Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Johnny Cash: Personal File
JOHNNY CASH: PERSONAL FILE
(narration by Rodney Crowell is printed below in ALL CAPS)
[SEGMENT 1]
Music: (under) Sweet Bye and Bye
Jack Clement: He grew up hearing a lot of stuff, and you learn to sing it.
Rosanne Cash: He had such an abiding love for those songs, and wanted to give them to his audience as a gift. "Here, check this out. This is amazing." His enthusiasm for them never wavered.
John Carter Cash: He just wanted to sing and I think that's, that's a true matter of form in everything my dad ever did. He just wanted to sing. It was his therapy. It was his life. It was his love, his spirit, you know, his music. He looked at music as a way to express himself, find peace, and convene with a higher spirit. Truly did.
RODNEY: IN 1973, JOHNNY CASH SAT DOWN WITH A GUITAR AND A MICROPHONE
AND BEGAN TO PLAY. OVER THE NEXT TEN YEARS, HE WOULD RECORD TAPE AFTER TAPE OF SONGS THAT HE LOVED BOTH OLD AND NEW. WHEN HE FINISHED, THE TAPE WOULD BE MARKED "PERSONAL FILE" AND PUT IN A VAULT.
THAT VAULT HAS BEEN RE-OPENED, AND IN THE NEXT HOUR WE'RE GOING TO HEAR RARE RECORDINGS BY JOHNNY CASH. HE'S HAVING FUN, PLAYING MUSIC AND TELLING STORIES OF HIS CHILDHOOD AND DEEP FAITH. WE'LL ALSO HEAR FROM HIS SON JOHN CARTER, DAUGHTER ROSANNE AND LOTS OF FRIENDS ABOUT CASH'S LOVE OF MUSIC.
I'M RODNEY CROWELL, AND WELCOME TO "JOHNNY CASH: PERSONAL FILE."
Music: continues to end
JOHN CARTER CASH.
JCC: These recordings, the personal file recordings were done in the Johnny Cash studio at the time, which was the House of Cash studio, later became the museum, later became his office for years and years. The House of Cash studio, the building still stands. But he turned it into a museum in the late 1970s, early 1980s. He didn't have his own personal recording studio 'til 1994 (I gotcha) when he came into the cabin for the first time and recorded. The first material that was done in the Cash cabin studio was done in '94 and that would've been, that my father recorded, was some of the material on the first American Recordings record with Rick Rubin.
THE STORY GOES THAT IN 1993 WHEN RICK RUBIN ASKED JOHNNY CASH IF HE'D LIKE TO DO AN ACOUSTIC ALBUM, CASH MENTIONED THAT HE HAD MADE A RECORD LIKE THAT IN THE 70'S BUT NO ONE WAS INTERESTED IN PUTTING IT OUT. LUCKILY, CASH KEPT THE TAPES SAFE.
JOHN CARTER CASH.
JCC: My father kept a vault at the office, at the House of Cash, and for nearly 35 years, anything of importance as far as recordings, tapes and what not were just tucked away into that vault. The building itself was sold, the House of Cash, and so out of necessity, you know, out of practicality, I decided to clean out the vault and to catalogue everything that was there and in the process we found some wonderful recordings.
HERE'S ONE, A CARTER FAMILY SONG CALLED "THE WINDING STREAM."
Music: The Winding Stream (A.P. Carter)
"THE WINDING STREAM," AN OLD CARTER FAMILY SONG PERFORMED BY JOHNNY CASH FROM HIS PERSONAL FILE OF HOME RECORDINGS.
CASH'S SON, JOHN CARTER.
JCC: I think it's a pretty common thing to do for a, you know, for artists to archive their material. Some of it he had plans for and some of it he felt it was just important to hold on to, you know, for historical purposes.
IN A WAY, CASH WAS DOCUMENTING SOME OF THE GREAT SONGS OF HIS EARLY DAYS. HE USED TO LISTEN TO THE CARTER FAMILY AS A CHILD AND STILL REMEMBERED ALL OF THEIR MUSIC LATER IN LIFE.
Rosanne Cash: He had an encyclopedic knowledge. And not only that, he remembered all of the verses. He could sing them all back to you. Back to songs from his childhood, he remembered them meticulously, perfectly. It was a very unique quality.
