Book Review: Johnny Cash Biography
Joe Samuel Starnes - Journal of Popular Culture
Mar 17, 2008
Johnny Cash: The Biography Michael Streissguth. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2006.
When Johnny Cash (1932 - 2003) met his death, there was an impassioned campaign to chisel his distinct visage among the presidential profiles on Mount Rushmore. In life, the long-legged, guitar picking man wore many faces: on the one hand, he was a heartfelt balladeer, devout Christian, patriot, baritone voice for the downtrodden and a warm supporter of family, fellow musicians, friends and strangers in need; on the other, he was a lifelong pill addict, philanderer, establishment sell-out, ornery cuss and godfather of all that is dark in country music and rock'n'roll. Ultimately he was all of these-and it is that glut of contradictions that makes setting Cash's story straight a seemingly impossible assignment. Michael Streissguth, author and editor of two previous books about Cash, is up to the challenge in the first independent, critical biography of the country music icon.
Most country music biographies are either "as told to" autobiographies or works approved by the subject and therefore about as objective as political campaign commercials (just as Hollywood biopics often distort the truth in exchange for feel-good endings). There are three previous Cash biographies: a 1971 biography in which Cash shared in the advance, and autobiographies from 1975 and 1997. The highly acclaimed I Walk the Line film was based on the two autobiographies and Cash's input. Unlike these biased works, Streissguth impartially cuts through the myths. His writing is eminently readable and well documented, built upon myriad sources, including probing interviews with Cash's children and several longtime confidants.
Streissguth debunks two common misperceptions: that Cash was drug-free after 1968 and that his marriage to June Carter was a perfect union. Although Cash kicked his addiction to pills in 1970 after the birth of his son, he stayed clean for only six years, returning to drug use in 1976 when his popularity began to fade. He frequently took pills the last twenty years of life, Streissguth writes. While his marriage to June was filled with love and lasted until she died, it was often unhappy, coming very near to ending several times when June drew up divorce papers and left him during two tumultuous periods in the 1980s.
Streissguth opens with an insightful overview of Cash's life and legacy, setting the scene from the graveside of Cash and June Carter in Hendersonville, Tennessee. He organizes Cash's life into five sections, covering many ups and downs, his rural Arkansas childhood, his relationship with Bob Dylan (from whom Cash learned something about mythmaking), his faith, the drudgery of performing in Branson, and his resurgence with the American Recordings sessions that introduced the aged country star to an audience of young listeners. The biography is at its best when breaking down the stories behind creation of the songs, such as the plagiary Cash partook of in writing his trademark "Folsom Prison Blues," or the recording of his last single, "Hurt," a song written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.
This book ends with Cash's illness and the painful last stages of his life and his death-only four months after June's-surrounded by three of his children. Streissguth is very brief in his coda, sparing the reader a lengthy tribute or deconstruction of Cash. His decision to end the biography without extended narrative is wise, as he has already told a moving and often surprising story of extreme triumph and tribulation. Should Johnny Cash be on Mount Rushmore? Streissguth leaves it for the reader to decide.
----
Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion
