POP TRUMPS: Week 10

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The rules are here but it couldn't be simpler. 10 is the highest, 0 is the lowest, if you really don't know then go for 5. Giving reasons for your scores in the comments is encouraged!

Our first posthumous pop trump contestant! This chap is probably one of the most respected musicians evar, but is/was he a good popstar?


Johnny Cash

[Poll #1165654]

Kanye ratings:
- Singing voice/musical ability: 6
- Consistency: 6
- H0TTness: 4
- Dancing Skillz/Visual: 6
- Chart success: 7
- Extra-curricular activity: 6
- Party Animal Rating: 5
- Eccentricity: 5
- Legacy: 7
- Best track: Gold Digger

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Young Johnny Cash = H0TTNESS personified. Mmmmm, boards.

I really don't know that much about his music though! As a nipper I got incredibly confused with him and Johnny Nash. And Pat Cash.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

It's not good to get your Johnnys confused.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I know very little about him before his adoption as The Country Act It's OK To Revere by alt.nation - which is also why I'm a little ambiguous over "legacy". It's like there's a revisionist history of country which wants to emphasise the dangerous outlaw elements (shooting men just to watch them die etc.) and de-emphasise the sentimental godly elements (the only Cash record I actually OWN is Johnny Cash At Christmas) whereas to me what makes him (and it) interesting is the medievalesque tension between the two.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

I think for me consistency is the issue here rather than legacy. He's clearly a huge shaping influence on modern American rock and country, but aside from the early greats and the late Rick Rubin-produced stuff much of his work is nigh unlistenable to me. I have some of the Christmas stuff and it's truly, truly awful.

I suppose the 'revisionist history' of country is the same revisionist history of the old west and American history in general.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I guess it's the reinvention of things as "cool" in ways that leech some of the complexity and contradiction out of them.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I take your point, but the fact that he was there at the start of the Sun rockabilly era, with Elvis and Jerry Lee and all, makes him an immensely important figure, and he has been a major figure in country ever since, so that's a huge legacy. You're right that there is that apparent tension - it's there in Willie Nelson too.

I'd also quote the Big & Rich line "rock 'n' roll used to be about Johnny Cash".

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes it's not a problem I have with Cash himself - he's clearly a major figure and I should know more about him. It's a problem with the prism through which I've been shown Cash over the last decade or so.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

This is exactly why I gave him a legacy of five. His legacy in terms of music an influence is 10. His legacy in terms of "OMG MOST BADASS GUY EVER ONLY GOOD COUNTRY SINGER IN HISTORY" among alt nation is a 0. Average is 5.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

For anyone in doubt of his eccentricity, Johnny once got into a fight with an ostrich that he kept on his ostrich farm (!). He beat it to death (!!) with his belt (!!!), cooked and ate it (see?).

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I think anyone scoring 10 for legacy needs to have had at least one biopic made about them.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Like "Walk The Line"?

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

A more consistent performer of cover versions than anyone else in history. That's his legacy. Possibly.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Consistency = hard one for most of us to judge, I suspect. He's got a large discography and I dare say there's a fair bit of dodgy or merely OK stuff in it. I awarded a 7 based on what I've heard.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about Johnny Cash. He looks a bit like Ronnie Barker in that picture.

The reason I don't know anything about Mr Cash is because he's always touted as seminal, and that means I don't really want to know. So, I might be missing out, but oh well.