Johnny Cash didn’t just sing country music; he was country music. We need not explain why that is the case, but the bottom line is that Johnny Cash was and always will be the epitome of country music. That being the case, the majority of Johnny Cash’s catalog is, of course, country music.
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Johnny Cash might be the epitome of the genre, but he didn’t limit himself solely to it, because on a couple of occasions, he did venture outside of the genre’s confines. With that in mind, here are three Jonny Cash songs that don’t reside under the pure country music umbrella.
“Heavy Metal (Don’t Mean Rock And Roll To Me)”
Now, every Johnny Cash song arguably sounds like a country song because Johnny Cash is singing it. However, when you listen beyond Cash’s signature baritone voice, you will discover that Cash and his team are toiling in different genres, and he does just that on the “Heavy Metal (Don’t Mean Rock And Roll To Me)”.
Released in 1987, Cash’s single is a culmination of jazz, rock, and even ’80s pop. Frankly, it sounds like Cash tore a page from Billy Joel’s handbook on this single. Though that is what makes this one of the more uniquely diverse songs in Cash’s country-dominated catalog.
“Danny Boy”
“Danny Boy” is an age-old folk tale that has been around for generations, and until Johnny Cash sang it, it didn’t belong to anyone in particular. Though when Cash recorded a cover of the song for his American IV: The Man Comes Around album, the gospel folk tune became his.
Everybody knows that Cash’s voice is filled with an intense conviction, but this song arguably displays that fact best. Somber, cathartic, epic, and cinematic are the emotions and notions Cash articulates in this track, and consequently, one might even go so far as to call this one of the best vocal performances of his career.
“God’s Gonna Cut You Down”
This might be a hot take, but if you listen to the instrumentals of Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”, then you will understand our perspective. In short, Cash’s posthumous 2006 single is a blues song in nearly every way, shape, and form.
It features a heavy slide guitar, gospel verses, and overall a tone that doesn’t match the rest of Cash’s more orthodox country style. You can disagree, of course, but when you compare “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” to the rest of Cash’s music, you just might discover the stark juxtaposition we’re talking about.
Photo by Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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