Cash: The Autobiography

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Summary: Cash: The Autobiography
Review: Cash was even larger than the life he led.I saw him live several times over his long career .The first time in Montreal with the Statler Brothers in 69;as well as numerous times on TV.The one thing I found was that he remained the same person throughout those years.As much as you thought you knew about him,there was always something new to learn.He was not one to think he was better than someone else.Despite his greatness,he possessed even greater humility ;particularly to his God,his family and to everything around him.This book really shows how much he loved everything;be it his faith,family,June,band members,homes,books,music,fishing,Rover,being on the road and with his fans or even his time alone ;these things meant so much to him,but in the end he always knew everything was temporary and none of all this swallowed him up.He believed ,that as much as he was given in this life,there was much more waiting for him in eternity.It's often said that it must be hard for the rich and famous to die and leave it all behind.Cash would not have subscribed to that thinking.This is why his fans always felt he gave them so much and why they loved him so much.
Cash was one of the icons of the music world,and one of my favorites.I just wish I had the opportunity to thank him in person;but I know what he would have said."You are very welcome,I'm glad you enjoyed it and the pleasure was all mine"
Sure we'll all miss him,we had him for a long time,but he gave us so much and thanks to all his recordings,we still can listen to his songs.The photo on the back of the book,showing him dressed in black,walking away with his guitar,tells it all.He came,he gave it his all,now he's gone.
Thanks,John,we're going to miss you.
I highly recommend this book,no matter how much you know about Cash.Reading it was like a short visit with him.

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Summary: makes you smile
Review: For most of my life I knew Johnny Cash solely as the old country music that my dad used to play on the record player. When I saw the video for "Hurt" (by Nine Inch Nails, a band I've listened to since fourth grade), I immediately latched on to Cash and the sense of gravity that he could convey. Knowing nothing of his life made this book even more interesting that it would have been had I known a lot. Cash is a natural storyteller, and many of his tales involve people now considered to be legends. However, it is Johnny's spiritual journey up from amphetamine addiction that makes this book so powerful. Even though I myself have never experienced faith like Cash has, I have immense respect for a man with such conviction. The world lost an amazing man last year, and this book is a great way to remember him.

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Summary: Like A Friendly Visit With The Great Icon
Review: I always identified with his artistic expressions that didn't fit any category. I connect with him that way. He received monumental acclaim, yet crawled in a cave, wanting to die, as described in this book. He still remains a profound enigma after reems written by him and about him.

He isn't as frank as Waylon Jennings in telling the tales, but it's still captivating. I was hoping Johnny would mention something about a black-and-white movie he made way back, where he played a criminal character. I think it was called "Door To Door Maniac", and it was unsettling. Maybe that's why it apparantly vanished from existance. It's NEVER discussed in his history. Being his first movie, you'd think it bears comment.

Since this was his last autobiography, fans value it. I'm glad God showed us in Johnny Cash how strange and unconventional a Christian can be. What an inspiring relief!

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Summary: A "Must Have" for Cash fans!
Review: I bought the book mostly out of curiosity about the "Man in Black" as he was always known to me. I grew up listening to Johnny's music, but in my teens, went my own way into the realm of heavy metal and other types of rock music. I came back to country music in my 30's and realized that the artists there really aren't much different from those I idolized as a teen...that's to say they all have their demons. Johnny Cash was one of those country singers that made quite an impression on me as a kid...I don't really know what it was about him, but I always liked and remembered his music and songs. This book brought it all together for me in the sense that he is very upfront about his particular demons and the fact that even as a man in his late 60's(his age when he wrote this book)he still faced down his demons every waking day. Johnny Cash lived a hard life and he tells his life in this book. The Man in Black will be sorely missed in the anals of the music world, as well as in the hearts of those who loved & admired him!

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Summary: Thougthful
Review: I had a fascination with Johnny Cash that began when I was a small kid, but I really didn't appreciate him fully until he was gone. There was something about his "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash" that won me over although I had no great interest in his singing outside his novelty songs. As I got older I began to like the music quite a bit, but you don't have to be a fan to enjoy his book.

His story of growing up on a poor farm, a hitch in the military, his early music career, drug abuse, redemption, true love and a musical rebirth would work even if you'd never heard Johnny Cash tune. And it works mostly because it's such an honest portrayal of what a jerk he was and how he still struggles to be the man he wants to be. So many of these kinds of books are self-congratulatory, but Cash is just thankful that he got through it.

Along the way Johnny shares great stories of other famous musicians. He knew everybody even before they were anybody. I didn't know that he owned a house in Jamaica. I didn't know that he lived next door to Roy Orbison. I didn't know a lot of this stuff.

But the theme that runs through the book is Cash's religious faith and how it kept him alive. He says that he traded commercial success in the 1970s to record gospel music and that made him happier than anything else.

Some musicians are only interesting in what they produce over a short span of their lives. Johnny produced all kinds of music and hardly stayed in a genre very long, but he turned out to be just as interesting off stage and this book is a document of that.

