Johnny Cash
The Life
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Johnny Cash
Narrated by:
Charles Pittard
Buy Now for £16.99
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Narrated by:
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Charles Pittard
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By:
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Robert Hilburn
About this listen
In Johnny Cash: The Life, Robert Hilburn conveys the unvarnished truth about a musical icon, whose colourful career stretched from his days at Sun Records with Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to his remarkable, brave and deeply moving 'Hurt' video, aged sixty-nine. As music critic for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn knew Cash well throughout his life: he was the only music journalist at the legendary Folsom Prison concert in 1968, and he interviewed Cash and his wife June Carter for the final time just months before their deaths in 2003. Hilburn's rich reporting shows the remarkable highs and deep lows that followed and haunted Cash in equal measure. A man of great faith and humbling addiction, Cash aimed for more than another hit for the jukebox; he wanted his music to lift people's spirits.
Drawing upon his personal experience with Cash and a trove of never-before-seen material from the singer's inner circle, Hilburn creates an utterly compelling, deeply human portrait of one of the most iconic figures in modern popular culture - not only a towering figure in country music, but also a seminal influence in rock, whose personal life was far more troubled, and whose musical and lyrical artistry much more profound, than even his most devoted fans ever realised.
Read by Charles Pittard
(p) 2013 Hachette Audio©2013 Robert Hilburn
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Critic reviews
Johnny Cash was a man both extraordinary and ordinary. Every man could relate to him, no man could be him, and only one man could get inside his head: Robert Hilburn (Bono)
Robert Hilburn displays a deeply felt affinity with his subject, illuminating Johnny Cash as the moral compass of country music (Patti Smith)
A great story requires great storytelling, and that's exactly what it receives here. Ultimately, Robert Hilburn's biography uncannily resembles its subject: massive and stolid, but with a dangerous glint in its eye (Charles Shaar Murray)
Johnny Cash and Robert Hilburn are two of the true blessings of my life. Both the best at what they do and each a gifted artist. It's a killer combination (Kris Kristofferson)
[T]he most authoritative and revealing portrait to date of the most chronicled figure in country-music history ... [a] finely wrought biography (Eddie Dean)
Hilburn's biography has the sort of immense scope and tremendous insight that comes from years of interviewing such a truthful, troubling subject (Rob Fitzpatrick)
A warts-and-all biography follows Johnny Cash, a rebel and outsider, from one drama to the next. It's a must-read (Will Hodgkinson)
Rock biographies can feel like they are ten-a-penny so it is a refreshing change to read a meaty no-holds barred, non-sycophantic record of legendary Man in Black Johnny Cash ... The wealth of detail on every page, in ever incident of Cash's life (1932-2002) is both impressive and a joy to read. Unlike so many biographies that are reported incidents jigsawed together, this is almost an eyewitness account with not always favourable opinions, perfecting its colour and gravitas (Nicole Carmichael)
How do you write an interesting biography of such a beloved figure? First, hire Robert Hilburn. He is a prodigious researcher, but keeps a steady hand on the tiller, and never allows his research to swamp his narrative. He knows his music and music history, but unlike far too many music critics, he avoids the temptation to show off
Hilburn has pulled off the rare feat of making the dispassionate truth more extraordinary than the myth (Andy Fyfe)
With straightforward prose, and through years of meticulous research, Robert Hilburn unravels the sometimes dark and magical life of one of music's greatest legends. Oftentimes this is a chronicle of pain, whether Hilburn is detailing Cash's early loss of his beloved brother, or the anguish he talked to Rick Rubin about feeling upon the death of wife June, but Hilburn gives much insight into what drove Cash's work. This is a harrowing story of addiction, musical genius, and enduring faith that goes far deeper than any film biopic ever will. In the end, Hilburn has achieved what is most certainly the definitive Johnny Cash biography (Charles R. Cross, author of Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain)
Robert Hilburn has written a magnificent biography
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes I would, we all share an interest in the roots of the music that we tend to listen to.Who was your favorite character and why?
Rick Rubin, he saw Cash, the man, at his core and built those American Albums from that core.What about Charles Pittard’s performance did you like?
His tone of delivery was actually entirely appropriate to the story, just the right balance between impartial observer and interested party. He could also slip into a pretty good Johnny Cash impression when required.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The passing of Johnny's brother. The sense of devastation felt by the family, as well as the wider community was well conveyed. Also the deaths at the end were very well written.Any additional comments?
I'm a big Johnny Cash fan and there was plenty of information contained within that I didn't know. There might even have been moments where I learned things that I felt like I didn't really WANT to know, given my admiration for the man, but to truly understand him it's important to have all the information I think. This is a 'warts and all' biography, although clearly written with a huge amount of respect for the man, there's plenty of darkness contained within this biography as well as moments of true redemption and beauty. In the end, it's a story of love and of faith, but there were plenty of times when that might not have seemed to be where his story was headed.The book sums his character, as well as his life up beautifully, it's both darkness and light.
Darkness and Light
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A long book
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Extensively Researched & Read Brilliantly
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A generation of people will understand that Johnny Cash's life was basically a story of how he married young, to the wrong woman, Vivian. She resented his music and gave him a hard a time. He hit the drugs to keep going on the road and found the affections of June Carter - who he fell in love with. He divorced Vivian, and June understood him and saved him from his demons, which included drugs and the bitter memories of losing his brother as a child, and his equally bitter relationship with his father.
Ok - park that story there. Not only is it incredibly unfair on Vivian Cash, it's also incredibly indulgent on Johnny Cash. It also paints June as a saintly figure - and she was far from that in the way she went after the married Johnny Cash.
Johnny Cash was a bad man. Make no mistakes about it. He was wild. There were more women in his life than just Vivian and June. The film doesn't really look at his temper, his violence, his drugs, his missed tour dates (at one point he was missing more bookings than he turned up for). Somehow his incredible talent pulled him through both professionally and personally.
You have to read/listen to this book because the full story, the anecdotes, the legends are as incredible as they are true - and Robert Hilburn is unflinching in his determination to tell the fact from the fiction.
Johnny Cash is a great human being. He experienced the hell of surviving all his personal, emotional and psychological wrong doings and he distilled them to become bitter sweet dark dark chocolate sound of his country, rockabilly, folk and pop music. He was a champion for the underdog, he was resolutely non-judgemental of others, and he walked a line that few others could ever have survived.
Quite incredible man, and all credit to Robert Hilburn, quite an incredible account of it all.
The unblemished, unflinching truth
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A fitting tribute of his life.
Loved this audiobook.
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