Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXLV--Johnny Cash: Love's Been Good to Me

This week's featured tune was written by America's pop poet Rod McKuen, who had quite a run of success in the sixties.  McKuen was a multi-talented artist, writing poetry and music, as well performing as a folk musician and an actor.  He won a Grammy Award for Spoken Word and was nominated for two Academy Awards for composing the score for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and A Boy Named Charlie Brown, and also had a song he wrote hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 ("Jean" by Oliver). While McKuen was beloved by the masses, he was universally reviled by critics who thought his work was schmaltzy.  McKuen had the last laugh, though, as his recordings sold over one hundred million copies, and his books of poetry sold sixty million....

I wrote about Johnny Cash in Jukebox CLXXXV, and as he's been at the Ultimate Hall of Fame for over twenty years now, there really isn't much more I can add other than to say I'm still as big of a fan as ever.

(Not So) Fun Fact:  In 1983 Cash suffered a serious abdominal injury when he was kicked in the stomach by, of all things, an ostrich on his farm.  Ouch!

"Love's Been Good to Me" was released in 2004 on Cash's posthumous album American V:  A Hundred Highways.  The song was not released as a single, but the album went on to become Cash's first #1 album on the Billboard 200 in thirty-seven years.

If ever oh ever a wistful song there was "Love's Been Good to Me" is one because because...Johnny Cash was a marvel.  Against its sparse production, Cash delivers the vocals of a man who's never been able to settle down but still has no complaints as he's had the love of many a good woman throughout his years.  There's a peace--and a happiness--in the narrator's story and Cash captures it perfectly.  Cash recorded this one mere months before his passing, and one has to wonder if he wasn't in some ways singing about his own life--and letting us all know that he was going to his end without any regrets, too.  Disclaimer:  I have to admit that there's a special sport in my heart for this one because love's been awfully good to me as well....

Lyric Sheet:   "And she could laugh away the dark clouds/Cry away the snow/It seems like only yesterday/As down the road I go..."

Enjoy (note that Frank Sinatra did a wonderful version of the song as well):

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee