Johnny Cash: The Last Great American

Synopsis

Documentary profiling the life of legendary country music star Johnny Cash, who died in 2003 shortly after completing the retrospective Unearthed, a five-CD set of the acoustic performances with which he resurrected his career in the last decade of his life, and after losing his wife, June Carter Cash.

This first major retrospective of Cash's life, times and music features contributions from his daughter Rosanne Cash and son John Carter Cash, his longtime manager Lou Robin and fellow musicians including Little Richard, Cowboy Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Elvis Costello.

Cash was the son of a poor sharecropper from Kingsland, Arkansas, who sang folk, spiritual and country songs to himself while picking cotton in the fields. In the 50s he signed to Sam Phillips' Sun Records, scored his first hits and was part of the 'Million Dollar Quartet' with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

In the 60s, he created his famous 'Man in Black' persona, and became a huge country star with hits like Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line and A Boy Named Sue, while torn between drug dependency, hellraising and a powerful spirituality. Cash had long since established himself as a man of the people with his prison concerts beginning with an incendiary performance at San Quentin in 1958.

He ended the decade by finally marrying June Carter - a member of hugely influential US country dynasty the Carter Family - launching his own national TV series from Nashville, befriending the Native American movement and opposing the war in Vietnam while playing concerts for the soldiers in the field.

After tough times in the 80s, Cash reignited his career with a new young audience in the 90s when he recorded with rap-rock producer Rick Rubin.

Related Links

• BBC Music: Johnny Cash
• BBC On This Day: 2003: Johnny Cash dies
• BBC Four: Johnny Cash: The Story of Folsom Prison
• BBC Four: Later with Jools Holland and Johnny Cash
• BBC Four: Best of the Johnny Cash Show 1969-1971

Tracklist

1. Johnny Cash — Get Rhythm

2. The Carter Family — The East Virginia Blues

3. The Carter Family — March Winds Goin' To Blow My Blues All Away

4. Hank Williams — I Saw The Light

5. John Lee Hooker, Miles Davis & Tim Drummond — Bank Robbery

6. Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two — Cry, Cry, Cry

7. Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two — I Walk The Line

8. Elvis Presley — Heartbreak Hotel

9. Johnny Cash — Heartbreak Hotel

   (Originally performed by Elvis Presley)

10. Angelo Badalamenti — Lauren's Walking

11. Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two — Folsom Prison Blues

12. Red House Painters — Brockwell Park

13. Stephen Stills — Go Back Home

14. Johnny Cash — Busted

15. Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two — Big River

16. Mazzy Star — Into Dust

17. Johnny Cash — Ring of Fire

18. Johnny Cash — The Ballad of Ira Hayes

19. The Durutti Column — For Colette

20. Stephen Stills — Go Back Home

21. Red House Painters — Moments

22. The Durutti Column — My Irascible Friend

23. Johnny Cash & June Carter — Jackson

24. Cowboy Junkies — To Love Is To Bury

25. The Byrds — Wasn't Born To Follow

26. Johnny Cash — San Quentin I Hate You

27. Cowboy Junkies — Dreaming My Dreams Of You

28. Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash — Girl From The North Country

29. Cowboy Junkies — To Love Is To Bury

30. Johnny Cash — Tha Man In Black

31. Red House Painters — Moments

32. The Smashing Pumpkins — Starla

33. The Highwaymen — Highwayman

34. Public Enemy — Fight The Power

35. Johnny Cash — Delia's Gone

36. Johnny Cash — Personal Jesus

    (Originally performed by Depeche Mode)

37. Johnny Cash — The Beast In Me

    (Originally performed by Nick Lowe)

38. Johnny Cash & The Tennessee Two — Folsom Prison Blues

39. Johnny Cash — Ring of Fire

40. Public Enemy — Do You Wanna Go Our Way

41. Cowboy Junkies — Something More Beside You

42. Miles Davis / Bradford Ellis — Gloria's Story

43. Johnny Cash — Hurt

    (Originally performed by Nine Inch Nails)

44. Mazzy Star — Into Dust

45. Johnny Cash — If I Give My Soul

Credits

Director

Chris Rodley

Broadcasts

1. Fri 30 May 2008
   21:00
   BBC Four
2. Sun 1 Jun 2008
   22:00
   BBC Four
3. Mon 4 May 2009
   19:00
   BBC Two
4. Sat 28 Nov 2009
   00:30
   BBC Four