- The newscaster announced that Johnny Cash had died, representing
a part of America that is just about gone. I thought about that, the part
of America, and what is just about gone.
-
- Yes, the America that's gone. The dirt poor farms, where
men like Johnny's dad worked on a federal land-reclamation scheme. Johnny
says, that he remembers their first night there, sleeping in the truck
under a tarpaulin, with his two brothers and two sisters. He recalled,
"The last thing I remember before going to sleep was my mother beating
time on the old Sears-Roebuck guitar, singing'What Would You Give In Exchange
For Your Soul?". His song, Five Feet High and Rising, recalled the
night the Cash family had to be evacuated when the river overflowed.
-
- The small tenant and cotton farms gone now. Taken over
by the mega-corporate industrial pigs. West Virginia, sees the EPA having
no problem with mountain moving machines, raping the land, destroying a
mountain in a day for the wealthy mine owners. America, now the land of
chemical plants, hog farms, chicken factories, casinos, waste dumps, and
prisons. Yes, America's howl of the poor and beaten down lost. No more
can a boy with a guitar make his way from the hills of Arkansas or West
Virginia to Nashville. That's gone to the glitz of rhinestones and big
money, fancy sound equipment and connections.
-
- It was said of Johnny, that he never was "seduced"
by the money or showmanship of it all. He never went the way of so many
others, giving his music over to showmanship, in lieu of the telling of
those struggling, and in poverty; outside the warm circle of pretend country--pretend
simple living--pretend poverty. One can't sing nor write of , what one
hasn't lived. Not with heart that is. That's why, many will have the words,
but never the knowing, of a young boy pickin' cotton and listening to his
moma singing on the porch with a Sears guitar.
-
- Can anyone imagine the spoiled, pampered, coddled, powdered
youth of today; looking through a Sears catalog? Not with their designer
lives and designer tastes, and demands for this, and the best of that!
You knew that you'd never get the toys or clothes that you picked out,
but somehow there was a certain joy just sittin' on the porch and pretend
shopping. I watched a TV news (?) program the other evening, that showed
videos (they taped their crimes) of well-to do youth in Las Vegas, beating,
kicking and plummeting other unsuspecting youths, they laid in wait for.
Amusing themselves, out of pampered materialistic boredom! Johnny Cash
at their age, was dreaming of going north to the auto factories and making
a living. Now, the auto industry is gone, along with the foundries, mills,
and farms and machine shops. Youth, if they're not part of the rare, protected,
coddled few; are sent off to war or end up in the industrial prison system.
-
- There's no more Johnny Cash in Black speaking for; "The
poor and beaten down, livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town. Just
so we're reminded of the ones who are held back, up front there ought to
be a Man in Black." No one to sing about the lines at soup kitchens,
those without medicines, schooling or the millions of unemployed. The
elite, sniff their brandy, gather at their tent picnics, and discuss politics,
and some of the guilt they feel over making so much profit, from their
military industrial stocks or tax breaks; but not enough to sell all, and
become one with those whom they so profess to care for!
-
- One doesn't see any parcels of their acres of land being
given over to others. They make sure that their protected post card villages,
have no housing for the needy or elderly located near them; nor ugh, any
polluting chemical plants or hog farms. But, now they do feel bad and that
supposedly makes them one with the poor! They announce to all, that their
lands--monies--investments etc., are tied up and protected conveniently
in trusts and foundations. Whatever, the crisis or need in the community,
you'll hear a, "Gosh what's to do, we'd like to help, but future
family members must be made secure, our monies can't be touched."
Johnny's parents, didn't have this to worry about when they sent their
boy out into the world. No college fund waiting for him or trip abroad,
to experience other lands, before that job at the auto factory or appliance
store! It's fine for people to be rich, hoard their money, take their trips,
invest in whatever destroys and pollutes the land; if that's the repulsive
choices they've made; but they should stay to themselves, and stop pretending
any poverty, caring , simple living or environmental advocacy to others.
If they want to be poor, for real, it's a simple act, but then we won't
see that. It's just cheap talk to impress themselves and others. Mojo Nixon
said it best in his song of, Let's Burn Ole Nashville Down; "Any fool
can wear a hat and not move when they play, but the lonesome howl of the
white trash wolf can't be heard today. Country don't have flutes."
|
