{"id":1304346,"date":"2019-02-26T08:03:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T15:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1803381"},"modified":"2019-02-26T08:03:49","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T15:03:49","slug":"sure-johnny-cash-is-iconic-but-he-was-comic-as-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/music-news\/sure-johnny-cash-is-iconic-but-he-was-comic-as-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Sure Johnny Cash Is Iconic \u2014 But He Was Comic As Well"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">29m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>OK! OK! We get it.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s the Man in Black. Dweller on Mount Olympus and short-listed for Mount Rushmore. Defender of the incarcerated, the indigenous, the indigent and the indignant. Father to Rosanne and ex-father-in-law to Marty and Rodney. All good. All eminently commendable. In fact, genuflections are in order.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rosanne Cash, Johnny Cash and Rodney Crowell live in Atlanta in 1982<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"b62b8714\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-639544262-1551192745.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"Rosanne Cash And Rodney Crowell Perform with Surprise Guest Johnny Cash\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">Rick Diamond\/Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>But on this, the late Johnny Cash\u2019s 87th birthday, we prefer to remember his risible side. You know, those times when he became \u201cChuckles Cash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No long-legged guitar pickin\u2019 man stands quite so tall as when he stoops to tickle our fancy.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo\" id=\"bf9dcb3f\">\n<div class=\"deferred_content\"><noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;img&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.85&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=481 481w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=660 660w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=768 768w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=980 980w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1200 1200w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1500 1500w, http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:file:http:shared:cmt.com\/news\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/02\/GettyImages-85234623-1551192877.jpg?quality=0.8&amp;format=jpg&amp;width=1800 1800w\" title=\"Photo of Johnny CASH\" class=\"js-srcset-img shortcode-image portrait p3x4\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<div class=\"photocredit\">Jan Olofsson\/Redferns<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>And in these 10 songs, Cash strove mightily to do that:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"listicle-container\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cSmiling Bill McCall \u201d (No. 13, 1960, written by Johnny Cash)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Here Cash pokes fun at the vanity of radio singing stars and at the suggestibility of their audiences. All the men admire and the ladies adore Smiling Bill as they envision what he must look like. But then one day he goes missing, and the authorities find him on the banks of a creek preparing to commit suicide. Why? \u201cThe big brave Smiling Bill McCall\/Is only four feet tall\/I\u2019d rather be in the river dead\/Than to hear \u2019em laughin\u2019 at my bald head.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cThe One on the Right Is On the Left\u201d (No. 2, 1966, Jack Clement)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Just as today, political divisions were wide in the 1960s, what with the Civil Rights struggle and the anti-Vietnam War movement. So you could either despair about the rancor or make fun of it. Cash sings of a promising folk music band (a volatile combination to begin with) that splits up over its members political differences: \u201cWell, the one on the right was on the left\/And the one in the middle was on the right\/And the one on the left was in the middle\/And the guy in the rear was a Methodist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cEverybody Loves a Nut\u201d (No. 17, 1966, Jack Clement)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>This was the title cut of an entire album of zany tunes, including the one preceding and the two following. Whether \u201cthe whole world loves a weirdo,\u201d as the song says, may be in dispute since this one couldn\u2019t even make it into the Top 10. Sad to say, the far-fetched lyrics are more desperate than diverting. So file this one under \u201cTrying Too Hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cBoa Constrictor\u201d (No. 39, 1966, Shel Silverstein)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Imagine singing a virtual inch-by-inch description as you\u2019re being swallowed by a snake, starting with your toes. That\u2019s what Cash does here. It\u2019s so ridiculous you have to laugh, even as you\u2019re asking yourself why. \u201cOh yes he\u2019s up to my chest\/Oh heck he\u2019s up to my neck.\u201d With his gift for rhyming absurd situations, it\u2019s easy to see why Silverstein was such a hit with kids.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cDirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog\u201d (album cut from <em>Everybody Loves a Nut<\/em>, 1966. Jack Clement)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Don\u2019t we all identify with this situation? Just kidding. Cash lays down the law to the hound that\u2019s haunting his henhouse, threatening to stomp his head into the ground or \u201cget my rifle and send him\/To that great chicken house in the sky.