A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century it took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and the term is now often used as synonymous with any love song, particularly the pop or rock power ballad. of the ballad The Twa Corbies]]

Origins

The ballad probably derives its name from medieval French dance songs or "ballares" (from which we also get ballet), as did the alternative rival form that became the French Ballade. In theme and function they may originate from Scandinavian and Germanic traditions of storytelling that can be seen in poems such as Beowulf. The earliest example we have of a recognisable ballad in form in England is ‘Judas’ in a 13th-century manuscript.

The ballad form

Most, but not all, northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains (four-line stanzas) of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables), known as ballad meter. Usually, only the second and fourth line of a quatrain are rhymed (in the scheme a, b, c, b), which has been taken to suggest that, originally, ballads consisted of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of fourteen syllables. As can be seen in this stanza from ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Annet’:

The horse| fair Ann|et rode| upon| He amb|led like| the wind|, With sil|ver he| was shod| before, With burn|ing gold| behind|.

In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a self contained story, often concise and relying on imagery, rather than description, which can be tragic, historical, romantic or comic. More recently scholars have pointed to the interchange of oral and written forms of the ballad.

Classification

to Young Bekie.]] European Ballads have been generally classified into three major groups: traditional, broadside and literary. In America a distinction is drawn between ballads that are versions of European, particularly British and Irish songs, and 'native American ballads', developed without reference to earlier songs. A further development was the evolution of the blues ballad, which mixed the genre with Afro-American music. For the late nineteenth century the music publishing industry found a market for what are often termed sentimental ballads, and these are the origin of the modern use of the term ballad to mean a slow love song.

Traditional ballads

The traditional, classical or popular (meaning of the people) ballad has been seen as originating with the wandering minstrels of late medieval Europe.

Early collections of ballads were made by Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) and in the Roxburghe Ballads collected by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (1661–1724).

There have been many different and contradictory attempts to classify traditional ballads by theme, but commonly identified types are the religious, supernatural, tragic, love ballads, historic, legendary and humorous. They were produced in huge numbers, with over 400,000 being sold in England annually by the 1660s. Many were sold by travelling chapmen in city streets or at fairs. The subject matter varied from what has been defined as the traditional ballad, although many traditional ballads were printed as broadsides. Among the topics were love, religion, drinking-songs, legends, and early journalism, which included disasters, political events and signs, wonders and prodigies.

Literary ballads

Literary or lyrical ballads grew out of an increasing interest in the ballad form among social elites and intellectuals, particularly in the Romantic movement from the later eighteenth century. Respected literary figures like Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott in Scotland both collected and wrote their own ballads, using the form to create an artistic product. Similarly in England William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge produced a collection of Lyrical Ballads in 1798, including Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. At the same time in Germany Goethe cooperated with Schiller on a series of ballads, some of which were later set to music by Schubert. Later important examples of the poetic form included Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Barrack Room Ballads’ (1892-6) and Oscar Wilde’s ‘Ballad of Reading Gaol’ (1897).

Ballad operas

, c. 1728]]In the eighteenth century ballad operas developed as a form of English stage entertainment, partly in opposition to the Italian domination of the London operatic scene. It consisted of racy and often satirical spoken (English) dialogue, interspersed with songs that are deliberately kept very short to minimize disruptions to the flow of the story. Subject matter involved the lower, often criminal, orders, and typically showed a suspension (or inversion) of the high moral values of the Italian opera of the period. The first, most important and successful was The Beggar's Opera of 1728, with a libretto by John Gay and music arranged by John Christopher Pepusch, both of whom probably influenced by Parisian vaudeville and the burlesques and musical plays of Thomas D'Urfey (1653–1723), a number of whose collected ballads they used in their work. Gay produced further works in this style, including a sequel under the title Polly. Henry Fielding, Colley Cibber, Arne, Dibdin, Arnold, Shield, Jackson of Exeter, Hook and many others produced ballad operas that enjoyed great popularity. Ballad opera was attempted in America and Prussia. Later it moved into a more pastoral form, like Isaac Bickerstaffe's Love in a Village (1763) and Shield’s Rosina (1781), using more original music that imitated, rather than reproduced, existing ballads. Although the form declined in popularity towards the end of the eighteenth century its influence can be seen in light operas like that of Gilbert and Sullivan's early works like The Sorcerer. In the twentieth century, one of the most influential plays, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's (1928) The Threepenny Opera was a reworking of The Beggar's Opera, setting a similar story with the same characters, and containing much of the same satirical bite, but only using one tune from the original. The term ballad opera has also been used to describe musicals using folk music, such as The Martins and the Coys in 1944, and Peter Bellamy's The Transports in 1977. The satiric elements of ballad opera can be seen in some modern musicals such as Chicago and Cabaret.

Beyond Europe

Native American ballads

Native American ballads are ballads that are native to North America (not to be confused with ballads performed by native Americans). Examples include ‘The Streets of Laredo’, which was found in Britain and Ireland as ‘The Unfortunate Rake’; however, a further 400 have been identified as originating in north America, including among the best known, ‘The Ballad of Davy Crockett' and 'Jesse James'. The nineteenth century was the golden age of bush ballads. Several collectors have catalogued the songs including John Meredith whose recording in the 1950s became the basis of the collection in the National Library of Australia. The songs tell personal stories of life in the wide open country of Australia. Typical subjects include mining, raising and droving cattle, sheep shearing, wanderings, war stories, the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, class conflicts between the landless working class and the squatters (landowners), and outlaws such as Ned Kelly, as well as love interests and more modern fare such as trucking.

Sentimental ballads

Now the most commonly understood meaning of the term ballad, sentimental ballads, sometimes called "tear-jerkers" or "drawing-room ballads" owing to their popularity with the middle classes, had their origins in the early ‘Tin Pan Alley’ music industry of the later nineteenth century. They were generally sentimental, narrative, strophic songs published separately or as part of an opera (descendants perhaps of broadside ballads, but with printed music, and usually newly composed. Such songs include ‘Little Rosewood Casket’ (1870), ‘After the Ball’ (1892) and ‘Danny Boy’. By the 1920s, composers of Tin Pan Alley and Broadway used ballad to signify a slow, sentimental tune or love song, often written in a fairly standardized form (see below). Jazz musicians sometimes broaden the term still further to embrace all slow-tempo pieces.

Jazz, blues and traditional pop

As new genres of music, such as ragtime, blues and jazz, began to emerge in the early twentieth century the popularity of the genre faded, but the association with sentimentality led to the term ballad being used for a slow love song from the 1950s onwards. Other key traditional pop and jazz ballads include: "Body and Soul" by Johnny Green; "Misty" by Erroll Garner; "The Man I Love" by George Gershwin; "My Funny Valentine" by Rodgers and Hart, "God Bless the Child" by Billie Holiday, "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Cole Porter, the instrumental ballad "Naima" by John Coltrane, "In a Sentimental Mood" by Duke Ellington and "Always" by Irving Berlin.

Pop and rock ballads

s.]] The most common use of the term ballad in modern pop music is for an emotional love song. When the word ballad appears in the title of a song, as for example in The Beatles's "The Ballad of John and Yoko" or Billy Joel's "The Ballad of Billy the Kid", the folk-music sense is generally implied. Ballad is also sometimes applied to strophic story-songs more generally, such as Don McLean's "American Pie".

