Our local PBS affiliate KLRU was having a fund drive this weekend and I caught part of their broadcast of "The Johnny Cash Show" (1969) on Saturday night. They showed performances by country legends including Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard.
I grew up knowing who "Waylon, Willie and the boys" were, thanks in part to the song "Luckenbach, Texas":
But I'd always pictured Waylon, Willie, Johnny and Merle as crusty, bearded old cowboys hewn from the rough country landscape, as iconic and weathered as the faces on Mt. Rushmore (I'm not the only person to have pictured this).
So seeing them forty years younger, circa 1969, was a bit of a revelation. They were actually quite dashing back in the day. Just look at Merle with his artfully combed coif, canary yellow button-down and jaunty kerchief tied about his neck:
I was really inspired when I saw this clip of Waylon singing "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line." Yes, the song is cool, but there is so much amazing style in this two minute clip I can hardly stand it:
- Waylon's guitar is gorgeous
- That double-necked electric guitar - 12-strings on top - is out of control
- Who is the sassy, beautiful keyboard player in that awesome red dress?
- The hot pink and yellow set design is totally hot
- Waylon's positively suave in that suit and shiny, shiny slicked-back hair
I'm also fascinated about how loose the first performance is - the bass player keeps screwing up on his backing vocals and Waylon just has a good laugh with him about it. They're thinking, Oh it's just the Johnny Cash show on television, not that big of a deal. Could you imagine a band today casually laughing off a few screwups on Letterman? No, it'd be an all-out crisis, with their record label and management team calling emergency meetings in a panic. Everyone seems to be just having fun with their pal Johnny on this show. (How weird was that little interlude when Johnny sidled up to sing about taking Waylon's woman out when he wasn't around?)
I keep wondering what the modern-day equivalent of this show could possibly be. Which of today's artists could land a TV show where she or he could bring friends on to play, and have any hope for it all to be culturally and musically relevant four decades later? I'm stumped, but if you have ideas please comment.
- Buy the two disc DVD set of The Johnny Cash Show: The Best of Johnny Cash 1969-1971
from Amazon.