CASH'S DAUGHTER, ROSANNE.
Rosanne Cash: We talked about all kinds of songs. We both had great passion for schools of songwriting and particular songwriters and very specific groups of songs, Appalachian songs about dead mothers, you know? We could have several of our conversations just about that particular sub-genre of songs.
WHEN HE MADE THESE ACOUSTIC RECORDINGS, CASH ALSO TOLD STORIES OF HIS LIFE. HERE HE IS WITH ANOTHER MEMORY FROM CHILDHOOD, "THERE'S A MOTHER ALWAYS WAITING AT HOME."
Music: There's A Mother Always Waiting At Home (J. Thornton)
"THERE'S A MOTHER ALWAYS WAITING AT HOME" SUNG BY JOHNNY CASH.
CONSIDERING HOW POPULAR CASH WAS, IT'S STRANGE TO THINK THAT THESE RECORDINGS HAVEN'T MADE THE LIGHT OF DAY UNTIL NOW.
JOHN CARTER CASH.
JCC: My dad, I'm sure that he'd write songs or he'd remember songs that he loved and, you know, he'd talked about doing this to me, you know, in the 1980s, in the 1990s. He talked about making these recordings in the 1970s and about how much he loved the record and how much he felt like it was a releasable record back then, And it would've been his heart's desire to have done so but the record company wasn't interested in it at that time.
IN THE EARLY 1970'S, CASH WAS AT THE HEIGHT OF POPULARITY. HIS SUCCESSFUL TV SHOW HAD ENDED, HE WAS TOURING AND PLAYING EVERYWHERE, BUT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY JUST WASN'T READY FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
AGAIN, JOHN CARTER.
JCC: Well, the music was in a whole different, you know, place then, you know, as far as recorded music. Country music was just more heavily produced. I mean it was a very intimate recording, just my father and his guitar which is all you need when you've got Johnny Cash if you ask me. But at the time, people that were working for Columbia, you know, felt like his records needed to be more produced I believe.
REGARDLESS OF WHETHER IT WAS GOING TO BE RELEASED, CASH CONTINUED MAKING HOME RECORDINGS FOR 10 YEARS. MUSIC WAS HIS PASSION.
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR FOR ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, ANTHONY DECURTIS.
Anthony DeCurtis: At least in my conversations with him, Cash cared deeply about music. He loved all kinds of music, and he liked to talk about listening to the radio when he grew up and the range of things he'd hear on it. And I think increasingly, and there are famous instances of this, but increasingly the narrowness of what music became in the modern world really frustrated him. These debates about whether he was really country or not country or should country radio play him or not play him, I think that stuff just turned his stomach. I don't think he had any patience with it. Wasn't in any way what how he heard music, or thought about music, or wanted to think about music. And so the idea that someone would be evaluating him in those
terms would definitely get you on the fighting side of him he didn't
credit that kind of stuff at all.
CASH TELLS A STORY IN THIS NEXT SONG ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT MUSIC AND RADIO WERE TO HIM IN HIS TEENAGE YEARS. HERE'S "WHEN I STOP DREAMING."
Music: When I Stop Dreaming
"WHEN I STOP DREAMING" BY THE LOUVIN BROTHERS PERFORMED BY JOHNNY CASH FOR HIS PERSONAL FILE.
IN A MINUTE, WE'LL HEAR MORE ABOUT CASH'S DEEP LOVE OF ALL KINDS OF SONGS, INCLUDING A COMEDY SONG THAT HE WROTE FOR A FRIEND.
I'M RODNEY CROWELL, AND YOU'RE LISTENING TO "JOHNNY CASH: PERSONAL FILE."
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Break #1
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[SEGMENT 2]
WELCOME BACK TO "JOHNNY CASH: PERSONAL FILE." I'M RODNEY CROWELL. CASH MET JACK CLEMENT IN 1956, WHEN CLEMENT STARTED ENGINEERING AND PRODUCING MUSIC FOR SUN RECORDS.
Jack Clement: I was always tickled when he liked one of my songs. He liked a lot of them. He was the kind of guy, you could play some stuff for him, you're not necessarily pitching it to him, you just play him something. 'Cause it's fun, or something. He enjoyed that.
