest of the chord below it changes, at about 1:00, 2:20, and 3:45 here. I find it utterly exquisite. Does that have a musical name?

As it turns out, it does. “That is called an ‘inverse pedal point’! A pedal point happens when the bass tone holds while everything above it shifts; an inversion occurs when the same thing is done with a voice other than the bass. Music! :)”

Now, I was familiar with the pedal point, even if I didn’t know what it was called. Singing bass in a church choir, we often sustained our notes while the other sections moved. This guy can explain better than I.

And here are some examples. It appears Jump by Van Halen is a popular choice. As I suspected, the drone of the bagpipe is a pedal point.

“When a pedal point occurs in a voice other than the bass, it is usually referred to as an inverted pedal point. Pedal points are usually on either the tonic or the dominant (fifth note of the scale) tones.” Think of the version of Hurt by Johnny Cash, starting at 0:52.

Amen

Final cadences, such as the Amen at the end of a church hymn, often involve the sopranos singing the tonic note twice, while the other parts move. Listen to the Barber Adagio for Strings, specifically around 5:30, and in general about 2/3s of the way through a recording. It ALWAYS devastates me.

Another favorite piece of music with a pedal point is the Raindrop Prelude, Op.28 No.15 by Chopin. This video is useful because it comes with a score. As Paul Barton plays the FEURICH piano, note that there’s a pedal point almost from the very beginning in the bass line. But notice how, at 2 minutes in, at the key change, the continual note is now at the top, first in the bass clef, then the treble. Then the repeated note is somewhere in the middle before the piece reverts to the original key.

If you want to play music at my funeral, I’d suggest the Barber adagio or Raindrop Prelude by Chopin. Or preferably both, though I probably won’t have much of a say in the decision.

Favorites: Johnny Cash (1996-2004)

Unearthed

Johnny Cash.AmericanRecords Here is another edition of J. Eric Smith’s game show, Favorite Songs by Favorite Bands. Once again, I pulled a solo artist. If I HAD picked a band for this time period, it’d likely be The Beatles again, who had started putting out the Anthology albums.

Over a half-century, I kept discovering and rediscovering Johnny Cash. From his early hits, I knew who he was. He sang the theme for The Rebel (1959-1962) TV show. The prison albums catapulted him to new fame. I watched his great TV show (1969-1972) which had a lot of rock, pop and soul singers as well as country stars; I just discovered it’s being rerun in my area.

But by the early 1980s, I’d largely lost track of him, except for his appearances with the Highwaymen. Well, he had a good quarter-century run. But then he guests on a U2 album, singing The Wanderer!

Shortly thereafter, he did that first American Recording, produced by Rick Rubin, that came out in 1994. And I’m a John R. Cash fan once again. The second disc, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backup band, was also quite appealing. So I had to buy some old Johnny Cash, a greatest hits CD plus Folsom Prison and San Quentin.

The third album was released in 2000, and the fourth in 2002. Right after he died in 2003, Unearthed was released. It contained outtakes and alternate versions of songs recorded for those four American Recordings. It also contained My Mother’s Hymn Book, gospel songs Cash first learned as a child. The final disc is the best of collection from those four albums.

Songs

My favorite Johnny Cash songs lean heavily on his latter period. And I’m limiting it to 10 because otherwise, it’d be 50. Only the top 2 are for sure in those positions.

kappa. Redemption Song, with the late Joe Strummer, written by the late Bob Marley, from Unearthed. There are lots of gems there.
iota. God’s Gonna Cut You Down from the posthumous fifth American Recording, the history of the song appears HERE.
theta. Ring Of Fire. Hey, I’m a sucker for the horns, for the Carters’ harmonies…
eta. We’ll Meet Again – the last song on the last album he released before he died. Incidentally, Vera Lynn, most associated with the song, died this year.
zeta. Personal Jesus. Originally performed by Depeche Mode. 4th American album.