Power ballads

Simon Frith identifies the origins of the power ballad in the emotional singing of soul artists, particularly Ray Charles and the adaption of this style by figures such as Eric Burdon, Tom Jones and Joe Cocker to produce slow tempo songs often building to a loud and emotive chorus backed by drums, electric guitars and sometimes choirs. He argues that the power ballad broke into the mainstream of American consciousness in 1976 as FM radio gave a new lease of life to earlier songs like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (1971), Aerosmith's "Dream On" (1973), and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" (1974). Scorpions "Still Loving You", (all from 1984), Heart’s "What About Love" (1985) and Whitesnake's "Is This Love" (1987).

See also

Border ballads

Francis James Child

Corrido — a form of ballad originating in northern Mexico and the U.S. southwest

Graves, Alfred Perceval

List of rock ballads

List of the Child Ballads

List of Irish ballads

List of folk song collections

Murder ballad

Roud Folk Song Index

Song structure (popular music)

Torch song

Notes

References and further reading

Middleton, Richard. "Popular Music (I)". Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (subscription required). Accessed 2007-04-06.

Randel, Don (1986). The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-61525-5.

Temperley, Nicholas. "Ballad (II, 2)". Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (subscription required). Accessed 2007-04-06.

Witmer, Robert. "Ballad (jazz)". Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (subscription required). Accessed 2007-04-06.

Marcello Sorce Keller, "Sul castel di mirabel: Life of a Ballad in Oral Tradition and Choral Practice", Ethnomusicology, XXX(1986), no. 3, 449- 469.

External links

The Ballad Society of Japan

The British Literary Ballads Archive

The Bodleian Library Ballad Collection: view facsimiles of printed ballads

The English Broadside Ballad Archive: searchable database of ballad images, citations, and recordings

Welsh Ballads Website

The Traditional Ballad Index

Black-letter Broadside Ballads Of The years 1595-1639 From the Collection of Samuel Pepys

Smithsonian Global Sound: The Music of Poetry — audio samples of poems, hymns and songs in ballad meter.

The Oxford Book of Ballads, complete 1910 book by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Great Rock Ballads

Category:Folk music Category:Poetic form Category:Song forms Category:Jazz techniques Category:Radio formats

Name	Marty Robbins
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Martin David Robinson
Born	September 26, 1925Glendale, Arizona, United States
Died	December 08, 1982Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Instrument	Guitar, piano, dobro
Voice type	Baritone
Genre	country, gospel
Occupation	Musician, songwriter, actor, NASCAR driver
Years active	1948–1982
Label	Columbia, Decca

Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925–December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. One of the most popular and successful country and Western singers of his era, for most of his nearly four-decade career, Robbins was rarely far from the country music charts, and several of his songs also became pop hits.

Biography

Robbins was born in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona. He was reared in a difficult family situation. His father took odd jobs to support the family of ten children. His father's drinking led to divorce in 1937. Among his warmer memories of his childhood, Robbins recalled having listened to stories of the American West told by his maternal grandfather, Texas Bob Heckle. Robbins left the troubled home at the age of 17 to serve in the United States Navy as an LCT coxswain during World War II. He was stationed in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. To pass the time during the war, he learned to play the guitar, started writing songs, and came to love Hawaiian music.

After his discharge from the military in 1945, he began to play at local venues in Phoenix, then moved on to host his own show on KTYL. He thereafter had his own television show on KPHO-TV in Phoenix. After Little Jimmy Dickens made a guest appearance on Robbins' TV show, Dickens got Robbins a record deal with Columbia Records. Robbins became known for his appearances at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

In addition to his recordings and performances, Robbins was an avid race car driver, competing in 35 career NASCAR races with six top 10 finishes, including the 1973 Daytona 500. In 1967, Robbins played himself in the car racing film Hell on Wheels. Robbins was partial to Dodges, and owned and raced Chargers and then a 1978 Dodge Magnum. His last race was in a Junior Johnson-built 1982 Buick Regal in the Atlanta Journal 500 on November 7, 1982, the month before he died. In 1983, NASCAR honored Robbins by naming the annual race at Nashville the Marty Robbins 420. He was also the driver of the 60th Indianapolis 500 Buick Century pace car in 1976.

He ran many of the big super speedway races including Talladega Superspeedway in 1973, when he stunned the competition by turning laps that were 15 mph faster than his qualifying time. Apparently, in his motel room, Robbins had knocked the NASCAR-mandated restrictors out of his carburetor. After the race, NASCAR tried to give him the Rookie of the Race award, but Robbins wouldn't accept it, admitting he was illegal because he "just wanted to see what it was like to run up front for once."

Robbins was awarded an honorary degree by Northern Arizona University.

On Sept. 27,1948, Robbins married Marizona Baldwin (September 11, 1930–July 10, 2001) to whom he dedicated his song "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife". They had two children, a son Ronny (born 1949) and daughter Janet (born 1959), who also followed a singing career in Los Angeles, California.

Robbins later portrayed a musician in the 1982 Clint Eastwood film Honkytonk Man. Robbins died a few weeks before the film's release in December 1982 of complications following cardiac surgery. At the time of his death, Robbins lived in Brentwood in Williamson County, outside Nashville. He was interred in Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville. The city of El Paso, Texas later honored Robbins by naming a park and a recreational center after him. Marty's twin sister Mamie Ellen Robinson Minotto died on March 14, 2004, when she was part way through writing a book about her brother "Some Memories: Growing up with Marty Robbins" as remembered by Mamie Minotto, as told to Andrew Means. It was published in Jan. 2007.

Music and honors

Robbins's 1957 recording of "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. His musical accomplishments include the Grammy Award for his 1959 hit and signature song "El Paso", taken from his album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. "El Paso" was the first song to hit #1 on the pop chart in the 1960s. It was followed up, successfully, by "Don't Worry", which reached #3 on the pop chart in 1961, becoming his third, and last, Top 10 pop hit. "El Paso" was followed by two sequels: "Feleena" and "El Paso City", both of which continued the story featured in the original song. Also in 1961, Robbins wrote the words and music and recorded "I Told the Brook," a ballad later also recorded by Billy Thorpe.

He won the Grammy Award for the Best Country & Western Recording 1961, for his follow-up album More Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, and was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1970, for "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife". Robbins was named Artist of the Decade (1960–69) by the Academy of Country Music, was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982, and was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998 for his song "El Paso".

Robbins was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975. For his contribution to the recording industry, Robbins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6666 Hollywood Blvd.

Robbins has been honored by many bands, including the Grateful Dead who covered "El Paso". The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire includes the song "God Speaks Of Marty Robbins". The song's composer, Pete Townshend, explained that the song is about God deciding to create the universe just so he can hear some music, "and most of all, one of his best creations, Marty Robbins." The Beasts of Bourbon released a song called "The Day Marty Robbins Died" on their 1984 debut album The Axeman's Jazz. Johnny Cash recorded a version of "Big Iron" as part of his American Recordings series, which is included in the Cash Unearthed box set. Both Frankie Laine and Elvis Presley, among others, recorded versions of Robbins's song "You Gave Me a Mountain", with Laine's recording reaching the pop and adult contemporary charts in 1969.