SOME OF CLEMENT'S SONGS WERE BIG HITS FOR CASH, LIKE "BALLAD OF A TEENAGE QUEEN" AND "GUESS THINGS HAPPEN THAT WAY." MOST OF THE TIME, THOUGH, THEY JUST HAD FUN TRADING SONGS AND GOOFING AROUND.
Jack Clement: See, Johnny Cash, you wouldn't believe the number of
songs that he would sing. Or he and I would sing together sometimes. Things you wouldn't ever think Johnny Cash would know, like the (Whiffin' Poo?) song. All the way through. "To the tables, down at
Maury's ?baah, baaah, baaaah." One time, I had this little bitty
microphone. You know, one of these little bitty microphones? Little bitty cord. And I would tape it across his nose with a piece of black gaffer's tape. Run it down through one of those little, what do you call them? Little, small amplifier. Pig nose amplifier? And he just loved to have me do that. And one time we were recording and instead of a little amplifier, we ran it through the speakers in the control room. So we were doing the Whiffin' Poof song, and I'm singing into his nose. I wish I had that on video tape. And one time Billy Graham dropped by the session, and he had me rig him up with that thing for Dr. Graham. But he loved to sing songs, he'd sing Mills Brothers songs, Ink Spots songs, it was amazing.
JOHN CARTER CASH.
JCC: it was a matter of process for him. It was very personal, recording was to him sometimes and being creative, writing songs, singing material. Having, it was his way of having fun.
HERE'S A BIT OF FUN INSPIRED BY JACK CLEMENT.
Music: Fast Song
A "FAST SONG" FOR JACK CLEMENT WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JOHNNY CASH, PART OF HIS UNRELEASED ARCHIVE OF TAPES CALLED THE "PERSONAL FILE."
ROSANNE CASH.
Rosanne Dad was interested in music. He wasn't interested in just country music, or just Appalachian, or just folk or just blues. He was interested in anything that moved him. And he didn't confine himself to specific genres.
MUSIC WRITER ANTHONY DECURTIS.
ADC: I think John saw himself as a kind of collector of songs. In John's hands, every song that he performed became a Johnny Cash song in a way. He just brought his own character to reading them. But he saw himself as, just in conversation, in the times that I've interviewed him, that just about every time, I would be like, do you know this old Steven Foster song? He was somebody who was always looking for songs, always looking through songbooks, and keeping track of songs. Rick RubIn, his producer towards the end of his life, was always sending him songs. You know, think about this, and think about that. And that's why he recorded so much. To him, the way some people are about fashion, somebody who likes to dress walks into a clothing store and says, let me try this jacket on, let me try that shirt on. That's the way John was about songs. Does this one fit? Does that one fit? He might like it as sung by somebody else. Could I get myself into this? That's how he felt about music. That it was natural as putting on a shirt or putting on a jacket. If you heard it and you liked it, he ended up wanting to try it. And that's why, this guy, there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of songs that he recorded because he loved all kinds of music. And it didn't matter to him if it was a Soundgarden song or a Carter Family song or a Vernon Dowheart song or whatever. If it worked and it was a good song, he wanted to sing it.
JOHN CARTER CASH REMEMBERS ONE OF THOSE SONGS.
JCC: "Jim I Wore a Tie Today", I always loved that song and always found that to be a beautiful song and very heartfelt. My dad, my dad loved that quite a lot. I've loved that song for years. "Jim I Wore a Tie Today", it's unique in the way that it's written. My dad, whether he wrote a song or not, could put himself right there in the writer's place and it was just very very intimate.
Music: Jim I Wore A Tie Today
JOHNNY CASH PERFORMED "JIM I WORE A TIE TODAY" FOR HIS PERSONAL FILE.
MARTY STUART PLAYED WITH CASH FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS.
Marty Stuart: He always had a list. He always had a suitcase full of songs. When I very first joined him, he says, come here, I got a song I got to play you. It was a song called, somebody had written called Old Lonesome Looks Better Each Day, about, I think it was a minor, some character had gone up into the mountains for a little soul searching with his dog named Lonesome. And they got trapped. And nothing to eat. And the name of the song was Old Lonesome Looks Better Each Day. And it winds up he eats his dog. And I thought, this man is still sick, I love him! So there was no song safe, he was a song junkie. He always had access to the best writers. He always had access to his own mind.
