Andrew Wheeler. Sec. 8. Final Blog post 2.

The MVP of this genre in terms of philosophy would be none other than the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash.  No matter the genre of music backing him up or the ears that were listening, his somber voice catches the attention of listeners due to the feeling that can be sensed in his voice.  

Cash was a prolific artist that continued making music until very close to the time of his death, and he always had a feeling to express that was not only a personal sentiment, but was also a sentiment felt by a portion of the population.  He was truly a voice for the voiceless.  His life and music depicted this heavily.  

The first strong example of how he was a voice for those that are broken comes straight from the man himself.  His song “Man in Black” tells a lot about Johnny as a person.  The song was written out of necessity.  He had performed dressed in all black for years which contrasted the typical dress of performers of the day which was vibrant colors and rhinestones.  Cash had a reason for this though. 

The song describes every reason Johnny’s attire was dark. He talks about people that he said mean a lot to him.  He said he wore “the black for the poor and beaten down, living in the hopeless hungry side of town.”  This tells how Johnny felt about the poor and homeless portion of the population.  He understood they had no voice to speak, and that the biggest thing he could do to help them was merely show them love by recognizing their struggle.  He also talked about wearing black for prisoners, which I will discuss later.  He brings religion into the story saying he feels bad for the “people that have never read or listened to the words that Jesus said about the way to happiness through love and charity.” Despite how rough his life was, he was a believer and thus felt sorry for those living a troublesome life without faith.  He also wanted to draw awareness to how people were called to love those around them, and he points out that it would be nice if others understood this.  He then talks about how America is a fairly prosperous country “in our streak-of-lightning cars and fancy clothes,” but then urges people to remember that not everyone has been blessed by this prosperity.  He includes the old, the sick, and those whose life took a bad turn.  He then talks about the people that die believing they are going to see the Lord.  Cash then trumps the number of people that die “believing that the Lord was on their side” by saying an exponentially bigger number die “believing that we all were on their side.”  Cash is raising a sad point here.  He is talking about the brave soldiers of this great country to give their lives to defend the freedom of all Americans, and think that they are being supported by the entire country.  The Man in Black then becomes a realist and discusses his understanding for the inability for all to be right with the world.  He still keeps hope that some things can be changed for the better.  He also discusses how he would prefer not to depict these somber ideas and tell everyone how good things were, but he understood someone had to point out changes that need to be made.  That’s why he was the Man in Black. 

Cash had one very specific audience that he tried to show special compassion for. Prisoners.  He made it a point to perform at prisons.  His song “Folsom Prison Blues” depicts how he feels like his life relates to that of a prisoner.  He was a sad, somber man, trapped in his own life.  

The Man in Black teling why.