Chapter 91: Come and Get Your Love - An Update on the World of Music
Above: “The Man in Black” Johnny Cash with his wife, June Carter, and their son, John Carter Cash.
The early 70’s had been a fruitful, blessed period in the oftentimes tumultuous life of Johnny Cash. After
The Johnny Cash Show was brought to a close in 1973 after five seasons on the air, Cash decided to take a short break from show business to focus on himself and his family, which by 1970 had found a young new member in he and June’s son, John Carter Cash. The boy was beautiful, happy, and healthy, and his father couldn’t thank God enough for him. Cash also started to see a shift in his image amongst the public. Whereas before he had mostly been relegated to the position of “country music’s greatest outlaw”, he now found himself becoming something of a secular saint for the American spirit, a hero of the people, a role he took to with great humility and solemnity, as summed up in 1971’s classic “Man in Black”. As the Seesaw Seventies brought millions of Americans to questions of faith, purpose, and meaning, Cash represented the steadfastness of religiosity, patriotism, and gentle strength - values which were in cherished short supply at the time, many thought. This isn’t to say that Cash had all the answers to people’s questions, and he certainly never thought of himself as any sort of hero, but he did take seriously the responsibility that came with this sort of reputation. As he spent the days playing with John Jr. and the nights in bliss with June, Cash also brought himself on a spiritual journey, reinforcing his faith in a powerful way - a journey which would ultimately produce
The Gospel Road - a 1973 documentary about the life of Jesus co-written and directed by Cash’s close friend, Rev. Billy Graham. Cash never lost his taste for political activism, either. After playing a free concert at Wounded Knee in support and solidarity with the American Indian Movement that same year, Cash released Ragged Old Flag, a “patriotic protest” record, which captured both Cash’s undying love for his country, as well as his belief that “thing’s need changing everywhere you go.” The album was, like 1964’s
Bitter Tears, controversial to a deeply conservative country music establishment, but still managed to go several times gold nonetheless, and further cultivated the myth of Cash - the man who couldn’t be bought or bossed around by record executives. Young folks, introduced to acoustic rock and folk by the Beatles earlier in the decade, began to turn to Cash’s music as well, winning him a new generation of fans and massive respect from the nation’s youth. An interesting side note - Senator Robert F. Kennedy would ultimately credit his and his brother’s personal friendship with Cash with inspiring him to push for “This Land is Your Land” to become the nation’s new national anthem, an idea first suggested by RFK in the late 60’s, but reintroduced by Cash when the latter served as the Grand Marshal of the United States’ bicentennial parade in Washington, D.C. on July 3rd, 1976.
Track Listing of Ragged Old Flag
- Ragged Old Flag
- Don’t Go Near the Water
- All I Do is Drive
- The Ballad of Wounded Knee
- King of the Hill
- Pie in the Sky (We Can Save Us All)
- Lonesome to the Bone
- On My Mind
- Good Morning, Friend
- I’m a Worried Man
- Torture the Sky
- What On Earth Will You Do (For Heaven’s Sake)
- This Land is Your Land
While Johnny Cash focused on political activism, sticking up for the oppressed and the downtrodden, and other affairs of his big American heart, other Country Musicians rose to popularity following his example. Townes Van Zandt, who had the biggest hit of his career with 1973’s “Pancho and Lefty”, became the new hot ticket in Nashville. A fresh generation of talent, including Van Zandt, began popularizing “outlaw country” - a genre built on mournful ballads and jubilant tunes, all infused with deeply introspective lyrics and emotional overtones, often celebrating the myth of the American West as an allegory for the ups and downs of modern life. The genre also contained plenty of rock n roll influences and so began to appeal to rock audiences as well. Other big stars of the day such as Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard helped define and popularize this genre, and while squeaky clean country would always remain popular, especially in the conservative South, darker, more gritty country helped expose the genre to a wider audience. Nelson, whose career began as a disc jockey and session musician in 1956, was reaching a highly productive, critically acclaimed period in his storied life. Nelson was responsible for “Crazy”, a classic which - when recorded by Patsy Cline - became the biggest jukebox hit of all time. In the mid seventies, the Texan began to experiment with mixing genres - adding saxophone and other jazz influences to many of his tracks, and released Phases and Stages in ‘74, a concept album about a divorce with side A sung from the perspective of a woman, and side B sung from the point of view of the man. Kris Kristofferson was also born in Texas, into a military family (his father, Lars would eventually become a U.S. Air Force Major General). Kris himself served in the Army for five years after graduating with a degree in