fpb: (Default)
fpb ([personal profile] fpb) wrote2009-03-21 01:27 am

Everyone heard Janis Joplin's version - and loved it. But...

...how about the Man in Black at the height of his power? There is a terrible simplicity to everything he does, and I for one feel that he means every word.

[identity profile] mentalguy.livejournal.com 2009-03-21 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
Terrible or awful -- in the older sense of the words, specifically -- is a good way to describe that aspect of Cash which I like best; my favorite song of his is "When the Man Comes Around." I have heard other people singing it, but in anyone else's hands it seems to fall flat and lose its apocalyptic character.

[identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com 2009-03-21 06:40 am (UTC)(link)
It is pure magic. I don't know what he does, but he opens his mouth and you cannot stop listening. There is no jazzing up or bluesing up, just every word coming out with its weight and its meaning - and I quite literally got goosebumps listening.