The Myth of Johnny Cash Heartbreak
The movie Walk the Line garnered Oscar nominations for its two leading actors and singers. Reese Witherspoon won for Best Actress. In the post-Oscar questionnaire, two of the first four questions were about her dress. A more interesting question was this one:
“If you could sum up this win with a June Carter or a Johnny Cash song, which one would it be?”
(Reese:) Oh gosh. I don’t know. None of their songs were celebratory enough, I don’t think.
She’s right. Johnny and June Carter put out a lot of songs of lost love, bad romance, and hearbreak. It’s a little strange given the happiness of their marriage. I guess, as the movie showed, it took some time and some very poor choices to get there, which gave rise to material. Anyway, there are so many choices that one could develop a scale. Which I did. Level 0 is “happy”, while 5 is “really, really sad”. Each song choice has a representative lyric, which shows the decline. In the future, instead of describing how one feels after romantic loss, one might say level 3, or “at first, a little Cry, Cry, Cry, but I’ve recovered to Guess Things Happen That Way.” Feel free to use it in your life.
| 0 | Oh, What a Dream: Then I awoke and found my love, as heavenly as the one above. |
| 1 | No Expectations: Your love is like the music, first it’s here, and then it’s gone. |
| 2 | Guess Things Happen That Way: You ask me if I’ll find another. I don’t know. I can’t say. I don’t like it but I guess things happen that way. |
| 3 | I Still Miss Someone: I go out on a party, and look for a little fun. But I find a darkened corner, because I still miss someone. |
| 4 | Cry, Cry, Cry: When everyone’s forgotten and you’re left on your own, you’re gonna cry, cry, cry. |
| 5 | Hurt: Everyone I know goes away in the end … If I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself, I would find a way. |
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 9th, 2006 at 1:00 am and is filed under Musings After Midnight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.