English Literature from Oxford. While serving, he started writing songs, and ultimately turned down an offer to teach English at West Point when he was discharged in 1965. Rather than continue his military career, Kristofferson was inspired by Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and others to become a singer/songwriter. His family was devastated and severed all ties with him in outrage. They never reconciled. Once in Nashville, Kristofferson divorced his first wife, found himself burdened with medical debts from his son’s defective esophagus and didn’t think he could get much lower when he found himself sweeping floors for a living at Columbia Records. There, he met June Carter and after asking her to give her husband one of his demo tapes and Kristofferson landing a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s lawn to get his attention (true story), Kristofferson’s songs seized Cash with a great enthusiasm and interest. That year, 1966, Cash recorded “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, one of Kristofferson’s songs, and took it all the way to number one on the charts. This brought Kristofferson a Country Music Award for Songwriter of the Year, and began his career as an influential writer for dozens of artists. His song “For the Good Times” became a hit for Elvis Presley and “Me and Bobby McGee” was immortalized by Janis Joplin, who after she emerged from rehab with a clean bill of health in autumn of 1971, asked Kristofferson, her longtime on-again, off-again boyfriend, to marry her. He agreed and together, they started writing, recording, and touring with new material - a blend of outlaw country with the psychedelic rock of the 60’s. Throughout 1974, Kristofferson, Nelson, and Van Zandt crisscrossed the country playing sold out shows, often making small, cameo appearances at each other’s concerts on a whim. Later, in the early 1980’s, the trio would join with their mentor, Johnny Cash in forming the Highwaymen, Country Music’s preeminent supergroup.
Waylon Jennings was a pioneer of the outlaw country genre who also helped define the overall sound of the 1970’s. Frustrated by what he saw as the “Nashville sound’s” dictatorial rule over artist’s music, Jennings decried mainstream country at the time as “countrypolitan”. Just as Cash had chafed under the establishment’s disapproval of activism in music, so now did Jennings fight back against orchestral arrangements, hired musicians for small parts, and lyrics so censored and scrubbed of meaning that he might as well have been Pat Boone. Jennings’ 1972 album Ladies Love Outlaws gave Van Zandt style songwriting a harder edge and a fiercer backbeat, and when his label refused to re-sign him after the album’s release, Jennings started over at RCA, working and collaborating frequently with Willie Nelson. Like Cash and Nelson, Jennings reached out to rock audiences, and found success with more upbeat songs. Jennings was remarkable for his powerful singing voice, noted by his “rough-edged quality” as well as his phrasing and texture. He was also noted for his unique “spanky twang” guitar style. To create this sound, he used a pronounced 'phaser' effect, plus a mixture of thumb and fingers during the rhythmic parts, while using picks for the lead runs. He combined hammer-on and pull-off riffs, with eventual upper-fret double stops and modulation effects, all played on an old 1952 Fender Telecaster. This electric, plus his long hair, beard, and black leather vest and black hat, combined to give Jennings a signature, instantly recognizable image. Merle Haggard’s status as a “country outlaw” was more mixed than his contemporaries - though he was ironically the only one among them who ever did hard time, serving a stint in San Quentin State Prison in California from 1958 to 1960, when he was released on parole. This was for an attempted robbery of a Bakersfield Roadhouse. While in San Quentin, Haggard saw a concert put on by Johnny Cash, which he would later credit with inspiring him to become a country music star. Once pardoned, Haggard immediately committed himself to music, and supported his dream by digging ditches for his brother’s electrical company during the day. In 1965, Haggard has his first top-ten hit with “Strangers”, written by Liz Anderson, the mother of future country star Lynn Anderson. After that, his career was off and running. Haggard’s then-wife and frequent backup singer, Bonnie Owens, would later recall that this time was also haunted by her husband’s experiences in Prison. Often, Owens would find Haggard shaking at night only ever to say “I’m real scared” over and over again. Despite his anxiety issues, Haggard had hits throughout the late sixties with “Mama Tried”, “Sing Me Back Home”, and of course the infamous anti-hippie anthem, “Okie from Muskogee”. The last of these made Haggard a favorite of right-wing leaning Americans, and the bane of the counterculture movement. He would make up some ground however with the song’s follow up - “Irma Jackson”, a ballad about an interracial relationship which Haggard vehemently defended against his newfound conservative fan base, saying “Johnny Cash and I believe in freedom of speech. If you don’t, don’t come to our concerts!” Often, image and reality blended freely in outlaw country.
