Customer Reviews

The Man Called CASH : The Life, Love and Faith of an American Legend

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book starts out so strong that I found myself dreading the end. It was a rich, strong look into the personal side of Cash beginning with his roots in Dyess, Arkansas, tracking him thoroughly through the Army and then his early life in Memphis. June Carter is introduced and the complexity of their relationship begins. Then, halfway through -- after I was completely drawn in -- the book begins to rehash all the normal stuff we know about Cash -- his struggle with drugs, the ups and downs of his career and his spiritual life. There was nothing new or revealing on the personal side.
It is a great injustice to what had promised to be a terrific look to the personal Cash. Suddenly, without warning, the book becomes mechanical and we no longer are invited into the personal side of Cash. For instance, while his first divorce is briefly discussed, there is no mention of his wedding to June! We don't even know when or where it happened. It is never mentioned that June became pregnant. Later, it just pops up that there was a son, John Carter, born. For those who have studied Cash's life, it was evident that the birth of his only son was a monumental point in his life. The reader wants to know more about it -- his reaction when he discovered he'd be a father again; his joy on the day of the birth, etc.
From mid-point to the end, this book reads as if the manuscript was hurried and on a deadline to finish. It is so sad. Especially when it started out so good. I would prefer to give it 2.5 stars because that is more of what it deserves.
Kudos, though, to the author who does a clear, succinct job of explaining Southern Baptist philosophies such as the Age of Accountability.
I think the problem here lies more with the publisher and editor than the author. More than likely, they put him on a tight deadline to meet the first anniversary of Cash's death and accepted a less than terrific manuscript. The author proves early in the book that he does have what it takes to deliver wonderful results.
There are factual errors that should have been caught by editing. For instance, Murder in Coweta County -- a Cash movie -- was not a novel. It was based on a true, sensational case in rural Georgia in the 1940s. Also, the movie was released in 1988, not 1998.
Further proof that the editing wasn't up to par is that at one point, three lines are repeated twice and words are missing from other sentences.
Too bad. This had the potential to be the best we've ever seen on Cash. Maybe, though, all of this will be rectified by the book is released in paperback.

With few exceptions, what passes for country music these days is a rehashing of Eighties rock, Journey with fiddles and steel guitars, performed by a standardized collection of Barbies and Kens with interchangeable heads. You know something is wrong when the stuff that actually sounds like country music is labeled "alternative country." The soul is missing from country music, having been replaced by a marketing strategy. Cowboy hat? Check. Pick-up truck? Check. Yep, it's country.

No it isn't.

And this brings us to Johnny Cash. He was the real deal, one of the last of his breed. If the man's body of work isn't enough to convince you, you'll find ample proof in Steve Turner's THE MAN CALLED CASH, the authorized biography of country music's legendary Man in Black.

Turner draws on the personal recollections of an army of Cash's friends and family to present a detailed portrait of a complex, flawed, flesh-and-bone human being. Don't let that "authorized biography" designation get in the way. This is a warts-and-all look at Cash's remarkable life and equally remarkable music.

In many instances Turner's sources provide conflicting versions of anecdotes from various stages in Cash's career. In the delta between the various recollections of events, something both sobering and wonderful emerges --- a realization that, regardless of status or celebrity, we are all ultimately defined less by what we actually do than by how we are remembered. Memories are informed by context. In Johnny Cash's case, as presented in this book, that context is defined by Cash's ability to connect on a profound level with people, in both his personal relationships and in the creation and performance of his music.

But THE MAN CALLED CASH is no more an attempt to whitewash Cash's life and career than it is a superficial tell-all. Rather, it is an honest look at an honest man, an artist who drew equally on his demons, his faith, his joy, and his pain to produce music that spoke of and to working men and women on a visceral level. Throughout his career Johnny Cash put his soul into his music, without affectation (one would be hard pressed to find a photo of Cash in a cowboy hat). In channeling the memories of so many whose lives intersected with Johnny Cash's, Steve Turner has managed to put Cash's soul on paper. Read this book if you care anything at all about American popular music, and be reminded of what country music is really about.

