That powerful new Johhny Cash video

Last week Columbia Records released a brand new video for a Johnny Cash song as a way of promoting a new album of lost Johnny Cash songs to be released on March 25.

I've been watching it repeatedly everyday since its release. It is powerful imagery and it captures a lot in just under four minutes.

The video starts with some recorded dialogue by Cash: "I'm no slave to whistle, clock, or bell; Nor weak-eyed prisoner of Wall Street.  Let me be easy on the man that's down; Let me be square and generous with all.  And guide me on the long, dim trail ahead that stretches upward, toward the great divide."

The video then takes you on a road trip of America: of the downtrodden, juxtaposed with the luxury that few in this country are privileged to.  Sometimes in color, but mostly in black and white, we see Downtown L.A. Skid Row and its residents; native peoples living in the reservations; jails and prisons and the men who are housed there.

My favorite scene looks like it takes place while driving by a reservation.  From a drivers point of view we see a house with large words spray-painted on them, it says, "My heroes have always killed cowboys."

In a press statement, the Director of the video, John Hillcoat, says:

The lyrics seemed to speak to America as it is now, to the nation that loved him and to the great divide he fought so hard against. This divide has only grown exponentially since he died, so we wanted to show America under this stark light and as a homage to the very reason Cash always wore black: to the shameful increase of the disenfranchised and outsiders

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To watch the video and learn more click HERE.

Obituary for Gil Scott-Heron

This is a little late, but I had to post. It's a Revolution Newspaper tribute article by Michael Slate on Gil Scott-Heron, who died on May 27. In a way, it reads as a Greatest-Hits-kind-of-article, as the writer names a number of songs and why each was so important. This was great for me as I mostly know him for his very-well known classic, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Here is a small sample of the article:

"One element of jazz that Gil incorporated into his music and poetry was improvisation—he could take off on a verbal riff that rivaled any mind-bending improvisational solo found in jazz or freestyle rhyming cipher in hip-hop. His music has been sampled by many hip-hop artists over the years, and Gil felt a certain responsibility to counsel rappers, speaking to a new generation of youth. In 1994's Message to the Messengers, Gil put his arm around the shoulders of the rappers who came behind him and wrestled with them about the content and outlook of their art, challenging them to rise up against the system and the culture it produced rather than go along with it."

To check out the rest of the article, click HERE. (The tribute cartoon at the top was drawn by cartoonist Keith Knight).