"The Man in Black" C or D?

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Zack, Pete and I started this, until I was admonished to "Keep it on the message board". Fine. Here.

Johnny Cash's explanation as to why he always dressed in black. You all know the song. Classic or Dud?

I vote awkward classic, for a very particular reason. Cash was a man of pretty solid integrity, I gather. By his own account, he fucked up a good deal (see 1957 - 65), but he always attempted to see the best in people and to treat them like other human beings should be treated. I think that this song represents two things: His feelings about the alienation that young and poor people were feeling in this country surrounding Vietnam, and his attempt to say to them "I'm with you. To hell with the rest of these spangled suit wearing good for nothins. I'm with you."

Yes, its a little corny, and yes, the guitar line has been used in 55 other songs he did. But he's telling us why he's the MAN IN BLACK. Do you think its b/c he spilled food a lot and didn't want the stains to show? Do you think he was worried about looking fat (black is slimming)? No. He wore it for the poor and the beaten down...livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town.

Zack, he was the Man. In Black.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

Huge fucking classic. Anyone who says 'dud' is immediately liberated from the burden of credibility and should wear a dunce cap for the rest of their days.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:09 (twenty years ago)

Dud. Not JC as an artist or nothin, just the song. In addition to not being a very catchy tune, that whole self-important mythologizing is just totally at odds w/what the dude was all about - he was usually more about showing than telling.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

that whole self-important mythologizing

Dude, he's Johnny Cash. You're not. Bow down.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:28 (twenty years ago)

johnny cash: shower, not grower.

― petesmith (plsmith), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

Also this song marks the exact moment at which JC stopped being a nervy fuckup trainwreck who wrote consistently amazing songs and became "Johnny Cash, frozen object of reverence."

But Alex, we should hold those we respect to the highest standards, doncha think? To do otherwise would be disrespectful!

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:30 (twenty years ago)

Classic for sure.

"And I wear it for the thousands who have died
Believing that the Lord was on their side
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died
Believing that we all were on their side"

With a lyric like that he could have sung it to the tune of, I don't know, any old thing, and it still would be a classic.

― Ned T .Rifle, Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:31 (twenty years ago)

i sort of like andy's reasons better: i wear it cause i spill a lot; i wear it cause ive gained some weight; i wear it to avoid thinking about coordinating; i wear it because im a big stupid goth, etc.

― petesmith (plsmith), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

That said, did Johnny invent Goth with that song?

I'm a passing Cash fan and I give him a lot of respect. That said I only have the Folsom Prison album and the American Recordings IV, both of which are awesome but I don't have this song neither do I remember what it sounds like. Pity me.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:42 (twenty years ago)

Alex, OTM.

Bow down, indeed.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:45 (twenty years ago)

If you see the video of him performing this song on a college campus ca. 1970 or so, you know the answer to this thread.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

classic just for how he rhymes "tone" with "on" -------

his heart's in the right place with this one but yeah I always thought it was a little funny for him to mythologize his duds as some kind of public service.

I mean if I were the poor and beaten down I wouldn't give a good goddamn what he was wearing.

― reacher, Tuesday, 18 October 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)

I mean if I were the poor and beaten down I wouldn't give a good goddamn what he was wearing.

It's no hokier than wearing a chain around your neck for you brothers in lock-down (like Treach of Naughty By Nature) or getting a teardrop tatoo or something.

Once again, he's Johnny Cash. He could've worn a Zippy the Pinhead costume and made it look dead cool.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

Oh, Alex.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

it's a good point but even if Treach is talking about every single incarcerated black person ---- seems like that makes his focus that much narrower/less preposterous.

even if you *are* johnny cash this "my wardrobe addresses the entire gamut of the world's social ills" business seems like a real 'whatever dude' kind of moment ------

(though if johnny cash had worn a zippy costume every day from 1971 on that really might have made the world a better place)

― reacher, Tuesday, 18 October 2005 16:53 (twenty years ago)

did Johnny invent Goth with that song?

Chekhov invented Goth in the first scene of Three Sisters ("Why do you always wear black, Masha?" "I'm in mourning for my life"). But yeah, probably.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

"my wardrobe addresses the entire gamut of the world's social ills" business seems like a real 'whatever dude' kind of moment ------"

SOOO missing the point. He understood that his wardrobe drew attention, and he utilized that attention to garner attention for those who did not have a voice. I don't think he though that he was the ONLY voice, just A voice.

But yeah, a Zippy costume on JC would have been AWESOME.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 17:03 (twenty years ago)

"The Man In Black" is not even in JC's top 100 songs ever. It's, like, um, a nice (hokey) statement of purpose, but it's no "One Piece at a Time" or "Look at them Beans!" or even "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" (which is a hideous song).

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

I tend to agree with the camp that says its an okay song but not one of his better moments. Kind of hokey, for all the reasons others have so perceptively elucidated.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

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