Robbins performed and recorded several songs by longtime songwriter Coleman Harwell, most notably "Thanks but No Thanks" in 1964; Robbins and his producers employed the top sessions musicians and singers including the Jordanaires to record Harwell's songs. Harwell is the nephew of former Nashville Tennessean newspaper editor Coleman Harwell.

When Robbins was recording his 1961 hit "Don't Worry", session guitarist Grady Martin accidentally created a fuzz effect during the session. The song reached #1 on the country chart, and #3 on the pop chart.

Discography

In Popular Culture

Robbins' song "Big Iron" was featured in the 2010 video game , which was produced by Obsidian Entertainment. The song is played on all the radio stations in the game.

Notes

References

IMDb Bio Retrieved on 2008-01-25

Pruett, Barbara J. ">"Marty Robbins: Fast Cars and Country Music". Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. 2007. ISBN 0-8108-6036-8

External links

Official Marty Robbins Web site

Robbins page at Country Music Hall of Fame

Robbins page at Western Music Association

Robbins page at Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame

Robbins bio by Hank Davis at Allmusic

Robbins page by Gaylen Duskey at NASCAR

Category:American country guitarists Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American racecar drivers Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Deaths from surgical complications Category:NASCAR drivers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grand Ole Opry members Category:People from Glendale, Arizona Category:1925 births Category:1982 deaths Category:Musicians from Arizona Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:Columbia Records artists

Name	Leonard Nimoy
Birth date	March 26, 1931
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Birth name	Leonard Simon Nimoy
Occupation	Actor, film director, poet, photographer, singer, songwriter
Years active	1951–
Spouse	Sandra Zober (1954–1987)Susan Bay (1988–present)

Leonard Simon Nimoy (, ; born March 26, 1931) is an American actor, film director, poet, musician, and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in 1966–1969, multiple films, television and video game sequels.

Nimoy began his career in his early twenties, teaching acting classes in Hollywood and making minor film and television appearances through the 1950s, as well as playing the title role to Kid Monk Baroni. In 1953, he served in the United States Army. In 1965, he made his first appearance in the rejected Star Trek pilot, "", and would go on to play the character of Mr. Spock until 1969, followed by seven further films and a number of guest slots in various sequels. His character of Spock generated a significant cultural impact and three Emmy Award nominations; TV Guide named Spock one of the 50 greatest TV characters. Nimoy also had a recurring role in and a narrating role in Civilization IV, as well as several well-received stage appearances.

Nimoy's fame as Spock is to such an extent that both his autobiographies, I Am Not Spock (1977) and I Am Spock (1995) detail his existence as being shared between the character and himself.

Early life

Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. His father, Max Nimoy, owned a barbershop in the Mattapan section of the city. His mother, Dora Nimoy (née Spinner), was a homemaker. Nimoy began acting at the age of eight in children's and neighborhood theater. His parents wanted him to attend college and pursue a stable career, or even learn to play the accordion—which, his father advised, Nimoy could always make a living with—but his grandfather encouraged him to become an actor. His first major role was at 17, as Ralphie in an amateur production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing!. Nimoy took Drama classes at Boston College in 1953 but failed to complete his studies, and in the 1970s studied photography at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nimoy served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army from 1953 through 1955, alongside fellow actor Ken Berry and architect Frank Gehry.

Career

Stage and screen

Nimoy's film and television acting career began in 1951. But after receiving the title role in the 1952 film Kid Monk Baroni, a story about a street punk turned professional boxer, he spent most of the rest of his early career playing small parts in B movies, TV shows such as Dragnet, and serials such as Republic Pictures' Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952). This included more than fifty movies or television shows.

He played an Army sergeant in the 1954 Sci Fi thriller, Them!, and had a role in The Balcony (1963), a film adaptation of the Jean Genet play.

On television Nimoy appeared as Sonarman in two episodes of the 1957–1958 syndicated military drama, The Silent Service, based on actual events of the submarine section of the United States Navy. He had guest roles in the Sea Hunt series from 1958 to 1960 and had a minor role in The Twilight Zone episode "A Quality of Mercy" in 1961. He also appeared in Highway Patrol. Throughout the 1960s Nimoy appeared in a number of other TV series including Bonanza (1960), Two Faces West (1961), The Untouchables (1962), The Eleventh Hour (1962), Combat! (1963, 1965), Perry Mason (1963), The Outer Limits (1964), The Virginian (1965) and Get Smart (1966). He appeared again in the 1995 Outer Limits, again in the episode "I, Robot".

Nimoy and William Shatner first worked together in an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair" (1964). Their characters were from either side of the Iron Curtain, though with his saturnine looks, Nimoy was predictably the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit.

Nimoy first worked with DeForest Kelley in an episode of The Virginian from season two titled "Man of Violence", with Kelley as the doctor and Nimoy as the patient.

Star Trek

Nimoy's greatest prominence came from his role in the original series, as the half-Vulcan, half-human Spock. Nimoy formed a long-standing friendship with Shatner, who portrayed his commanding officer, saying of their relationship, "We were like brothers."The series ran from 1966 to 1969, and Nimoy earned three Emmy acting nominations for his work.

He went on to reprise Spock's character in a voice-over role in , in two episodes of , and in six Star Trek motion pictures featuring the original cast. He played an older Spock in the 2009 Star Trek movie directed by J. J. Abrams.

Spock gave his Vulcan salute whenever greeting crew members, and it became a recognized symbol of the show identified with him. Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way kohanim (priests) held their hand when giving blessings. During an interview, he translated the Priestly Blessing which accompanied the sign and described it during a public lecture:

:May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace.

Nimoy was asked to read the verses as part of his narration for Civilization IV (as the blurb read out upon "discovering" the technology Priesthood).

After Star Trek's cancellation

Following the cancellation of the original Star Trek in 1969, Nimoy immediately joined the cast of the spy series , which was seeking a replacement for Martin Landau. Nimoy was cast as an IMF agent who was an ex-magician and make-up expert, 'The Great Paris'. He played the role from 1969 to 1971, on the fourth and fifth seasons of the show.

He co-starred with Yul Brynner and Richard Crenna in the Western movie Catlow (1971). Nimoy appeared in various made for television films such as Assault on the Wayne (1970), Baffled (1972), The Alpha Caper (1973), The Missing Are Deadly (1974), Seizure: The Story Of Kathy Morris (1980), and Marco Polo (1982). He received an Emmy award nomination for best supporting actor for the TV film A Woman Called Golda (1982). He also had roles in Night Gallery (1972) and Columbo (1973) where he played a murderous doctor who was one of the few criminals with whom Columbo became angry.

In the late 1970s, he hosted and narrated the television series In Search of..., which investigated paranormal or unexplained events or subjects. He also has a memorable character part as a psychiatrist in Philip Kaufman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

It was during this time that Nimoy won acclaim for a series of stage roles as well. He appeared in such plays as Vincent, Fiddler on the Roof, The Man in the Glass Booth, Oliver!, Six Rms Riv Vu, Full Circle, Camelot, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The King And I, Caligula, The Four Poster, Twelfth Night, Sherlock Holmes, Equus and My Fair Lady.

