The following is a short essay I wrote for a friend who needed help in his writing class. I believe the instructions were along the lines of pick a song that has meaning to you and explain why, using lyrics etc.
If you have a similar project, you can follow the format of this essay and include your own story. Always provide a background on the artist and song, what you interpret the meaning as and of course how it relates to you, personally.
Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley were two of the most influential rock artists of the 1950s. The ‘50s is an amazing decade, we had monumental bounds in our social, political, and technological climate as Americans. From Rosa Parks to Satellites, the Korean War and IBM’s first ever Hard -Disk Drive, and even the introduction of the Interstate system all left marks on Americans in the 1950s. However, nothing leaves its mark music. Music is it’s own language, and we’ll see how Johnny Cash communicated through his chart-topping hit, “I Walk the Line.”
“I Walk the Line” is a relatively short song, just coming in under three minutes, however the impact it had on the music industry and people’s lives is immeasurable. Johnny Cash stumbled upon the chords by accidentally playing a song backwards on his cassette recorder. Dorothy Horstman, in an Interview with Johnny Cash, found that he wrote the song backstage before a performance, as his pledge of devotion to his first wife, Vivian Liberto. It has been the center of much debate that Cash wrote the song for June Carter, however the was written in 1956 and the marriage between Johnny and June took place in 1958. He pledged well, even though he had feelings for June, nothing ever happened until the day of the divorce.
Johnny starts the song off with “I keep a close watch on this heart of mine” which could be interpreted as his heart’s feelings, or “the love of his heart.” When he sings the lyrics,
“I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you.”
It’s quite easy to feel the emotion in his voice as well as the love and devotion for his wife. In a sense, he means,” even though I have several chances to cheat on you, I go back to my tour bus and sleep alone. It doesn’t make me upset, because I know in my heart how happy I am with you.” Cash goes on to admit that his love is on his mind as “sure is dark is night and light is day,” which has a deeply honest tinge to it. He basically states that he is willing to go to the ends of the earth to do anything for his wife. You can’t get more honest than a song written backstage before a performance. Everyone can relate, you’re in a bind to get something done, you usually draw from personal experiences to fill in the missing pieces.
The most controversial recurring theme in the song is Cash’s use of the line, “I walk the Line.” This has been debated several times as to what he was trying to convey. Many people say it’s due to his use of drugs and alcohol that caused his first wife to worry about Johnny. What he was saying is that, “I walk a thin line, and I’m really pushing it.” Others say he was in the military, on guard duty, when he wrote it and was literally “walking the line” for duty while thinking of his wife. Personally, I think he didn’t have a set meaning for it. I personally think he left it open for interpretation. I interpret it as a moral standing. Every time he is away he may be tempted to cheat on his wife and he’s walking the line between “good upstanding morals” and “evil degenerate morals.” so, every night on tour, he walks the line and has to decide “Am I good person? Am I going to be faithful to my wife?”
The first reason I chose “I Walk the Line” was because it is one of my favorite movies. It was inspiring to see the stuff he went through portrayed on screen. It was well directed, and it was very easy to relate to personally. I had friend in High School (and even back to Junior High) who had a drinking problem. He was the first person I ever had a drink with, when I was a freshman in High School. We ha some really great times together, but I was always worried about the road he was travelling down. I remember, to this day, the one thing he said to me and I can remember it like he was standing right in front of, the room of the house we were in. It was sophomore year and it was the weekend after a party. I was asking him if he was ever scared to get really drunk (as he usually had been doing) and he said in a sort of up-tempo yet pitiful voice, “well, my dad is an alcoholic and that shit runs in the family, so I might as well accept it and start early.”
Although I’ve never been married, this song has a lot of personal meaning to me. This song is like the Lays potato ships commercial “You can’t eat just one!” in the fact that you can’t listen to this song and not think of your loved one, or some love you have had. When I was in High School I was very much in love with this girl, I would never do anything to hurt her. Just like in the song, I found it “very, very easy to be true.” We would spend long nights out by the lake and we even snuck over to each others house late on school nights just to be with each other. We were living the dream. Our relationship was great until her parents wanted to move to Georgia. At nights I found myself alone, but she “had a way of keeping me at her side.” I stayed faithful, the thought of cheating never crossed my mind. After a year or so of this long distance relationship, we both decided that it was almost hopeless to try and continue it. We talked it over and decided that we were both young and it just wasn’t meant to be between us. What led us to this decision was my acceptance into Tennessee Tech. She also grew to like Georgia, so I knew it was hopeless for her deciding to come live, on her own, back in Lebanon.
Horstman, Dorothy (1976). Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy, Country Music Foundation. p. 144
No comments:
Post a Comment