Pitchfork's article on Johnny Cash

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http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/watw/03-09/cashandcurrency.shtml

Let's try not to make any more broad generalizations about why Pitchfork always fucks up, and why we hate it. On the issue of this article in particular, personally I think he comes off as someone who's trying very, very hard to like Johnny Cash, and not just liking him. I thought the Rolling Stones analogy was kind of useless. And I thought this line was hilarious: "the cover of Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt" is the most moving song I heard in 2002 (and, yes, I've heard the new Bright Eyes)." As if Bright Eyes is, by default, the most emotional release, and the idea of a non-indie song that is moving is completely ludacris.

― David Allen, Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

If we're trying not to make any more generalisations about why we hate Pitchfork then our continually starting threads linking to their articles is a great start!

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:29 (twenty-two years ago)

i think the bright eyes comment was mocking indie fans who think mr. oberst's work is particularly moving

― Felcher (Felcher), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean for one thing it's not all that bad an article. The whole first section is a bit of a waste of time (especially as Cash, J was TOTALLY a brand/product as well as an artist; the first time I ever heard his stuff was on a Levi's ad and Levi's knew exactly what they were tapping into).

But once the guy actually starts talking about Johnny Cash he doesn't say anything stupid - the paragraph about how we essentially take music like Cash for granted from a historical p.o.v. seems particularly pertinent to me at the moment. I don't know much about Cash so he may be totally wrong about the songs, and I do wish some of the obits I've seen in the indie press talked a little bit more about his earliest work and not the canny covers albums. But this piece doesn't seem worth being singled out, and where the "he doesn't really like it" stuff comes in I have no idea.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Uh, yeah, the Bright Eyes thing was a joke.

― Patrick South (Patrick South), Thursday, 18 September 2003 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked this better

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 18 September 2003 20:53 (twenty-two years ago)

And this one from the Nashville Scene

― Kate Silver (Kate Silver), Thursday, 18 September 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

nice

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 18 September 2003 21:52 (twenty-two years ago)

the obligatory "I-hate-Sting" bit is so silly - sure, there's plenty about Sting himself to dislike, but as a songwriter he's always had plenty going for him

― Pumpkin Seedy (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 18 September 2003 22:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I hate Sting

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 18 September 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 18 September 2003 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

If we're trying not to make any more generalisations about why we hate Pitchfork then our continually starting threads linking to their articles is a great start!
-- Tom (freakytrigge...), September 18th, 2003.

We can talk about individual articles without going into the site as a whole.

― David Allen, Thursday, 18 September 2003 23:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't mind sting the person. sting the musician can take a long walk off a short pier.

― Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 18 September 2003 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

but then he would surely fall off!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 18 September 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

he still manages to get in the obligatory Nine Inch Nails dig. Like "Hurt" wasn't already a perfectly beautiful song. it had to be "stripped to its haunting essence" or whatever the fuck by Cash. fuck you. fuck pitchfork! sorry, its just that, why would pitchfork subject the Fragile to their yawningly predictable opinions, and then review the fragile remix album! just to say, in case you didn't already know, we think reznor sucks....yeah we got it. fuckin' dipshits

― momalley, Thursday, 18 September 2003 23:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked this metaphor: "As a Christian, the end of this life (and the promise of the next) is a scab he can't avoid picking at."

The last paragraph overreaches terribly though.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 19 September 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Gordon.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 19 September 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah but Momalley Reznor really did sing his own song wretchedly, though, all that whining & over-reaching

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 19 September 2003 00:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I wrote a piece for PopMatters about Johnny Cash's At San Quentin album, where I went with the whole "proto-punk" thing because that's what that album sounds like to me, even the Christian parts (what is more punk than playing gospel hymns--with your inlaws--to a bunch of desperate angry men), and a dude wrote in taking me to task for just what the Nashville Scene article mentions, saying "he wasn't a punk, he had an ABC TV show, Merle Haggard and Jerry Lee Lewis were the true wildmen, you're full of shit, you don't know country."

I appreciated his stance (even though he didn't read me closely at all), but I wasn't writing about Cash the musician, just that album, wherein he goads the guards and swears and sings the angriest protest song I can think of, "San Quentin," setting those poor bastards on fire FOREVER against that shithole...and then sings it again, because that's what his audience wants. Compared to that, the Rick Rubin stuff is weak tea indeed. But yeah, Cash worked both sides of the fence, rebel and establishment, proslytizer (sp) and questioner. That's important.

Damn I gotta start reading Nashville Scene from now on.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 19 September 2003 01:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Hear, hear.

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Friday, 19 September 2003 04:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Haikunym, you talking about your recent piece on PopMatters?

(I also wrote one of those tributes.)

― David A. (Davant), Friday, 19 September 2003 06:42 (twenty-two years ago)

yep. and I liked yours.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 19 September 2003 13:01 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not a comprehensive tribute like the Nasville Scene article, just a snapshot, but I found this article very moving:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1043491,00.html

― James Ball (James Ball), Friday, 19 September 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(That's from Wednesday's Guardian. There's another one in today's that I haven't read yet.)

― James Ball (James Ball), Friday, 19 September 2003 14:01 (twenty-two years ago)

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