Star Trek films

When a new series was planned in the late 1970s, Nimoy was to be in only two out of every eleven episodes, but when the show was elevated to a feature film, he agreed to reprise his role. After directing a few television show episodes, Nimoy started film directing in 1984 with the film series. Nimoy would go on to direct the second most successful film (critically and financially) in the franchise to date after the 2009 Star Trek film, (1986) and move beyond the Trek universe with Three Men and a Baby, the highest grossing film of 1987. At a press conference promoting the 2009 Star Trek movie, Nimoy made it clear that he had no further plans or ambition to direct.

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Other work after Star Trek

In 1978, Nimoy played Dr. David Kibner in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He also did occasional work as a voice actor in animated feature films, including the character of Galvatron in in 1986.

In 1991, Nimoy teamed up with Robert B. Radnitz to produce a movie for TNT about a pro bono publico lawsuit brought by public interest attorney William John Cox on behalf of Mel Mermelstein, an Auschwitz survivor, against a group of organizations engaged in Holocaust denial. Nimoy also played the Mermelstein role and believes: "If every project brought me the same sense of fulfillment that Never Forget did, I would truly be in paradise."

Nimoy performed as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in The Pagemaster in 1994. In 1998, he had a leading role as Mustapha Mond in the made-for-television production of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

Starting in 1994, Nimoy began to narrate the Ancient Mysteries series on A&E; including "The Sacred Water of Lourdes" and "The Last Days of the Romanovs". He also appeared in advertising in the United Kingdom for the computer company Time Computers in the late 1990s. He had a central role in Brave New World, a 1998 TV-movie version of Aldous Huxley's novel where he played a character reminiscent of Spock in his philosophical balancing of unpredictable human qualities with the need for control. Nimoy has also appeared in several popular television seriesincluding Futurama and The Simpsonsas both himself and Spock.

Nimoy appeared in Hearts of Space program number 142 – "Whales alive."

In 1999, he voiced the narration of the English version of the Sega Dreamcast game Seaman and promoted Y2K educational films.

In 2000, he provided on-camera hosting and introductions for 45 half-hour episodes of an anthology series entitled Our 20th Century on the AEN TV Network. The series covers world news, sports, entertainment, technology, and fashion using original archive news clips from 1930 to 1975 from the National Archives in Washington D.C. and other private archival sources.

In 2003, he announced his retirement from acting to concentrate on photography, but subsequently appeared in several television commercials with William Shatner for Priceline.com. He appeared in a commercial for Aleve, an arthritis pain medication, which aired during the 2006 Super Bowl.

Nimoy provided a comprehensive series of voiceovers for the 2005 computer game Civilization IV. He did the TV series Next Wave where he interviewed people about technology. He is the host in the documentary film The Once and Future Griffith Observatory currently running in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater located at the recently reopened Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.

In January 2007, he granted an interview to Fat Free Film, where he discussed his early career and the benefits of being typecast.

Nimoy was given casting approval over who would play the young Spock in the newest film.

On January 6, 2009, he was interviewed by William Shatner on Biography Channel's Shatner's Raw Nerve.

In May 2009, he made an appearance as the mysterious Dr. William Bell in the season finale of Fringe, which explores the existence of a parallel universe. Nimoy returned as Dr. Bell in the autumn for an extended arc, and according to Roberto Orci, co-creator of Fringe, Bell will be "the beginning of the answers to even bigger questions." This choice led one reviewer to question if Fringe's plot might be a homage to the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", which featured an alternate reality "Mirror Universe" concept and an evil version of Spock distinguished by a goatee.

at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park]] On the May 9, 2009 episode of Saturday Night Live, Nimoy appeared as a surprise guest on the skit "Weekend Update". During a mock interview, Nimoy called old Trekkies who did not like the new movie "dickheads". In the 2009 Star Trek movie, he plays the older Spock from the original Star Trek timeline; Zachary Quinto meanwhile, portrays the young Spock.

Starring with Will Ferrell in the TV-based movie Land of the Lost in June 2009, he voiced the part of "The Zarn", an Altrusian.

Nimoy is also a frequent and popular reader for "Selected Shorts", an ongoing series of programs at Symphony Space in New York City (that also tours around the country) which features actors, and sometimes authors, reading works of short fiction. The programs are broadcast on radio and available on websites through Public Radio International, National Public Radio and WNYC radio. Nimoy was honored by Symphony Space with the renaming of the Thalia Theater as the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater.

Nimoy has also provided voiceovers for the Star Trek Online massively multiplayer online game, released in February 2010, as well as for as the villainous Master Xehanort. Tetsuya Nomura, the director of Birth by Sleep, stated that he chose Nimoy for the role specifically because of his role as Spock.

Retirement

In April 2010, Nimoy announced plans to retire from acting after 60 years in the movie business, citing both his advanced age and giving Zachary Quinto the opportunity to enjoy full media attention with the Spock character. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep was his final performance.

Photography

Nimoy's interest in photography began in childhood; he still owns a camera which he rebuilt at the age of 13. His photography studies at UCLA occurred after Star Trek and Mission: Impossible, when Nimoy seriously considered changing careers. His work has been exhibited at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts}}

His second autobiography was I Am Spock (1995), communicating that he finally realized his years of portraying the Spock character had led to a much greater identification between the fictional character and himself. Nimoy had much input into how Spock would act in certain situations, and conversely, Nimoy's contemplation of how Spock acted gave him cause to think about things in a way that he never would have thought if he had not portrayed the character. As such, in this autobiography Nimoy maintains that in some meaningful sense he has merged with Spock while at the same time maintaining the distance between fact and fiction.

Nimoy has also written several volumes of poetry, some published along with a number of his photographs. His latest effort is titled A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002). His poetry can be found in the Contemporary Poets index of The HyperTexts. In the mid-1970s Nimoy wrote and starred in a one-man play called Vincent based on the play Van Gogh by Phillip Stephens.

In 1995, Nimoy was involved in the production of Primortals, a comic book series published by Tekno Comix that involved a first contact situation with aliens, which had arisen from a discussion he had with Isaac Asimov. There was a novelization by Steve Perry.

Music career

During and following Star Trek, Nimoy also released five albums of vocal recordings on Dot Records, including Trek-related songs such as "Highly Illogical", and cover versions of popular tunes, such as "Proud Mary". In regards to how his recording career got started, he stated:

The albums were popular and resulted in numerous live appearances and promotional record signings that attracted crowds of fans in the thousands. The early recordings were produced by Charles Grean, who may be best known for his version of "Quentin's Theme" from the mid-sixties goth soap opera Dark Shadows. These recordings are generally regarded as unintentionally camp, though his tongue-in-cheek performance of "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" received a fair amount of airplay when Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films were released.

In addition to his own music career he directed a 1985 music video for The Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool". He makes a brief cameo appearance in the video as their driver. This came about because his son Adam Nimoy (now a frequent television director) was a friend of Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs from college. He released a version of Johnny Cash's song "I Walk the Line".

Nimoy's voice appeared in sampled form on a song by the pop band Information Society in the late Eighties. The song, "What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)" (released in 1988), reached #3 on the US Pop charts, and #1 on Dance charts. The group's self-titled LP contains several other samples from the original Star Trek television series.