THAT MENTAL JUKEBOX OF JOHNNY CASH CAME IN HANDY WHEN HE WANTED TO HAVE SOME FUN WITH HIS BAND.
JCC: He was as likely to sing "Aloha-o" as he was "I Walk the Line"
sometimes. He would not only do that, you know, in front of the microphone but he would that on stage with his band. He would pull a song out of the hat that... he would call it stump the band. He would say ok to the audience, ok, now we're gonna play stump the band and then he would just start playing. He would start playing music.
SOME SONGS WERE MORE FAMILIAR, AT LEAST IN THE CASH HOUSEHOLD.
CASH'S SON, JOHN CARTER.
JCC: Well, I mean, there's a lot of things that he told. But, you know, that I heard other than only on the recordings. But then there are some interesting and unique stories. You know, great songs like "The Battle of Tiger Whitehead" that I remember him singing to me when I was like a young boy. I mean, that song is rare, you know. It was straight out of his heart and spirit and it was where he was at the time. I hadn't thought of that song since I was a kid when we stumbled across it, you know.
Music: Tiger Whitehead
A RARE RECORDING OF JOHNNY CASH PERFORMING "TIGER WHITEHEAD."
ROSANNE CASH.
Rosanne Cash: he told me once that he was more inspired by 19-year-olds than by people his own age. By far. Just that kind of passion, and sense of immortality and freshness and not willing to confine yourself to certain labels.
CASH SURROUNDED HIMSELF WITH YOUNG TALENT, ALWAYS CHECKING OUT WHO WAS COMING UP IN THE MUSICAL WORLD. HE HOSTED GUITAR PULLS, A KIND OF SHOW AND TELL, WHERE GUESTS WOULD SHARE NEW SONGS THEY HAD WRITTEN.
BILL WALKER WAS MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR THE JOHNNY CASH TV SHOW AND WENT TO MANY GUITAR PULLS.
Bill Walker: They were great nights. They were something to be at. And then there'd be a couple of complete unknowns that Johnny thought their song might have merit, and he'd let them sing a song. You know, he gave them a shot in front of all those people. And if anybody heard anything, you know? It was a great chance for them. But that was Johnny Cash. If he thought they had something, he brought them out there, let them have a shot. My biggest problem is remembering names. He always had people on that were up and coming. To give them a lift.
ONE OF THOSE PROMISING SONGWRITERS WAS JOHN PRINE, NOW AN ESTABLISHED NAME IN THE MUSIC WORLD. AT HOME WITH GUITAR AND MICROPHONE, JOHNNY CASH SANG ONE OF PRINE'S TUNES.
JOHN CARTER CASH.
JCC: Yeah, wonderful. My father and I actually performed that on stage as a duet for years and years. "Paradise" was one of my dad's favorite songs.
Music: Paradise
"PARADISE," WRITTEN BY JOHN PRINE AND SUNG BY JOHNNY CASH FOR HIS PERSONAL FILE.
IN A MINUTE, WE'LL HEAR CASH PLAY SOME OF HIS FAVORITE GOSPEL TUNES, INCLUDING ONE HE WROTE WITH HIS SON.
I'M RODNEY CROWELL, AND YOU'RE LISTENING TO "JOHNNY CASH: PERSONAL FILE."
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Break #2
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[SEGMENT 3]
WELCOME BACK TO "JOHNNY CASH: PERSONAL FILE," A GLIMPSE AT HIS RARE HOME RECORDINGS FROM THE VAULT.
TURNS OUT THAT CASH SANG ONE OF MY TUNES, "WILDWOOD IN THE PINES."
Music: Wildwood in the Pines
THE GOSPEL TUNE "WILDWOOD IN THE PINES," WRITTEN BY ME, RODNEY CROWELL, AND PERFORMED BY JOHNNY CASH FOR HIS PERSONAL FILE.
CASH'S DAUGHTER, ROSANNE.
Rosanne Cash: He did have an unwavering faith. His belief in God was central to who he was.
BUT IT WAS A PARTICULAR KIND OF FAITH. PATRICK CARR HELPED CASH WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Patrick Carr: his christianity was a very pure kind of christianity. It was a christianity which was very close to the teachings of Christ, and he was a follower of Christ, he wasn't a follower of christian church doctrine.