…
Rock N Roll meanwhile moved in several distinct directions throughout the mid 1970’s as well. As international headlines filled with stories of economic and political uncertainty and everyday folks complained of having less and less bread to bring home in their pockets, Rock music gave them two different ways of coping with their problems. They could explore their fear through the heavier, melancholic, or even manic depressive riffs of hard rock and heavy metal bands like Led Zeppelin, aussie upstarts AC/DC, and Black Sabbath, or they could try and escape them through colorful, arena-filling glam, a genre popularized by David Bowie, Elton John, Queen, and two new bands on the scene in the mid-70’s: Redbone and The Sweet. Formed in the late 60’s by brothers Pat and Candido “Lolly” Vasquez-Vegas on the American West Coast, Redbone (who took their name from a cajun term referring to a person of mixed racial heritage, as the brothers were of Yaqui, Shoshone, and Mexican ancestry) performed at local clubs around Los Angeles while writing and playing on records of such stars as Tina Turner, Sonny & Cher, James Brown, Little Richard, and eventually, Elvis Presley, the last of whom would “discover” the band and ask them to open for him on his 1974 North American Tour. Redbone agreed and that same year, they broke through to the mainstream in a massive way with the release of their smash number one hit single “Come and Get Your Love”. The first Native American rock group to have a number one single domestically and internationally, Redbone would also release other big tunes throughout the decade, such as “We Were All at Wounded Knee” (in tribute to the AIM protests there), “The Witch Queen of New Orleans”, “Wovoka”, and “Maggie”. Meanwhile across the pond in England, The Sweet were one of many members of Apple Records’ now prodigious roster of talented acts, and with Beatles producer George Martin at the helm, they created a fittingly sugary hard glam sound which a rare touch of British whimsy with American sounding bravado. The result was some of the most iconic tunes of the decade, especially 1973’s “Ballroom Blitz” and 1974’s “Fox on the Run”. Though never as epic sounding as Her Majesty, Queen, or as appealing in crossover as the great Elton John, The Sweet were a reliable hit factory for Apple Records and Paul McCartney even asked them to open for the Beatles on their ‘74 European tour. No collection of classic ‘70’s hits would be complete without The Sweet.
Meanwhile, in the middle class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens, John Cummings and Thomas Erdelyi had been playing in various high school garage bands together since 1965. Originally called the Tangerine Puppets, the band gained a forceful new member in Douglas Colvin, whom “Johnny” and “Tommy” quickly befriended when he moved to the area from Germany in ‘67, as well as another in Jeffrey Hyman, a drummer/singer whose glam metal band, Sniper, called it quits after a handful of lackluster gigs at Max’s Kansas City, the famous venue that had previously launched Aerosmith. Cummings and Colvin invited Hyman to join the Tangerine Puppets in early 1974, and soon thereafter, Colvin hit upon the idea of giving himself a stage name - “Dee Dee Ramone”, a pseudonym inspired by Paul McCartney’s old nickname “Paul Ramon” which he used while the Beatles played their early shows in Hamburg. The bassist soon convinced Cummings, Erdelyi, and Hyman to join him in this name scheme and by their first official gig together on March 30th, 1974 at Performance Studios, “Joey”, “Johnny”, “Dee Dee”, and “Tommy” were christened “The Ramones”. The band shocked their initial audience with their “outrageous” sound. The songs they played were very fast and very short, most clocking in at just under two minutes. Because Max’s Kansas City had left a bad taste in Joey Ramone’s mouth, the band labored to get a booking at New York’s other major music club at the time - CBGB’s. They eventually managed to achieve this and made their debut there in August. Punk magazine co-founder Legs McNeil wrote of the impact of their performance: “"They were all wearing these black leather jackets. And they counted off this song ... and it was just this wall of noise ... They looked so striking. These guys were not hippies. This was something completely new." Overnight, the Ramones became regulars at the club, playing alongside fellow future punk legends Blondie, and drawing larger and larger crowds until inevitably, the record labels came a calling. By 1975, the Ramones would have a record deal and the genre they helped to found - “punk” would be taking off.
Though the mid 1970’s was chock full of classic music, no matter what genre you look at, there was one album in particular, released in November of 1974, just on the eve of the American midterm elections, which seemed to perfectly distill that moment in history into ingenious poetic and musical forms and broadcast them out for the entire world to hear. Disheartened by the lack of commercial success his first album,
Greetings from Asbury Park had attracted in 1973, decorated Cambodian War hero and former army medic Bruce Springsteen headed back to the studio with his E Street Band to write, record, and ultimately release what would go down as one of the definitive albums in the history of Rock N Roll: 1974’s
Born to Run. The process began with Springsteen, a critically acclaimed and clearly gifted songsmith, noting that his songwriting process from Asbury Park was very centered on his own personal experiences - the songs were littered with specific references to New Jersey, and thus made them somewhat exclusive, like looking in on someone else’s poetry. For this new album, Springsteen sought to maintain his poetic focus, but to widen the songs’ themes and lyrics to welcome the experiences and perspectives of more people, and to give them more mainstream appeal. The first song “born” out of this newfound perspective wound up being the album’s iconic lead single and title track, which, throughout the decades, would stand as the paramount anthem of what it meant to be an American in the tumult of the “seesaw seventies”.