Personal life

Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and he can speak and read Yiddish. In 1997, he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002, Nimoy published The Shekhina Project, a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah.

Nimoy has been married twice. In 1954, he married actress Sandra Zober, whom he divorced in 1987.

In a 2001 DVD, Nimoy revealed that he became an alcoholic while working on Star Trek and ended up in rehab. Also in William Shatner's 2008 book , Shatner speaks about how later in their lives Nimoy tried to help Shatner's alcoholic wife.

Nimoy still has the last pair of Spock's ears he wore on the series, as a memento. He has said that the character of Spock, which he played twelve to fourteen hours a day, five days a week, influenced his personality in private life. Each weekend during the original run of the series, he would be in character throughout Saturday and into Sunday, behaving more like Spock than himself more logical, more rational, more thoughtful, less emotional and finding a calm in every situation. It was only on Sunday in the early afternoon that Spock's influence on his behavior would fade off and he would feel more himself again – only to start the cycle over Monday morning.

Nimoy also introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch in an early Star Trek episode "". Initially, Spock was supposed to knock out an evil Kirk in the Engineering room by striking him on the back of the head. Nimoy felt that the action was not in keeping with the nature of Spock's character, so he suggested the "pinch" as a non-violent alternative, suggesting that Vulcans have the ability to emit energy from their fingertips, which, if applied to the correct nerve cluster, could render a human unconscious.

He has remained good friends with co-star William Shatner and was best man at Shatner's third marriage in 1997. He also remained good friends with DeForest Kelley as well.

The Space Foundation named Nimoy as the recipient of the 2010 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award for creating a positive role model that inspired untold numbers of viewers to learn more about the universe. An honor Nimoy did not receive, however, was the naming of asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock after his character, at least not directly. The asteroid was named by discoverer James B. Gibson after his pet cat, "Mr. Spock," said feline indeed being named after the Star Trek character.

Filmography

Director

Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978–1981)

(1984)

(1986)

Three Men and a Baby (1987)

The Good Mother (1988)

Funny About Love (1990)

Holy Matrimony (1994)

episodes of Night Gallery, T.J. Hooker, The Powers of Matthew Star and Deadly Games

Writer

Bibliography

I Am Not Spock (1977)

Vincent: Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stephens (1978)

(1979) (Contributions uncredited) (1984) (Contributions uncredited)

(1986)

(1991)

I Am Spock (1995)

Shekhina photography (2005) (ISBN 978-1-884167-16-4)

The Full Body Project (2008)

Poetry

You & I (1973) (ISBN 978-0-912310-26-8)

Will I Think of You? (1974) (ISBN 0912310701)

We Are All Children Searching for Love: A Collection of Poems and Photographs (1977) (ISBN 978-0-88396-024-0)

Come be With Me (1978) (ISBN 978-0-88396-033-2)

These Words are for You (ISBN 978-0-88396-148-3)

Warmed by Love (1983) (ISBN 978-0-88396-200-8)

A Lifetime of Love: Poems on the Passages of Life (2002) (ISBN 978-0-88396-596-2)

Discography

:See also: Leonard Nimoy discography (includes compilations and re-issues)

Leonard Nimoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space (Dot Records), (1967).

Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records), (1968).

The Way I Feel (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25883), (1968).

The Touch of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25910), (1969).

The New World of Leonard Nimoy (Dot Records, Stereo DLP 25966), (1970).

References

External links

Leonard Nimoy's personal website

Leonard Nimoy's entry at Startrek.com

Interview with Leonard Nimoy at hossli.com

Leonard Nimoy Poetry and Photography on The HyperTexts

Maiden Wine comprehensive site devoted to the musical career of Leonard Nimoy.

Interview with Leonard Nimoy by the Archive of American Television (2000)

Nimoy in Seattle for ComiCon

2010 Interview with Nimoy about his "Secret Selves" show at Mass MoCA

Media

Newsmaker of the Week: Leonard Nimoy (30-min. interview, free)

Archive of American Television Interview with Leonard Nimoy Nov 2, 2000 on Google Video

Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:American Jews Category:American Orthodox Jews Category:American poets Category:American television actors Category:American television directors Category:American voice actors Category:American video game actors Category:Antioch College alumni Category:English-language film directors Category:Jewish actors Category:Dot Records artists Category:Actors from Massachusetts Category:Mission: Impossible Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:1931 births Category:Living people Category:United States Army soldiers

Name	Johnny Cash
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	J. R. Cash
Born	February 26, 1932
Origin	Kingsland, Arkansas, U.S.
Died	September 12, 2003Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar
Genre	Country, Rock and Roll , Folk , Rockabilly , Gospel , Blues
Occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor
Voice type	Bass-baritone
Years active	1955–2003
Label	Sun, Columbia, Mercury, American, House of Cash, Legacy Recordings
Associated acts	The Tennessee Three, The Highwaymen, June Carter Cash, The Statler Brothers, The Carter Family, The Oak Ridge Boys, Area Code 615
Url
Notable instruments	Martin Acoustic Guitars

John R. "Johnny" Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), born J. R. Cash, was an American singer-songwriter, actor, Although he is primarily remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists, among them the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails and the synthpop band Depeche Mode.

Johnny Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" freight train sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues."

Much of Cash's music, especially that of his later career, echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption. His signature songs include "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "Get Rhythm" and "Man in Black". He also recorded humorous numbers, such as "One Piece at a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue"; a duet with his future wife, June Carter, called "Jackson"; as well as railroad songs including "Hey, Porter" and "Rock Island Line".

Cash, a devout but troubled Christian, has been characterized as a "lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges." A Biblical scholar, he penned a Christian novel entitled Man in White, and he made a spoken word recording of the entire New King James Version of the New Testament. Even so, Cash declared that he was "the biggest sinner of them all", and viewed himself overall as a complicated and contradictory man. Accordingly, Cash is said to have "contained multitudes", and has been deemed "the philosopher-prince of American country music".

Personal life

Heritage

Cash learned, upon researching his ancestry, that he was of Scottish royal descent. After the opportunity of meeting with former Falkland, Fife laird, Major Michael Crichton-Stuart, he traced the Cash family tree to 11th-century Fife, Scotland. Scotland's Cash Loch bears the name of his family. the third of seven children to Ray Cash (13 May 1897, Kingsland, Arkansas – 23 December 1985, Hendersonville, Tennessee) and Carrie Cloveree Rivers (13 March 1904, Rison, Arkansas – 11 March 1991, Hendersonville, Tennessee). Cash was given the name "J.R." because his parents could not agree on a name, only on initials. When he enlisted in the United States Air Force, the military would not accept initials as his name, so he adopted John R. Cash as his legal name. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name.

The Cash children were, in order: Margaret Louise, Jack, J. R., Joanne, Reba, Roy and Tommy. His younger brother, Tommy Cash, also became a successful country artist.

In March 1935, when Cash was three years old, the family settled in Dyess, Arkansas. J.R. was working in cotton fields beginning at age five, singing along with his family simultaneously while working. The family farm was flooded on at least two occasions, which later inspired him to write the song "Five Feet High and Rising". His family's economic and personal struggles during the Great Depression inspired many of his songs, especially those about other people facing similar difficulties.