--- Reviewed by Bob Rhubart

I think Kristofferson summed up Cash about as well as anyone I have heard.This book is an outstanding look at the life of Cash.I have read and wrote reviews on several,but I really feel this is the best.Some might feel that Turner spends too much time talking about Cash's Faith and his God;but to really understand Cash you must understand this part of him.Without his beliefs,there would be no Cash,and he would be the first to tell you.Not only that,anyone who really knew Cash would tell you that his Faith was his greatest gift ;bar none.Reading this book you will also learn that Faith was also June's greatest gift.
Turner seems to put his finger on what made Cash the Legend he became.I finished High School about the same time as Cash and was always a big fan of his.Sure, there were some times when things were not pretty.A couple of months ago ,I was at a table with the owner of a large music store here in Toronto.This man is about eighty and knows just about all there is to know about the music scene here in Toronto.I said,"you must have met Cash a few times?" "Sure,many times.I remember one morning when I was opening the store,he was sleeping in the entrance."Like I said there were times like that,but they were greatly overshadowed by the great scenes Cash provided throughout his career;right up to the end.From the time I First saw him live in Montreal,in 1969, with the Statlers; to the day we all saw him at June's funeral, I never tired of him or June.
This book leaves you thinking that we never ever saw anyone even remotely like him and that is why he was so much admired by so many,both in the music business as well as those who enjoyed and loved him so well.I watched his last appearence on the Larry King Show,and it was amazing how compfortable he was with the questions Larry asked.No doubt about it, Larry was completely overwhelmed by Cash's faith.
We are all the poorer because he is no longer with us;but at least we still have his music to enjoy for many years to come.
"If America as a nation could speak...it would sound something like Johnny Cash.His voice was America's voice,just as America's voice was his."
Turner has managed to bare the soul of Cash to all of us.So if you want to get to know what "The Man Called Cash " was all about,I strongly recommend you read this book.

Johnny Cash was a man of baffling contradictions. Turner relays an event that is illustrative: Cash goes shooting and wounds a crow. He is so moved with compassion for the bird that he goes to great lengths to nurse it back to health. Turner writes, "...it encapsulated Cash's contradictions. Here was a man, though capable of destruction, who became overwhlemed with the desire to repair what he had destroyed; a nonviolent man who had a love affair with guns; an artist who could cause suffering and tehn turn that suffering into art..."

Turner tackles this wild, passionate, brilliant enigma and gets him to tell his story. It is everything you;d want in a biography: infromative, disciplined, crisp, fast-paced.

Turner is a seasoned music journalist, with previous books on the Beatles, Van Morrison, Marvin Gaye, and the hymn Amazing grace. He has written for the London Times, Rolling Stone, and Mojo. And the quality of his writing is excellent. So much music journalism -- take for example Dave Marsh's awful biographies of Springsteen etc. -- is so earnest, so bloated with self-importance, so cheesy. Not Turner. He clearly is a Cash fan, this is the "authorized" bio., but he has a cool maturity and grace that makes this a standard for future music bios.

Turner is especially insightful on Johnny Cash's complex Christian faith.

Must have book -- read it before Dave Urbanski's decent The Man Comes Around or even Cash's autobio.

I learned a lot about Johnny Cash, as well as people like Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and many others who were the ones that generated so much buzz about music in the 1950's. Toward the end of the book, I was sad because I knew that it would speak of his death. I found myself not wanting to hear about it, because I had loved learning about his life so much.

My favorite story in the whole book was about a prayer he prayed at dinner. His dinner guest recalled the story:

Cash prayed and said, "... and we thank you Lord for this food, and we ask that you would bless it to our body. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. When he finished praying he winked at me and said, "I still miss the drugs though."

