1969

A couple of weeks ago, I was taking care of my least favorite household chore – dusting – while bebopping to Lady Antebellum’s tune, Generation Away.  That song starts out with, “If I was a summer, I wanna be ’69.  I’d be chilling, listening to Dylan, holding up a peace sign…”

After finishing dusting, that tune continued to play in my head:  “…And if I was a prison, I wanna be Folsom.  Johnny Cash be rocking with that black, singing to the stripes and kicking out all the lights…”

Off course, when I was young I had heard quite a few Johnny Cash songs and a some of Bob Dylan’s as well.  Living on a small farm in rural America, however, I was not aware of the top music hits – not quite tracking that yet.  I do, however, remember watching The Johnny Cash Show.  It amazes me, as I research my girlhood influences, how groundbreaking Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan were at that time.  Growing up, I just took it for granted. 

So, I had to look up The Johnny Cash Show in oh-so-convenient Wikipedia.  And, as I perused the episode summary provided on Wikipedia, I recognized so many names that bring back memory upon memory.  I learned that The Johnny Cash Show was filmed in the Ryman Auditorium, then home of the Grand Ole Opry. The first show aired on June 7, 1969 and featured Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Doug Kershaw.   

I then looked up Bob Dylan on Wikipedia and learned that his album, Nashville Skyline, was released on April 9, 1969 -- just two days after my “baby” sis, Tina, was born.  Nashville Skyline was not the “typical” Bob Dylan album.    Since Bob Dylan was famous for supporting “voices of protest against the establishment,” this album was a disappointment for many of Dylan’s followers.  This album included a duet with Johnny Cash, Girl from North County, which can easily be found on YouTube.

Wikipedia reminded me why many of Dylan’s fans might have been disappointed with Nashville Skyline, because the political climate was at a boiling point.  Not only was the Vietnam War still raging, but:

… [T]he political climate in the United States had grown more polarized.  In 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated.  Riots broke out in several major cities, including a major one surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and racially motivated conflagrations spurred by King’s assassination… President Nixon was sworn into office January 1969… 

Nashville Skyline is one of Dylan’s best-selling albums, however, and includes the three top singles I Threw it All Away, Lay Lady Lay, and Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You. And singing with Johnny Cash in Nashville was groundbreaking.  Kris Kristofferson is quoted on Wikipedia, saying this about Dylan: “Our generation owes him our artistic lives, because he opened all the doors in Nashville when he did Blonde on Blonde and Nashville Skyline. The country scene was so conservative until he arrived.  He brought in a whole new audience.  He changed the way people thought about it – even the Grand Ole Opry was never the same again.”

I also think that Johnny Cash must be given credit for being a ground breaker as well.  Diving a little deeper into Wikipedia, however, I am reminded that Johnny Cash had been struggling with addiction.  As a result, his career had suffered tremendously in the mid-1960’s.  Once he started to get treatment for his dependence on alcohol and drugs, he then became bold enough to propose an unusual idea to Columbia Records.  The record company gambled and supported Cash who recorded his long-time hit Folsom Prison Blues on a live album, At Folsom Prison, which was released in 1968. This album become number one and helped launch Johnny Cash’s return to popularity.  Soon thereafter, he released At San Quentin, another very successful album that led him to the opportunity to host his show on ABC.  His show not only placed Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry in the television spotlight, but also brought many “unlikely” musicians together.  One fine example is Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, who were guests on his first show at country music’s famous Ryman Auditorium in the heart of Nashville.

As I look at a picture of myself in the spring of 1969 – a 5^th grader looking forward to advancing to 6^th grade -- I see a carefree girl who enjoyed her farm life immensely, had fun riding the school bus with friends, and looked forward to watching The Johnny Cash Show with my family.  That was the era when watching television was a family activity.  There were select shows that we watched together – just a couple each week.  The rest of the time, we were either outside or playing cards.

I shared in my last post that I was fortunate at Jeanette Evans Elementary.  I respected my teachers and discussing current events was an integral part of our Social Studies class.  It was also important to my parents to keep apprised with national events and issues.  We watched Walter Cronkite on CBS Evening News and the Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC. As result, I did have an idea that the time period was quite tumultuous.  I was ten, however, and enjoying being a care-free kid.  I was fortunate in many ways, because war and riots were on the TV -- not a part of my day-to-day worries.  At this time, however, my male cousins were beginning to turn 18 and, in 1969, the United States began the Draft Lottery.  Little did I understand how that would impact a nation that was already politically torn apart.

Needless to say, I have gained a new perspective when listening to Lady Antebellum’s song, Generation Away.  I will still enjoy bouncing around while dusting in my living room and listening to this song.  My research helps me relish my carefree childhood even more… I now realize that it was quite a privilege that I had such a safe distance from all the harsh events that were shaking up our world at that time.