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Summary: Good
Review: Johnny Cash is a legend. That is why he deserves the most wonderful and amazing tribute as one of the greatest legends of our time. He was a unique caliber, one of the last of his type. Johnny cash is everything and more. In this book, we get to know of his love, pains, strengths, weaknesses and his inner faith that never died. He was country music's legendary Man in Black, the symbol of all that is good about the music.
Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, MY LIFE

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Summary: Cash: The Autobiography
Review: Johnny Cash or the "Man in Black" was one of the most influential artists, period. He is the only musician in history to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter's Country Music. His second autobiography gives you an in depth look at his start at Sun Records and being on the road with other legends like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, the tragic death of his older brother Jack when Cash was only twelve, and living on Cinnamon Hill in Jamaica.
My favorite thing about Cash's book was the beginning when he talked about his humble beginnings in Arkansas picking cotton with his family, and his spiritual journey which saved him from his addiction to amphetamines early in his career. His autobiography shows you all the sides to the "man in black" good and bad, from his attempt to kill himself to being robbed on Christmas Day on Cinnamon Hill in Jamaica. He was a true artist who didn't stop growing musically even in his last months.
It's unlikely you'll find anything to not like about this book. With his tragic death last year his autobiography is a great way to remember the man in black; it gives you a greater appreciation for what he did for music. When I first began reading this book I didn't know much about his early life or career and soon I couldn't put it down. The book helps give you a better perspective on the man who broke all the rules with no apologies. With the help of Patrick Carr, Cash tells you his story as if he's right there telling it to you personally, intermingling life on the road and the loss of family and friends along the way. Cash's influence on music will be felt by everyone for decades to come.

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Summary: Cash is king
Review: Johnny Cash tells his life story in this book. It's not written in a linear style; he jumps all over the place to different times in his life. But it works; it comes across very conversationally, like Cash was in the room with you saying, "Oh, yeah, and then there was the time that this happened." It's a good read, and the Man in Black's fans should really enjoy it.

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Summary: The Man Comes Around
Review: Johnny Cash was timeless. You always remembered where you were when you heard a Johnny Cash song for the first time. One warm spring day in late May, I drove 180 miles across East Texas (from Nacogdoches to Dallas) in one morning, surrounded by tall, tall trees, and towns with names like Gun Barrel City. The only three minutes of that drive I can still recall are the final three minutes of "One Piece at a Time", which played on AM radio and which I'd never heard before. It's a comical story song, but I was sitting there behind the wheel, really curious to find out if this guy was ever going to build his Cadillac. I've since heard the song at least a hundred times.

No, this didn't happen decades ago. I made that drive in May 2003.

The thing is, you could always discover Johnny Cash. For example, the only visit I've ever made to an adult toy store in my life was brightened by the sounds of the Johnny Cash box set emanating from the store speakers. I picked up his "American IV: The Man Comes Around" album just a week before he died, and was captivated equally by his old, defiant Westerns ("Sam Hall") and the thoughtful, late November covers by non-country artists ("Hurt", "In My Life"). The punchline of the album, though, was the final track: "We'll Meet Again".

"Cash: The Autobiography" is an audiobook in print. The Man narrates scenes from his life as he's writing (1996-1997): a concert in Santa Cruz, trying out his cover of Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage"; afternoons at his homes in Tennessee, Florida and Jamaica; and cruising for Walmarts in rural Wisconsin.

Interspersed with those snapshots are the longer reminiscences of the people, places and songs in his life. These stories are told in no set order, but they're a good source of the anecdotes that are the raison d'etre of celeb bios. Cash spends a lot of time on the birth of rockabilly at Sun Records in Memphis; a lot more time on his battles with amphetamine addictions and rehab; a discussion of the significance of religion in his life (watch for the story about the boy in the church on Central Park South in New York City) and cataloguing his friendships with rock and country icons alike.

This all came out in 1997. One could be forgiven for hanging up his guitar at age 65. Cash, however, burned across the music scene right up through his final months. So "Cash: The Autobiography" is far from a final chapter. The video for "Hurt" is a fitting postscript, with its ghostly cameo by June Carter, and its black-and-white footage of Cash's boyhood home in Dyess, Arkansas.

Johnny Cash truly was all things to all people. This book is not ideal as an introduction to his legacy -- you'll need to know his songs before he talks about them -- but it's certainly a good representation of what he was about. And he was about... everything.

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Summary: This is Cash up front.
Review: The legendary "Man in Black" puts it all down in black and white. But that's no analogy for this book. "Cash: The Autobiography" has plenty of color, texture and rhythm. Cash speaks poetically about not only events in his life, but feelings, sensations and memories.

Cash can drop names like few others. He has known Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis. He recorded for Sun Records in the 1950's. Marty Stuart earned his chops as Cash's one-time lead guitarist. Even close friend Waylon Jennings played in Cash's band (for five nights, in Canada, when Cash's regular guitarist couldn't go).

Johnny Cash is a member of both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame. But underneath it all is a complex man with a keen eye for detail and a marvelous sense of history. The opening pages of the autobiography reveal the beginnings of the Cash name in Scotland. And have you ever wondered what "fair to middling" really means? It's a grade of cotton, as Cash explains. And he should know, having grown up picking cotton with his family on a humble Arkansas farm. What is it like to be an American living legend? To hear Johnny Cash tell it, it's a lot like being a human being. But it's a wild, hard, unforgettable ride.