Keep On Smiling Through

There’s no denying that our parents’ influence is writ large across our taste in music. Springsteen, check. Fleetwood Mac, check. Meat Loaf, oh for sure check. Johnny Cash, ch… Wait, Johnny Cash wasn’t playing on the in-car cassette deck or the radio. Maybe this is one of those rare occasions where we influenced our parents’ taste in music. American IV: The Man Comes Around, which we’ll call American IV from here on, is a special kind of album that’s able to bridge the generational gap and be embraced by almost everyone. It holds a special place in our vault because it was the first truly different album we ever purchased. Before it, country music was anathema and something to be avoided. It’s also the only time we’ve been able to get our dad to willingly listen to a Nine Inch Nails song.

We should begin with a brief history and background: American IV is the fourth album in the American series that Cash worked on with the legendary producer Rick Rubin. It’s a mix of original material and covers that mix introspection, regret, and remorse with love and hope. Recorded between bouts of ill-health, death casts a shadow over the album that would be Cash’s last release before his passing at 71 in September 2003.

“The Man Comes Around” is the apocalyptic opener but there’s no fire and brimstone, no bombast, just Cash’s signature vocals and a warning that Judgement Day will come for all of us. We aren’t given time to dwell on this message as we’re quickly propelled into the tragic heart of American IV, “Hurt”.

“Hurt” was our introduction to Johnny Cash, the video shown at the end of a Top of the Pops 2 episode sometime between 2002 and 2003, and it has stayed with us ever since. Cash’s lament is painful to hear but it is undeniably beautiful.

The tone shifts a little towards the more hopeful with “Bridge Over Troubled Water” where Cash promises to be there when our time has come. The haunting quality is amplified by Fiona Apple’s supporting vocals, which complement Cash’s rather than overwhelm. Echoes of the guilt and regret from “Hurt” return to the fore with “I Hung My Head” and linger in the “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”.

We have always thought of this as being an album of two halves, the requiem and the wake. “Personal Jesus” marks that shift, a much faster song with a piano that invites you to dance and sing along now. Cash’s wicked sense of humour shines through in the delivery and it tells us that we can smile again. “In My Life” is a celebration, albeit somewhat muted, and “Sam Hall” is the bastard half-brother of “I Hung My Head”, two fingers firmly aimed at anyone that doubted Johnny Cash.

“Danny Boy” is “Danny Boy” and it’s the song you hope the mourners at your wake sing for you with a tear in one eye and drink in hand. It’s a return to the introspection of earlier but with a little less clarity. “Desperado” is the ballad of the anti-hero and a sly wink to Cash’s past. “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” sung by anyone else would be a saccharine step too far but Cash and Nick Cave revel in the over the top nature of the lyrics and absolutely nail it. And if you had any doubt that Cash was taking it too seriously, his sense of humour is clear on “Tear Stained Letter”. It’s a caustic warning to an ex-lover about the letter he’s written. That it follows “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” can’t be a coincidence.

“Streets of Laredo” and “We’ll Meet Again” are the final messages from a man that knows that he is dying. “Streets of Laredo” asks us to remember him fondly, to forget the things that need to be forgotten and celebrate everything else. “We’ll Meet Again” is the last promise to friends and family that no matter what will come, we will meet again.

Keep on smiling through, just like you always do.

American IV: The Man Comes Around is Taped

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