Cash was very close to his older brother, Jack. In May 1944, Jack was pulled into a whirling head saw in the mill where he worked, and almost cut in two. He suffered for over a week before he died on May 20, 1944, at age 15.

Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base, both in San Antonio, Texas, Cash was assigned to a U.S. Air Force Security Service unit, assigned as a code intercept operator for Soviet Army transmissions at Landsberg, Germany "where he created his first band named The Landsberg Barbarians." After he was honorably discharged as a sergeant on July 3, 1954, he returned to Texas.

Cash became close friends with a man named John Rollins. Rollins, who grew up in Georgia, had a similar childhood as Cash, having grown up on cotton fields. Rollins later became a successful business man selling umbrellas. Cash later became the godfather of his son Michael.

Marriages

On July 18, 1951, while in Air Force training, Cash met 17-year-old Vivian Liberto at a roller skating rink in her native San Antonio. They dated for three weeks, until Cash was deployed to Germany for a three year tour. During that time, the couple exchanged hundreds of pages of love letters. On August 7, 1954, one month after his discharge, they were married at St. Anne's Catholic church in San Antonio. The ceremony was performed by her uncle, Father Vincent Liberto. They had four daughters: Rosanne, Kathy, Cindy and Tara. Cash's drug and alcohol abuse, constant touring, and affairs with other women, and his close relationship with future wife June Carter, led Liberto to file for divorce in 1966.

In 1968, 13 years after they first met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, Cash proposed to June Carter, an established country singer, during a live performance in London, Ontario, marrying on March 1, 1968 in Franklin, Kentucky. They had one child together, John Carter Cash (born March 3, 1970). They continued to work together and tour for 35 years, until June Carter died in 2003. Cash died just four months later. Carter co-wrote one of Cash's biggest hits, "Ring of Fire," with singer Merle Kilgore. She and Cash won two Grammy awards for their duets.

Vivian Liberto claims a different version of the origins of "Ring of Fire" in I Walked the Line: My Life with Johnny, stating that Cash gave Carter the credit for monetary reasons.

Career

Early career

In 1954, Cash and Vivian moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he sold appliances while studying to be a radio announcer. At night he played with guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant. Perkins and Grant were known as the Tennessee Two. Cash worked up the courage to visit the Sun Records studio, hoping to get a recording contract. After auditioning for Sam Phillips, singing mostly gospel songs, Phillips told him that gospel was unmarketable. It was once rumored that Phillips told Cash to "go home and sin, then come back with a song I can sell," though Cash refuted that Phillips made any such comment in a 2002 interview. Cash eventually won over the producer with new songs delivered in his early frenetic style. His first recordings at Sun, "Hey Porter" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!", were released in 1955 and met with reasonable success on the country hit parade.

On December 4, 1956, Elvis Presley dropped in on studio owner Sam Phillips to pay a social visit while Carl Perkins was in the studio cutting new tracks, with Jerry Lee Lewis backing him on piano. Cash was also in the studio and the four started an impromptu jam session. Phillips left the tapes running and the recordings, almost half of which were gospel songs, survived and have since been released under the title Million Dollar Quartet.

Cash's next record, "Folsom Prison Blues", made the country Top 5, and "I Walk the Line" became No. 1 on the country charts and entered the pop charts Top 20. "Home of the Blues" followed, recorded in July 1957. That same year Cash became the first Sun artist to release a long-playing album. Although he was Sun's most consistently best-selling and prolific artist at that time, Cash felt constrained by his contract with the small label. Presley had already left Sun, and Phillips was focusing most of his attention and promotion on Lewis. The following year Cash left the label to sign a lucrative offer with Columbia Records, where his single "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" became one of his biggest hits.

In the early 1960s, Cash toured with the Carter Family, which by this time regularly included Mother Maybelle's daughters, Anita, June and Helen. June, whom Cash would eventually marry, later recalled admiring him from afar during these tours. In the 1960s he appeared on Pete Seeger's short lived Rainbow Quest.

He also acted in a 1961 film entitled Five Minutes to Live, later re-released as Door-to-door Maniac. He also wrote and sang the opening theme.

Outlaw image

As his career was taking off in the late 1950s, Cash started drinking heavily and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. For a brief time, he shared an apartment in Nashville with Waylon Jennings, who was heavily addicted to amphetamines. Cash used the uppers to stay awake during tours. Friends joked about his "nervousness" and erratic behavior, many ignoring the warning signs of his worsening drug addiction. In a behind-the-scenes look at The Johnny Cash Show, Cash claims to have "tried every drug there was to try."

Although in many ways spiraling out of control, Cash's frenetic creativity was still delivering hits. His rendition of "Ring of Fire" was a crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the country charts and entering the Top 20 on the pop charts. The song was written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore. The song was originally performed by Carter's sister, but the signature mariachi-style horn arrangement was provided by Cash, who said that it had come to him in a dream.

In June 1965, his truck caught fire due to an overheated wheel bearing, triggering a forest fire that burned several hundred acres in Los Padres National Forest in California. When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it." He said he was the only person ever sued by the government for starting a forest fire.

Cash curtailed his use of drugs for several years in 1968, after a spiritual in the Nickajack Cave, when he attempted to commit suicide while under the heavy influence of drugs. He descended deeper into the cave, trying to lose himself and "just die", when he passed out on the floor. He reported to be exhausted and feeling at the end of his rope when he felt God's presence in his heart and managed to struggle out of the cave (despite the exhaustion) by following a faint light and slight breeze. To him, it was his own rebirth. June, Maybelle, and Ezra Carter moved into Cash's mansion for a month to help him conquer his addiction. Cash proposed onstage to June at a concert at the London Gardens in London, Ontario, Canada on February 22, 1968; the couple married a week later (on March 1) in Franklin, Kentucky. June had agreed to marry Cash after he had 'cleaned up'. He rediscovered his Christian faith, taking an "altar call" in Evangel Temple, a small church in the Nashville area, pastored by Rev. Jimmy Rodgers Snow, son of country music legend Hank Snow.

According to longtime friend Marshall Grant, Cash's 1968 rebirth experience did not result in his completely stopping use of amphetamines. However, in 1970, Cash ended all drug use for a period of seven years. Grant claims that the birth of Cash's son, John Carter Cash, inspired Cash to end his dependence. Cash began using amphetamines again in 1977. By 1983, he was once again addicted, and entered the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, CA for rehabilitation. Cash managed to stay off drugs for several years, but by 1989, he was dependent again and entered Nashville's Cumberland Heights Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center. In 1992, he entered the Loma Linda Behavioural Medicine Centre in Loma Linda, CA for his final rehabilitation (several months later, his son followed him into this facility for treatment).

Folsom Prison Blues

Cash felt great compassion for prisoners. He began performing concerts at various prisons starting in the late 1950s. His first ever prison concert was held on January 1, 1958 at San Quentin State Prison. These performances led to a pair of highly successful live albums, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison (1968) and Johnny Cash at San Quentin (1969).

