When
we think about the songs from 50’s through the 80’s, some people may have “country
music” genre quickly passing through their minds. In the early fifties, we have
the legendary Johnny Cash, who is widely considered as the most influential
American musician of the 20th century with his joyful—yet meaningful—country
songs. In the late fifties, we also have Kenneth Donald Rogers, popular as
Kenny Rogers, who is just as popular country singer and currently has his name
included in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Both are well-known talented
singers, songwriters, and also actors. However, they also have some clear and
subtle differences in their history and style of singing.
Almost all artists have different paths
to fame, and so do Johnny Cash and Kenny Rogers. Both being famous country
singers does not mean that they cannot have a totally different early career
history. Kenny Rogers was in a rockabilly group The Scholars in mid-50s when he first began his singing career.
Later, The Scholars disbanded and all
of the members went solo. Rogers went to some jazz groups—one of his local
well-known jazz group: The Bobby Doyle Three—and made some minor solo records.
He kept continuing his career by joining jazz groups and signing on some
records. Rogers’ ordinary singing career went on until 1977, when he made a
breakthrough with his first major hit “Lucille”, which reached number one pop
charts in 12 countries, and famous for selling over five million copies.
On
the other hand, Johnny Cash started his career by recording gospel songs to the
Sun Records studio. The producer, Sam
Phillips, got bored of these gospel records and told Cash that he could no longer
work at the studio. That was his early career. In my opinion, the mega-boost
that made him shining on stage and famous among the music viewers, would be the
one day when he unintentionally did an impromptu jam session with Elvis
Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis, in Sam Phillips’ place. Johnny Cash
would have got a ton of inspiration from those extremely big and famous
musicians, even though—according to his autobiography--he was the farthest from
the microphone when his, Elvis’, and two other voices were blended. Since then,
Cash pumped out some of his major country songs, including “Folsom Prison Blues”
and “I Walk the Line” which reached to number five and one in country charts,
respectively. Kenny Rogers and Johnny Cash both started from the bottom of
their career and both had their breakthrough pieces. However, Rogers’ steps to
stage were most made by his active movement from one music group to another,
while Johnny’s bridge to star were built by his plenteous music crafts and
other’s rejections to them.
In
his music, Johnny Cash has many touches of uniqueness. Most of Cash’s music
pieces are highly related to his sympathy towards the poor villagers and
prisoners. “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Man in Black” would be the two best songs
to describe this. Humorous and fast-beat songs are also in his range of music: “A
Boy Named Sue” and “Get Rhythm”. Even though his sympathy song creations were
dominating the album, we can still say that Cash has got diversity in his
country music. In his music, guitar dominates other instruments: bass-treble
guitar strumming pattern has always been Cash’s country music’s best friend. Beside
the sounds, Johnny Cash perform differently on stage, especially for costume.
He was famous for wearing black in almost all of his performance. Whether he
wears black shirt, tuxedo, or just a black t-shirt, accompanied with black
trousers. The places where he performed were also catchy and made him a special
country singer. San Quentin Prison is one example. His songs really meant to
depict his true pity towards unfortunate prisoners who “has long paid for his
crime”, as he said in his autobiography.
Kenny
Rogers has a big difference with Johnny Cash in his types of country music.
Rogers’ top pieces are usually story music and love songs. Three of his famous
crafts, “Twenty Years Ago”, “The Greatest”, and “The Factory” are songs that
tell stories, especially nostalgic stories of how old times are good times. His
love songs are also considered as his masterpieces. I personally would pick “Buy
Me A Rose” as his best love song, since the lyrics and melody are both
strengthening each other, no wonder it reached on the top chart in its era. For
the instrument, guitar was not Rogers’ only friend. Despite of his
guitar-dominating top chart songs like “Lucille” and “The Gambler”, Rogers also
used piano or keyboard in his performances. Rogers has no particular dress code
that he always wears like Johnny Cash does. Bright periwinkle tuxedo or white
long sleeve shirt would be his casual stage costume. Wherever and whenever
Kenny Rogers does performance, this charismatic singer—with his eager songs and
appearance—will always bring warmth all over the ballroom.
Other than as highly recognized
singers and songwriters, Kenny Rogers and Johnny Cash were both active as
actors. Rogers’ one top movie “Six Pack (1982)” in which he played a race-car
driver, successfully brought Kenny’s reputation up as an actor. Other than
that, the movie itself was also famous for grossing over 20 million dollars
during its theatrical run. “The Gambler (1983)”, “Wild Horses (1985)”, and “Christmas
in America (1990)” were also famous movies and drama which Kenny played in. Johnny
Cash, likewise, ran in some movies like “Five Minutes to Live (1961)” and “A
Gunfight (1971)”, in which both are box office movies with Johnny Cash as one
of the main actors. As actors, Cash and Rogers both frequently played in
classic western movies. However, Rogers was more likely to play in comedy
western movies, while Johnny Cash tends to play in action western movies.
Differences between these two country
singer stars are clear and subtle, obvious and hair-splitting in many ways.
However, differences between them did not change people’s respect towards their
music. Both are well-known, charismatic, and humble personalities. Whenever we
think again about old country songs, it’s obvious, these two stars’ names
should pass through our minds.
So, wait for what? Pick up y'all's guitars!