epsilon. I Walk the Line – this song defined JRC for me when I was growing up
delta. I Hung My Head from the 4th American album. I owned the Sting original version first and still recognized that Johnny had usurped it from the composer.
gamma. Rusty Cage from the 2nd American album. Written by the late Chris Cornell of Soundgarden
beta. Hurt from the 4th American album. Written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The song was nominated for best male video at the MTV VMAs but lost to Justin Timberlake. Timberlake said in his acceptance speech “This is a travesty! I demand a recount. My grandfather raised me on Johnny Cash.”
alpha. The Mercy Seat from the 3rd American Recording. A cover of a Nick Cave song.

Next time period

Beach Boys (2005-2008). My friend Donna George died back in 2002. I had given her a box set of the Beach Boys, and I took it back, with her blessing the month before she died. After the baby was born, I needed musical comfort food and they were the choice.

Bubbling Under Billboard Hot 100 #2

Most of these I have on vinyl

More from Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100, 1959-2004. These are songs, which didn’t quite make it to the promised land on the primary US singles chart, that I own. I find this to be an interesting way for me to rediscover music I haven’t played in a while.

Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing – Buffalo Springfield, #110 in 1966. Written by Neil Young.
I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better – The Byrds, #103 in 1965, B-side of All I Really Want to Do (#40)

Johnny Cash

I own a LOT of John R.’s music
The Rebel -Johnny Yuma, #108 in 1961, theme from The Rebel TV Series. Country #24
Boa Constrictor, #107 in 1966,. Country #39
Papa Was a Good Man, #104 in 1971. Country #16

Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad – Derek and the Dominoes, #120 in 1973. Listed under Eric Clapton
Walking After Midnight – Patsy Cline, #108 in 1963 on Everest Records; reissue of her #12 hit in 1957 on Decca
In the Air Tonight – Phil Collins, #102 in 1984; reissue of the #19 hit from 1981 on an Atlantic oldies label. Popularized again because of the TV show Miami Vice.

Baretta’s Theme – Sammy Davis, Jr., #101 in 1976, Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow, from the TV series starring Robert Blake
Jesus Freak – DC Talk, #109 in 1995
Heartbreak Town – Dixie Chicks, #102 in 2001, #23 country
If You Don’t Love Me (I’ll Kill Myself) – Pete Droge, #119 in 1995. I’ve met Droge at least thrice, twice in Albany and once in Boston.
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again – Bob Dylan (live), #110 in 1977

Do What You Gotta Do – Roberta Flack, #117 in 1971
Today I Sing the Blues – Aretha Franklin, #101 in 1969; originally #10 RB in 1960
A Funky Space Reincarnation – Marvin Gaye, #106 in 1979; this is the album version
Love and Happiness – Al Green, #104 in 1977, RB #92

Do It for Love – Daryl Hall and John Oates, #114 in 2002, AC #1
Watermelon Man – Herbie Hancock, #121 in 1963
Stone Free – the Jimi Hendrix Experience, #130 in 1969; all I could find were live versions
Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing – Chris Isaak, #125 from 1999, from the movie Eyes Wide Shut
It’s Different for Girls – Joe Jackson, #101 for two weeks in 1979

Jefferson Airplane

Most of these I have on something called vinyl
My Best Friend – #103 in 1967
Two Heads, #124 in 1967, B-side of Ballad Of You & Me & Pooneil (#42)
Plastic Fantastic Lover, #133 in 1969, originally the B-side of White Rabbit (#8)
Mexico, #102 in 1970
Have You Seen the Saucers, #102 in 1970 (the flip side of Mexico)
Long John Silver, #104 in 1972

Janis Joplin

Her version of Me and Bobby McGee was the second posthumous #1 pop song
Bye, Bye Baby – Big Brother and the Holding Company, #118 in 1967
Try (Just a Little Bit Harder), #103 in 1970
Maybe, #110 in 1970