pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

xp willie's made more good records than bad, and his good ones are masterpieces. Johnny Cash isn't in the same stratosphere. Willie is an artist, Cash is a cool guy with a cool voice who has made a thousand unlistenable gospel records and whose entire reputation rests on like seven good songs

never heard the story about rubin trying out having the rhcp back cash before, that sounds so bizarre

it worked for alanis

I pitched Todd Burns on a feature for Stylus in the late aughts on Cash’s American Recordings era that he dug but I never actually delivered. So I was pleasantly surprised when this came across my Twitter feed this am (I follow Kaleb).

Anyway, I thought the piece was excellent – the ambivalence mentioned upthread was exactly what makes it interesting to me. I loved that he actually concluded that the record was important but not actually great (I’ve always struggled with getting through the whole thing myself). He had some inspired reasoning as to why – that some of the covers are poor fits, sure, but also that it’s virtually an a cappella record in a lot of ways (which he correctly notes made it more of a statement but also a bit of a slog).

In general, I prefer retrospectives that blend analysis with a bit of archaeology – and show their work when necessary. To that end, I enjoyed the slightly nonlinear take here on the competing histories and mythologies (i.e., the public history with Columbia and U2, but also the less well-known Branson debacle, etc.).

Ultimately pitchfork may be dumb but this was a great piece – one that could’ve been pretentious as fuck but wasn’t. Thankfully.

never heard the story about rubin trying out having the rhcp back cash before, that sounds so bizarre

Iirc Chili Drummer Chad plays on the Rubin-produced Dixie Chicks record. There's a similarly eclectic lineup backing Nanci Griffith on her album "Flyer" (which sort of fits in with the Cash and Emmylou Harris of the era as crossover/hipster resurgent). Flyer (produced by Peter Buck) has U2's rhythm section, some Peter Gabriel vets, Indigo Girls ... I love these sorts of hodge podge all-star session line-ups. Syd Straw's Surprise, that one features everyone from Eno to Van Dyke Parks to Bernie Worrell, though there is that Golden Palominos connection.

hurt was on mtv a fair amount in the early 00s which i think counts

hah as if having your music video on MTV in the early 2000s (during the only non-reality-based programming slot from 5am-630am) counted for anything.

Cash is a cool guy with a cool voice who has made a thousand unlistenable gospel records and whose entire reputation rests on like seven good songs

yeah this is one of the dumbest takes ever and likely the audience pitchfork is writing for.

Was "Hurt" a "hit?" It was a "hit" video, but that's really not the same thing, is it?

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, April 8, 2018 11:11 PM (yesterday)

pretty sure Johnny Cash was immortality cemented long before he did a NIN cover

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, April 8, 2018 11:15 PM (yesterday)

this is the exact opposite of the point Kaleb was making though

I found it charming but lol pitchfork the way Kaleb's eyes start darting around the room in panic when he has to try and mention non-outlaw-Americana musics. British punk musicians like... uh... Cabaret Voltaire and Voice Of The Beehive. Noted... uhhh... [misreads Less Than Zero sleeve] Public Enemy producer Rick Rubin. U2 - the very U2 who had, once, previously, made an album.

it is always classic to see hipsters dismiss country or gospel, entire careers worth of music, because it doesnt fit some narrative, the last dregs of rockism. like i got news for you buddy, country music and gospel sells millions of records, it doesn't need punk rock cred to be relevant. it has been relevant for millions of people for decades.

Rubin is a miracle worker and he encourages Johnny Cash to make the best music of his life. This is the door Johnny Cash walks through to dethrone Hank Williams as the king of country music.

lol this is the stupidest fucking thing ive read in a long time

that's meant as a caricature of the standard narrative iirc

Hurt is by far his biggest hit on Spotify/Youtube btw

Great job misreading the essay Adam, well done.

lol this is the stupidest fucking thing ive read in a long time

― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau),

you realize he subverts this sentence with the following one, right?

Also, Kaleb Horton wrote some of the loveliest and most informed bits about Hag when he died in 2016.

like, he's been steeped in country music longer than ten people on the Pitchfork masthead.

The album is good, but more importantly, it’s a shrewd marketing idea.

pitchfork in a nutshell

the most important thing is narrative, music is afterthought

how're you doing in that hole you're digging for yourself?