THAT PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY CAME OUT IN AN ORIGINAL CASH TUNE, "NO EARTHLY GOOD."
Music: No Earthly Good
"NO EARTHLY GOOD" WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JOHNNY CASH.
JOHN CARTER CASH.
JCC: I think most every studio that he was ever in, he would look toward sit for being a devotional place for him. Music was spiritual to him, period. And as far as the religious nature of some of these songs, the old gospel music he grew up listening to and loving throughout his life, that was the most important thing in the world to him, that gospel music was. That's what he wanted to be was a gospel singer, you know, in the beginning. That was his aspiration for getting into the music business. It truly was and he carried it with him all through his life. And the final recordings of his days that were done in 2003, he was singing gospel music. He never quit, you know. So it was just a matter of course. It was just part of what he did. All of the American Recordings sessions contained gospel recordings.
IN THE EARLY 1980'S, FATHER AND SON WORKED ON A GOSPEL ORIGINAL TOGETHER.
JCC: Yeah. Well, just a couple lines. I was very young. But "Matthew 24 is knockin' at your door"... we were... I think I came up with that little rhyme cuz we were driving down the... I can't remember exactly the nature of the way that song was created. I was very young. But my father was explaining to me, you know, Matthew 24 was talks about the end days and what not. And he was talking to me about, you know, about the apocalypse and armageddon and all that. And I found it very interesting and we came up with a couple of little rhymes when I was a very young kid. I think that sort of made it fun for me to understand the bible.
HERE'S "MATTHEW 24 (IS KNOCKING AT THE DOOR)."
Music: Matthew 24
"MATTHEW 24 (IS KNOCKING AT THE DOOR)," WRITTEN BY JOHNNY AND SON JOHN CARTER CASH.
Marty Stuart: The closing statement concerning him when he was laid to rest is he had on a black suit and a bible in his hand. And I have no doubt in my mind that he went running across, through the Pearly Gates. I have no doubt in my mind that he went flying across the gates of heaven with that bible in his hand, looking for everybody that we ever talked about, or he ever sung about.
MARTY STUART SPENT A LOT OF TIME WITH JOHNNY CASH AS MUSICIAN AND FRIEND.
Marty Stuart: He wasn't a trendy guy. I know it must have been hard on him at times when he fell through the cracks as a celebrity, and he was kind of overlooked and passed by. But when the focus got back around to him, I think what we find is that he had his eye on the ball all the time, because he still kept singing about truthful situations that mattered to us as human beings. And he was still shedding light on hardships, and he was still proclaiming, even though sometimes people didn't hear him proclaim. But that's timeless business. And I love the fact that he always stood for what he believed in.
THIS NEXT SONG IS A TRUE STORY THAT CASH WROTE ABOUT DRIVING HOME WITH HIS WIFE JUNE. HERE'S "OVER THE NEXT HILL."
Music: Over the Next Hill
"OVER THE NEXT HILL" PERFORMED BY JOHNNY CASH FOR HIS PERSONAL FILE.
Music: Sweet Bye and Bye
Jack Clement: He was a nice guy, a fun guy. Liked to play music. Liked to hear music. And he never got over that
RC: I think, as an artist he knew, he just lived the fact that art doesn't age. You can certainly dry up and start doing parodies of yourself, but if you stay alive to your own sources of creative inspiration, that's ageless, timeless.
WELL, IT'S FITTING THEN THAT WE CLOSE OUT WITH JOHNNY CASH SINGING THE GOSPEL CLASSIC "SWEET BYE AND BYE."
"JOHNNY CASH: PERSONAL FILE" WAS PRODUCED BY JOYRIDE MEDIA, PAUL CHUFFO AND JOSHUA JACKSON ARE THE PRODUCERS.
OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER IS JOHN VERNILE.
ALL SONGS ON THIS PROGRAM CAN BE FOUND ON THE COLUMBIA LEGACY SET "JOHNNY CASH/ PERSONAL FILE."
SPECIAL THANKS GO TO JEFF JONES, ADAM BLOCK, JOHN JACKSON, ERIC MOLK, TOM CORDING, KRISTA JONES, STEVE BERKOWITZ, JOHN CARTER CASH, NADINE NASSAR AND ANDY CAHN.
I'M RODNEY CROWELL, AND THANKS FOR LISTENING.
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