I find this clip from the dawn of the seventies an irresistible mix of good music and high camp. Under the latter you can sort the Man in Black's lace ruffled outfit, which makes him look like a horror movie antagonist. Either "vampire noble" or "undertaker who doesn't always wait until the bodies are dead."
Brenda Lee's performance is quite soulful. I'm pretty sure the song is not about Johnny Cash. I wonder if any of the audience thought it was.
2 comments:
This was very nice. While watching it I was strongly reminded of how closely related were country music and rock & roll when I was still quite young. There were a number of genres back in the 50s that hadn't yet melded and Brenda Lee was very much a crossover of those two styles - not motown or boogie but an interesting combination nonetheless. When I looked her up on wikipedia I wasn't too surprised to see she is the only woman to have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Country Music Halls of Fame. Have you heard her version of Ray Charles's What'd I Say?
Johnny Cash, of course, is a legend still. Somehow I missed seeing his television show but there was a lot going on back then that kept me away from the box. I like the 'vampire noble' image but the undertaker one is good too.
In an interesting way that period seems like one where rock and country renewed their vows. Groups like the Byrds, the Stones, the Grateful Dead got into releasing more down-home music around that time. You could also count the Kinks' Muswell Hillbillies, although Ray Davies always had a country sense of humor at least. Of course country music had its own changes to go through. Brenda Lee was a sui generis performer, very much her own woman.
I guess Johnny Cash is a natural point of meeting. He had sort of been in two worlds all along, his friendship and sometime collaboration with Bob Dylan being one example. I hadn't even known he had his own TV show, though. I can't think of a current equivalent, or even one from the recent past.
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