\u201d Not recommended as background music for PETA fund-raising parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cFlushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart\u201d (album cut from At <em>Folsom Prison<\/em>, 1968, Jack Clement)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Extravagant language \u2014 whether it\u2019s over-the-top rap lyrics or the stilted formal prose of a Coen Brothers movie \u2014 is usually good for a laugh because it draws more attention to its situational incongruity than to the story itself. You can hear the Folsom inmates roaring as Cash delivers such Clement clinkers as \u201cFrom the backdoor of your life you swept me out dear\/In the bread line of your dreams I lost my place\/At the table of your love I got the brush off\/At the Indianapolis of your heart I lost the race.\u201d If this sounds poetic to you, it\u2019s back to literary appreciation class. By the way, this verbal over-reach is sung to the tune of \u201cWild Side of Life\u201d or \u201dIt Wasn\u2019t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.\u201d Please use this knowledge wisely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cA Boy Named Sue\u201d (No. 1 country, No 2. pop, 1969, Shel Silverstein)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Juliet asks Romeo, \u201cWhat\u2019s in a name?\u201d And, just as in the play, the answer in this song is \u201cDamned near everything.\u201d Romeo\u2019s family name ensured the persistence of inter-tribal hostility, regardless of how drawn the two young lovers were to each other. Naming a guy \u201cSue\u201d ordained that he\u2019ll be having a clash on every corner, no matter how even-tempered he is. That Sue is also conflicted about the man who gave him the name \u2014 his father \u2014 only makes the narrative more riotous. Those of you old enough to have had pterodactyls for pets may recall that the comedian Ernie Kovacs sometimes played a poet named Percy Dovetonsils. And you think Sue had a problem!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cBlistered\u201d (No. 4, 1969, Billy Edd Wheeler)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>What is it with Johnny Cash and heat? First there was the \u201cRing of Fire\u201d he fell into. Then came \u201cBlistered\u201d with such indelible lines as \u201cShe done tore my world apart put big blisters on my heart\/What a mighty crazy cooking way to go\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ve got great big blisters on my fingertips\/From reaching in my pocketbook and picking out the bills\/And I got tiny white blisters in my throat\/From trying to ease my nervous tension taking all them patent pills.\u201d Love hurts. Wheeler co-wrote Cash and June Carter\u2019s Grammy-winning No. 2 hit, \u201cJackson\u201d (1967). So maybe Cash cut \u201cBlistered\u201d as a bonus. Wheeler is also responsible for the Appalachian knee-slapper \u201cOde to the Little Brown Shack Out Back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cOne Piece at a Time\u201d (No. 1, 1976, Wayne Kemp)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Hating one\u2019s job is as American as it gets. Well before Johnny Paycheck threatened to \u201cTake This Job and Shove It\u201d (1977), Cash was dreaming of workplace mayhem in \u201cOney\u201d (1972). With \u201cOne Piece at a Time,\u201d however, getting even is more genteel. Instead of slapping his overbearing boss around, this assembly-line worker uses his insider advantage to feather his retirement by slipping out various Cadillac parts in his lunch box each day until he has enough to make a complete limousine. Alas styles change, which results in an eye-popping hybrid: \u201cWhat model is it\/Well, It\u2019s a \u201949, \u201950, \u201951, \u201952, \u201953, \u201954, \u201955, \u201956 \u201957, \u201958\u2019 59\u2032 automobile\/It\u2019s a \u201960, \u201961, \u201962, \u201963, \u201964, \u201965, \u201966, \u201967, \u201968, \u201969, \u201970 automobile.\u201d It must have been an insurance nightmare.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cThe Chicken in Black\u201d (No. 45, 1984, Gary Gentry)<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Cash was two years away from the end of his 28-year tenure at Columbia Records when he indulged himself in this classic self-parody. It seems the Man in Black has been having headaches and needs a brain transplant. Unfortunately, the first brain available is from a dead a bank robber, which turns the Man in Black into a yellow-jersey and blue cape-wearing holdup man who calls himself \u201cthe Manhattan Flash.\u201d At least that\u2019s the costume the music video shows. When Cash asks to get his original brain back, his doctor says, \u201cI\u2019m sorry there Mr. Cash, but I can\u2019t do that\u201d\/He said, \u201cI put your brain in a chicken last Monday\/He singing your songs and making lots of money\/And I got him signed to a ten-year recording contract.\u201d So now there\u2019s a \u201cJohnny Chicken Show,\u201d and, yes, the chicken wields a tiny guitar and wears black.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Cash\u2019s lyrical humor \u2014 whether he or someone else wrote it \u2014 was never subtle. But its general good nature and goofiness almost always made it work.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1803381\/sure-johnny-cash-is-iconic-but-he-was-comic-as-well\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 29m ago OK! OK! We get it. He\u2019s the Man in Black. Dweller on Mount Olympus and short-listed for Mount Rushmore. Defender of the incarcerated, the indigenous, the indigent and the indignant. Father to Rosanne and ex-father-in-law to Marty and Rodney. All good. All eminently commendable. In fact, genuflections are in order. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1304346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 18:30:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}