It is precisely that juxtaposition of piety and weakness that I think I love about him. It reminds me of another man who is known well for his writing when he said:

I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do ... What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

In case you didn't catch that, the other man to whom I referred is the Apostle Paul. He happened to be one of Cash's favorite people for obvious reasons. I have wondered why I am so enamored by people like Johnny Cash and Paul; these men of such conviction, but at the same time so open about their transgressions. I think it is because they knew themselves well, and they never allowed the good in them to elevate them to a place where they could look down at others. They knew the darkness, and that it was always waiting if they would just relent and turn to it.

Cash turned to it a lot. However, like Paul, he also said:

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

At the end of his life, after June Carter died he hung around for a few months more. He could barely walk, was in massive pain, and was eighty percent blind. In this state, however, he still had the Bible enlarged big enough so he could read it. Others spoke about his love of Jesus, his kindness, his generosity, and his faithfulness to June.

So many want to be cynical about people who struggle, fall, get up, and fall again. They like to point and yell to expose someone else's flaws. I am more convinced that the ones who yell the loudest are the ones who are the most scared of having their flaws exposed.

One of my favorite lines in music comes from a song sung by Cash. It was written by Bono and performed with U2 (yeah, I know big surprise). The line goes:

I went out there,
In search of experience,
To taste and to touch,
And to feel as much,
As a man can,
Before he repents.

Isn't that all of our stories? I know it's mine. I also know that it is mine everyday. I walk around, and like a little kid test the boundaries of God's love. Some days, I may not go far, other days I may feel restless and I just want to run. Yet each time I return home to talk with God I find myself speaking the words of Paul:

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Steve Turner has done an extraordinary job of capturing the essence of Johnny Cash...his spirit, his words, his brutal honesty, his wry humor, his self-effacing humility, his stalwart determination, his artistry, his sensitivity, his stubbornness, his righteousness, his sinfulness...his living contradictions. The book often feels as if Johnny himself wrote it, except that Turner is able to provide a certain level of objectivity and perspective...and praise...that Johnny himself could not have done. At times, the book is so unflinchingly honest that the reader may be tempted to turn away...but believe me, you won't...you can't. There are many stories in this book that are heartbreaking, moving, and inspiring, just like Johnny himself was. Many books and articles have been written about "The Man in Black," but Steve Turner has given us something more--a document of Johnny's soul. It ain't always pretty, but it's for dang sure a beautiful thing.

I read this after I read the autobiography 'Cash' and found this to be much more complete and comprehensive! A truely engaging read, it is well researched and well written! Just get it and you'll know what I mean!

I usually don't read many biographies, but I received this one for Christmas one year since I am a huge Johnny Cash fan. I was glad to see that this book was very well written and also a very easy read. I knew it was going to be good when the first chapter was pretty emotional, as it starts off with June Carter Cash dying. The book also focuses well on some key moments in Johnny Cash's life that made the most significant difference - the first being the death of his brother, Jack, and the others that revolved around June. Like other reviewers have stated, Walk The Line used a lot of moments from the book and I would recommend reading the book as well as watching the movie. I think what was great about Johnny Cash, and what we can all relate too, is how open he was with how he was a sinner and how he had made a lot of mistakes (ie. drugs, affairs, etc.), but he changed his ways when he fully committed himself to Jesus and his faith. I think this book can be a great tool to those who have struggled and have difficult pasts because Cash showed that it doesn't matter what you have done, that you have forgiveness and that you can always start over. Great message and this book has a lot of interesting and funny stories that will want to make you laugh, smile, shake your head, or make you feel sad. Steve Turner has done a great job and had made me rethink biographies. If you're a Johnny Cash fan, this a must-have!

When the book came in the mail, I was afraid it was written from a religious perspective and might try to downplay Cash's wild life and focus too much on his "spiritual journey." I was relieved that it didn't. I will say that Cash's first marriage and divorce probably deserved more coverage, but the author did a fine job overall and Kristofferson's preface was well written and insightful. First half of the book is basically the movie "I Walk The Line," but with added material. The lifelong love affair with June covers that romance quite well. For the amazon.com bargain price, I'd say this is definitely worth adding to your library.

Johnny Cash is a legend. That is why de 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.MY LIFE , MOUJIK and TRIPLE AGENT are alsogripping stories to read.