The Folsom Prison record was introduced by a rendition of his classic "Folsom Prison Blues", while the San Quentin record included the crossover hit single "A Boy Named Sue", a Shel Silverstein-penned novelty song that reached No. 1 on the country charts and No. 2 on the U.S. Top Ten pop charts. The AM versions of the latter contained a couple of profanities which were edited out. The modern CD versions are unedited and uncensored and thus also longer than the original vinyl albums, though they still retain the audience reaction overdubs of the originals.

In addition to his performances at U.S. prisons, Cash also performed at the Österåker Prison in Sweden in 1972. The live album På Österåker ("At Österåker") was released in 1973. Between the songs, Cash can be heard speaking Swedish, which was greatly appreciated by the inmates.

"The Man in Black"

at his July 1972 meeting with United States President Richard Nixon.]] From 1969 to 1971, Cash starred in his own television show, The Johnny Cash Show, on the ABC network. The Statler Brothers opened up for him in every episode; the Carter Family and rockabilly legend Carl Perkins were also part of the regular show entourage. However, Cash also enjoyed booking more contemporary performers as guests; such notables included Neil Young, Louis Armstrong, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition (who appeared a record four times on his show), James Taylor, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton (then leading Derek and the Dominos), and Bob Dylan.

Cash had met with Dylan in the mid 1960s and became closer friends when they were neighbors in the late 1960s in Woodstock, New York. Cash was enthusiastic about reintroducing the reclusive Dylan to his audience. Cash sang a duet with Dylan on Dylan's country album Nashville Skyline and also wrote the album's Grammy-winning liner notes.

Another artist who received a major career boost from The Johnny Cash Show was songwriter Kris Kristofferson, who was beginning to make a name for himself as a singer/songwriter. During a live performance of Kristofferson's "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", Cash refused to change the lyrics to suit network executives, singing the song with its references to marijuana intact: "On a Sunday morning sidewalk / I'm wishin', Lord, that I was stoned."

By the early 1970s, he had crystallized his public image as "The Man in Black". He regularly performed dressed all in black, wearing a long black knee-length coat. This outfit stood in contrast to the costumes worn by most of the major country acts in his day: rhinestone suit and cowboy boots. In 1971, Cash wrote the song "Man in Black", to help explain his dress code: "We're doing mighty fine I do suppose / In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes / But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back / Up front there ought to be a man in black."

, Northern Germany, in September 1972]] He wore black on behalf of the poor and hungry, on behalf of "the prisoner who has long paid for his crime", and on behalf of those who have been betrayed by age or drugs.

In the mid 1970s, Cash's popularity and number of hit songs began to decline, but his autobiography (the first of two), titled Man in Black, was published in 1975 and sold 1.3 million copies. A second, Cash: The Autobiography, appeared in 1997. His friendship with Billy Graham led to the production of a film about the life of Jesus, The Gospel Road, which Cash co-wrote and narrated.

He also continued to appear on television, hosting an annual Christmas special on CBS throughout the 1970s. Later television appearances included a role in an episode of Columbo (Swan Song). He also appeared with his wife on an episode of Little House on the Prairie entitled "The Collection" and gave a performance as John Brown in the 1985 American Civil War television mini-series North and South.

He was friendly with every President of the United States starting with Richard Nixon. He was closest with Jimmy Carter, with whom he became a very close friend.

Highwaymen

, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, who formed the country music supergroup, The Highwaymen]] In 1980, Cash became the Country Music Hall of Fame's youngest living inductee at age forty-eight, but during the 1980s his records failed to make a major impact on the country charts, although he continued to tour successfully. In the mid 1980s, he recorded and toured with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson as The Highwaymen, making two hit albums.

During this period, Cash appeared in a number of television films. In 1981, he starred in The Pride of Jesse Hallam, winning fine reviews for a film that called attention to adult illiteracy. In the same year, Cash appeared as a "very special guest star" in an episode of the Muppet Show. In 1983, he appeared as a heroic sheriff in Murder in Coweta County, based on a real-life Georgia murder case, which co-starred Andy Griffith as his nemesis. Cash had tried for years to make the film, for which he won acclaim.

Cash relapsed into addiction after being administered painkillers for a serious abdominal injury in 1983 caused by an unusual incident in which he was kicked and wounded by an ostrich he kept on his farm.

At a hospital visit in 1988, this time to watch over Waylon Jennings (who was recovering from a heart attack), Jennings suggested that Cash have himself checked into the hospital for his own heart condition. Doctors recommended preventive heart surgery, and Cash underwent double bypass surgery in the same hospital. Both recovered, although Cash refused to use any prescription painkillers, fearing a relapse into dependency. Cash later claimed that during his operation, he had what is called a "near death experience". He said he had visions of Heaven that were so beautiful that he was angry when he woke up alive.

Cash's recording career and his general relationship with the Nashville establishment were at an all-time low in the 1980s. He realized that his record label of nearly 30 years, Columbia, was growing indifferent to him and was not properly marketing him (he was "invisible" during that time, as he said in his autobiography). Cash recorded an intentionally awful song to protest, a self-parody. "Chicken in Black" was about Cash's brain being transplanted into a chicken. Ironically, the song turned out to be a larger commercial success than any of his other recent material. Nevertheless, he was hoping to kill the relationship with the label before they did, and it was not long after "Chicken in Black" that Columbia and Cash parted ways.

In 1986, Cash returned to Sun Studios in Memphis to team up with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins to create the album Class of '55. Also in 1986, Cash published his only novel, Man in White, a book about Saul and his conversion to become the Apostle Paul. He also recorded Johnny Cash Reads The Complete New Testament in 1990.

American Recordings

After Columbia Records dropped Cash from his recording contract, he had a short and unsuccessful stint with Mercury Records from 1987 to 1991 (see Johnny Cash discography).

His career was rejuvenated in the 1990s, leading to popularity with an audience not traditionally interested in country music. In 1991, he sang a version of "Man in Black" for the Christian punk band One Bad Pig's album I Scream Sunday. In 1993, he sang "The Wanderer" on U2's album Zooropa. Although no longer sought after by major labels, he was offered a contract with producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock.

Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded American Recordings (1994) in his living room, accompanied only by his Martin dreadnought guitar – one of many Cash played throughout his career. The album featured covers of contemporary artists selected by Rubin and had much critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career. This was the beginning of a decade of music industry accolades and commercial success. Cash teamed up with Brooks & Dunn to contribute "Folsom Prison Blues" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization. On the same album, he performed the Bob Dylan favorite "Forever Young".

Cash and his wife appeared on a number of episodes of the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman starring Jane Seymour. The actress thought so highly of Cash that she later named one of her twin sons after him. He lent his voice for a cameo role in The Simpsons episode "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer)," as the "Space Coyote" that guides Homer Simpson on a spiritual quest. In 1996, Cash enlisted the accompaniment of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and released Unchained, which won the Best Country Album Grammy. Believing he did not explain enough of himself in his 1975 autobiography Man in Black, he wrote Cash: The Autobiography in 1997.