Before U2 and Rick Rubin, Johnny was covered by all kinds of cool people in the 80s and early 90s: Elvis Costello, Social Distortion, Nick Cave, Bongwater, The Mekons, Dead Moon, Blondie, Wall of Voodoo, Dwight Yoakum. The coolest rap record of the 80s, Three Feet High and Rising was named after a Cash line. He's sampled on Paul's Boutique too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM14-JucaLI

Xpost It went both ways, too, because not only was Johnny Cash covering Bruce Springsteen, he was covering Costello, he was covering Nick Lowe ...

uh trl was still very much a thing in the early 00s? also “hurt” was up for video of the year and mtv still had shows like VIDEO CLASH and ALL THINGS ROCK on its schedule. but i’m sure you feel great about the exacta of being a dick and trotting out the “mtv doesn’t play videos” canard

Paul Ponzi is Shakey no?

my three year old sings "Hurt" all the time, so it obviously connects with the younger demographic

i dont think so xp

ok kinda has the cadence but I dunno

impossible to say for sure until paul ponzi comments on a celebrity death, really

My challop is that Johnny Cash is not the greatest country singer ever because...he's not really a country singer imo

please sign up for my webinar

in the same way that Bob Marley isn't the greatest reggae star i concur

was Jesus a Jew?

Cash the man was country. But he was maybe more a ... folk artist?

MTV showed videos until the mid-00s at least, and even then MTV2 was still showing like half videos.

i remember watching MTV in 2003-2004 and seeing tons of videos during the afternoon.

Cash the man was country. But he was maybe more a ... folk artist?

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, April 9, 2018 11:00 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i mean like to me, stylistically most of his classic stuff is either really idiosyncratic rockabilly or basically folk music (ira hayes, man in black etc)...

he's really apart from i guess what i consider the main line of country descended from acuff/rose/hank sr/ernest tubb etc, whereas i feel like willie or merle or george jones are way more from that tradition of honky tonk

i think you trade in your "folk artist" card when they give you your own tv show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVu78DSovhI

Honky Tonk is only one strain of country music though. (And Gospel is way more important in country than people like to admit.) Cash was accepted and influential within Country music. (Where do guys like Roger Miller and Marty Robbins and Merle Travis slot in, exactly?) As recently as 10 years ago you had Josh Turner rise to country stardom with a Cash throwback image and sound.

stylistically most of his classic stuff is either really idiosyncratic rockabilly or basically folk music

Most of the classic Sun artists/recordings were 'marketed' as country, and recognised as such - rockabilly is really an after-the-fact genre, a bit like film noir. This is a good feature on Elvis' country roots, a lot of which equally applies to Cash:

http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-country-music.html

I was thinking of checking out "Wild Wild Country" last night but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Today Pitchfork posted a headline about it and I no longer want to watch this show.

It's pretty good, but not perfect. Check it out. There's a whole thread about it.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/captain-beefheart-and-his-magic-band-trout-mask-replica/

wrong thread, but at least PF made me smile with it's opening line, which i freudian-slippery misread as 'Though it's hard to listen to' .

I take issue with the idea that Zappa basically let things roll in the production. There are some very specific things he did that intensify the murk and confusion of the tracks, and add to the overall weirdness of the album vs various similar follow ups. I was amazed to hear the instrumental demos and hear how clear and crisp they were vs the final product. A lot of this is down to Zappa doing stuff like taping big chunks of cardboard to the drums and cymbals to muffle them, and making it so Beefheart couldn't properly hear the backing tracks when recording vocals so that the singing was somewhat out of sync.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/built-to-spill-perfect-from-now-on/

of course the same jerk that panned the new Andrew W.K. bc he was highly skeptical of all the "empty platitudes" is jacking off all over himself for generic 90s indie rock

The instinct to say something seemed so obvious that to just not somehow felt like a political decision, a meta-commentary on what it means to lead a band and manage the dynamic between performer and whoever you’re performing for.

haven't read that review but built to spill is a good band

hard to think of a record with more quality hooks than keep it like a secret, for instance

But there’s also something aspirational about being labeled “classic rock”—about wanting to make something that could both iconically represent a specific time and become unstuck from it.

unless you are Andrew W.K., then you are merely a poser wallowing in "mindless 1988-ass arena pablum"

i've tried to listen to Built to Spill. it's generic and boring indie rock. Keep It Like a Secret made me fall asleep the one time i heard it.

"generic 90s indie rock" is both v wrong and half-right bc they helped shape what "90s indie rock" sounded like

xp

first time i heard Keep It Like a Secret i literally fell asleep halfway through

thanks i didn't get it the first time

man ned fell asleep right in the middle of a godspeed show, you need to step your hater game up