Johnny Cash, in a lift, in Dallas, Texas

For Paul.

"I was told that when Bob Dylan met John -- I think it was at the Newport Folk Festival-- he circled John, bent slightly forward and smiling up at him with pure admiration."1

When he was ten, my husband happened to be in an elevator in a hotel in Dallas, Texas. In walked a tall man; the boy looked at the man's shoes. From there, it was a long way up, but look he did. The boy saw that it was Johnny Cash. No, he must be wrong. But hang on, Johnny Cash must have had to ride in an elevator sometime, so he looked again. He nudged his little brother: "Curtis, I think it's Johnny Cash." Maybe the man heard him; maybe not, but he smiled and grinned a broad grin and nodded: "Hellllllllo boys." A low, slow, warm voice.

The youth was starstruck and cannot remember if he said hello back; little brother was possibly unmoved, being too young to understand that, maybe, Johnny Cash was not to be seen riding in an elevator with you any day of the week. Upstairs, or maybe it was on another occasion, he learned that his mother had gone into labour with him (in Georgia) while watching Johnny Cash on a t.v. show. Now, these little links; they kind of went in deep. Plus Cash was, like him, a Southern man.

As an adult, he would listen and feel at home.Cash was flawed, both powerful and weak. He had struggled with addiction and insecurity, gone on a journey from the cotton fields of Arkansas to, well, a meeting with a luminary or, say, The President. He had Faith that was both angry and beautiful and music that haunted. So why not share? Well, that's what our grown up boy from the elevator in Dallas did. Best of all, he shared  American Recordings, which was played again and again in the house and, for a quiet moment when no-one knew what to do -he suspected that Johnny Cash would have shrugged off the fact of their doing this- 'Down there by the train.' Now, there was a song that could still a room or a nervy individual with its invocation to meet him if you had "taken the low road"; if you had "done the same." "There's a place I know", sang Cash - a place where he saw "Judas Iscariot carrying John Wilkes Booth." So, if you dear reader, especially you dear British reader, have not taken a look or a listen, may I suggest you go back and listen again and get to know him a bit. Not that I'm putting him on a pedestal, or nuthin.'

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Notes: American Recordings. Easy to download - you might try MP3 Panda. So cheap you wonder if it's legal (it is).


1. The Man Called Cash by Steve Turner (London, Bloomsbury, 2006). This was the first authorised biography. Quotation from the foreword by Kris Kristofferson, p. ix.


And, if you're unsure, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus for pieces of silver; John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln.

The photo is by Mollipop at www.flickr.com. I LOVE it. She has written underneath "Cash. Still there." Absolutely. And thank you.
This is a true story. Elevator, labour and all.