“In the day we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American Dream.
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines.”
With the economy spiralling down the drain, millions of Americans out of work, and the promises of peace and prosperity made by the end of the wars in Cambodia and Rhodesia seemingly hollow, Springsteen painted a picture of an idealistic nation full of dreamers desperately clinging to the hope of having something to dream about. Big cars, big platitudes from Washington politicians, and big movie and television franchises advertised false escape from this spiritual rut, and Springsteen demanded honesty in his America. His music would become the hymnal of the working man, the subscriber to “dad rock”, and a voice of everything blue collar America was supposed to stand for - the grit, the determination, the heartache, the disappointment, and ultimately, the redemption millions of souls prayed for and received. His songs were like tiny operas, as tragedy and romance played out majestically within the span of his slick, saxophone infused Rock. His three hour marathon live shows added to Bruce’s image as “The Boss” - the champion of the working man, and helped to make him an even bigger star than the songs ever could have just through radio play. When Springsteen sang
“Tramps like us, Baby we were Born to Run!”, everyone in that audience was Wendy, waiting for the Boss to swing them up onto his motorcycle with him and take them to a better, more hopeful place, somewhere new. Even in the decline and depression of 1974, Bruce Springsteen’s music offered a light at the end of the tunnel.
Born to Run became one of the best selling albums of the year and made the Boss into a superstar.
Track Listing of Born to Run
- Thunder Road
- Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
- 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
- Backstreets
- Meeting Across the River
- Born to Run
- Incident on 57th Street
- She’s the One
- Jungleland
- Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Almost all of the tracks on the album, not just“Born to Run”, would also become classics and beloved Springsteen songs over the course of the Boss’s career. “Thunder Road” was called by Rolling Stone at the time: “a magnum opus in five minutes”, and “Rosalita”, a story of forbidden love between the singer and the titular girl, whose parents disapprove of her relationship with a Rock N Roll star, would serve as the E Street Band’s closing number in concert for over a decade. The earnestness of Springsteen’s music attracted the attention of music industry bigwigs the nation over and won him the Grammy Award for best new artist that year as well. While in Los Angeles to accept the award and hobnob with fellow musicians, Springsteen also had the good fortune of getting to jam at the Hollywood Bowl with world renowned saxophonist Billy Clinton and the even better fortune of taking Lynda Carter, 1972’s Miss World America, the soon-to-be Wonder Woman, and widely hailed as “the most beautiful woman in the world” out on a quiet, but classically Springsteen date, driving around the hills together on his Harley Davidson motorcycle, away from the attention and publicity of Hollywood. There, they discovered in each other a mutual passion for art and liberal political activism, with Carter serving as an early advocate for LGBT rights, and pro-choice rights for women, and Springsteen’s songs acting as his “rallying cry against big business capitalism”. The two decided to continue their companionship, writing long distance letters of pining and courtship to each other for several years before ultimately deciding to make their devotion to each other into a relationship in 1977, when Springsteen finally moved to California, where he would record his next smash album,
Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Carter, though continuing to star as Wonder Woman in the DC cinematic universe, would begin to shift her career toward a focus on her prior dream: to become a renowned singer-songwriter, inspired by her beau’s example.
The pair would eventually release a duet, “If I Should Fall Behind” together in 1992.
Whatever your preference in Rock N Roll: hard, glam, punk, or heartland, the 70’s had it covered in spades. The decade would continue to amaze and revolutionize, with entire new genres like Disco and hip-hop, which would come to help define the decade’s complex, rich pop cultural legacy.
Next Time on Blue Skies in Camelot: More Pop Culture in 1974
OOC: Two notes for you, my dear audience -
First, I am deeply sorry for the slowed pace of TTL and its supplement as of late. School is really kicking my ass and I'm just trying to keep my head above water until summer vacation, lol.
I do have a few updates ready, but I want to write a few more before I publish anything after this for the next week or so, at least. Thank you for your patience, I hope to resume the usual schedule ASAP.
Second, I know that there is a LOT of music I did not cover in this update. Some of the topics I wanted to cover bled into the next Pop Culture update, and I am sure that there are some that I have missed entirely. Please feel free to ask questions and I will try to answer them as best I can.
The post made not too long ago about Cambodian Pop Music was fascinating, and I intend to answer the questions you all had about that, but I want to do some more research first.