Last years and death

In 1997, Cash was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease Shy-Drager syndrome, a form of Parkinson's disease. The diagnosis was later altered to autonomic neuropathy associated with diabetes. This illness forced Cash to curtail his touring. He was hospitalized in 1998 with severe pneumonia, which damaged his lungs. The albums (2000) and (2002) contained Cash's response to his illness in the form of songs of a slightly more somber tone than the first two American albums. The video that was released for "Hurt", a cover of the song by Nine Inch Nails, fits Cash's view of his past and feelings of regret. The video for the song, from American IV, is now generally recognized as "his epitaph," and received particular critical and popular acclaim. June Carter Cash died on May 15, 2003, at the age of 73. June had told Cash to keep working, so he continued to record and even performed a couple of surprise shows at the Carter Family Fold outside Bristol, Virginia. At the July 5, 2003 concert (his last public performance), before singing "Ring of Fire", Cash read a statement about his late wife that he had written shortly before taking the stage:

Cash died of complications from diabetes fewer than four months after his wife, at 2:00 a.m. CT on September 12, 2003, while hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Nashville. He was buried next to his wife in Hendersonville Memory Gardens near his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

His stepdaughter, Rosie (Nix) Adams and another passenger were found dead on a bus in Montgomery County, Tennessee, on October 24, 2003. It was speculated that the deaths may have been caused by carbon monoxide from the lanterns in the bus. Adams was 45 when she died. She was buried in the Hendersonville Memory Gardens, near her mother and stepfather.

On May 24, 2005, Vivian Liberto, Cash's first wife and the mother of Rosanne Cash and three other daughters, died from surgery to remove lung cancer at the age of 71. It was her daughter Rosanne's 50th birthday.

In June 2005, his lakeside home on Caudill Drive in Hendersonville was put up for sale by his estate. In January 2006, the house was sold to Bee Gees vocalist Barry Gibb and wife Linda and titled in their Florida limited liability company for $2.3 million. The listing agent was Cash's younger brother, Tommy Cash. The home was destroyed by fire on April 10, 2007.

One of Cash's final collaborations with producer Rick Rubin, entitled , was released posthumously on July 4, 2006. The album debuted in the #1 position on the Billboard Top 200 album chart for the week ending July 22, 2006.

On February 26, 2010, what would have been Cash's 78th birthday, the Cash Family, Rick Rubin, and Lost Highway Records released his second posthumous record, entitled .

Legacy

From his early days as a pioneer of rockabilly and rock and roll in the 1950s, to his decades as an international representative of country music, to his resurgence to fame in the 1990s as a living legend and an alternative country icon, Cash influenced countless artists and left a large body of work. Upon his death, Cash was revered by the greatest popular musicians of his time. His rebellious image and often anti-authoritarian stance influenced punk rock.

Among Cash's children, his daughter Rosanne Cash (by first wife Vivian Liberto) and his son John Carter Cash (by June Carter Cash) are notable country-music musicians in their own right.

Cash nurtured and defended artists on the fringes of what was acceptable in country music even while serving as the country music establishment's most visible symbol. At an all-star TNT concert in 1999, a diverse group of artists paid him tribute, including Bob Dylan, Chris Isaak, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Dom DeLuise and U2. Cash himself appeared at the end and performed for the first time in more than a year. Two tribute albums were released shortly before his death; contains works from established artists, while contains works from many lesser-known artists.

In total, he wrote over 1,000 songs and released dozens of albums. A box set titled Unearthed was issued posthumously. It included four CDs of unreleased material recorded with Rubin as well as a Best of Cash on American retrospective CD.

In recognition of his lifelong support of SOS Children's Villages, his family invited friends and fans to donate to that charity in his memory. He had a personal link with the SOS village in Diessen, at the Ammersee Lake in Southern Germany, near where he was stationed as a GI, and also with the SOS village in Barrett Town, by Montego Bay, near his holiday home in Jamaica. The Johnny Cash Memorial Fund was founded.

In 1999, Cash received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Cash #31 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

In a tribute to Cash after his death, country music singer Gary Allan included the song "Nickajack Cave (Johnny Cash's Redemption)" on his 2005 album entitled Tough All Over. The song chronicles Cash hitting rock bottom and subsequently resurrecting his life and career.

The main street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, Highway 31E, is known as "Johnny Cash Parkway".

The Johnny Cash Museum is located in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

On November 2–4, 2007, the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin' Festival was held in Starkville, Mississippi. Starkville, where Cash was arrested over 40 years earlier and held overnight at the city jail on May 11, 1965, inspired Cash to write the song "Starkville City Jail". The festival, where he was offered a symbolic posthumous pardon, honored Cash's life and music, and was expected to become an annual event.

JC Unit One, Johnny Cash's private tour bus from 1980 until 2003, was put on exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum in 2007. The Cleveland, Ohio museum offers public tours of the bus on a seasonal basis (it is stored during the winter months and not exhibited during those times).

Portrayals

In 1998, country singer Mark Collie portrayed Cash for the first time in a short film, I Still Miss Someone.

Walk the Line, an Academy Award-winning biopic about Cash's life starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny and Reese Witherspoon as June (for which she won the 2005 Best Actress Oscar), was released in the United States on November 18, 2005 to considerable commercial success and critical acclaim. Both Phoenix and Witherspoon have won various other awards for their roles, including the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy, respectively. They both performed their own vocals in the film, and Phoenix learned to play guitar for his role as Cash. Phoenix received the Grammy Award for his contributions to the soundtrack. John Carter Cash, the first child of Johnny and June, served as an executive producer on the film.

Ring of Fire, a jukebox musical of the Cash oeuvre, debuted on Broadway on March 12, 2006 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, but closed due to harsh reviews and disappointing sales on April 30, 2006.

Million Dollar Quartet, a musical portraying the early Sun recording sessions involving Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins, debuted on Broadway on April 11, 2010. Actor Lance Guest portrayed Cash. The musical was nominated for three awards at the 2010 Tony Awards, and won one.

Discography

: See Johnny Cash discography, and Johnny Cash Sun Records discography.

Awards and honors

: For detailed lists of music awards, see List of Johnny Cash awards.

Cash received multiple Country Music Association Awards, Grammys, and other awards, in categories ranging from vocal and spoken performances to album notes and videos.

In a career that spanned almost five decades, Cash was the personification of country music to many people around the world. Cash was a musician who was not tied to a single genre. He recorded songs that could be considered rock and roll, blues, rockabilly, folk, and gospel, and exerted an influence on each of those genres. Moreover, he had the unique distinction among country artists of having "crossed over" late in his career to become popular with an unexpected audience, young indie and alternative rock fans. His diversity was evidenced by his presence in three major music halls of fame: the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1980), and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992). Only thirteen performers are in both of the last two, and only Hank Williams Sr., Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills, and Bill Monroe share the honor with Cash of being in all three. However, only Cash was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the regular manner, unlike the other country members, who were inducted as "early influences." His pioneering contribution to the genre has also been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1996. Cash stated that his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, in 1980, was his greatest professional achievement. In 2001, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. He was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for best cinematography for "Hurt" and was supposed to appear, but died during the night.

In 2007, Cash was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Sources

Notes

References

D'Ambrosio, Antonino (2009). A Heartbeat and A Guitar: Johnny Cash and the Making of Bitter Tears. With Original Art by Shepard Fairey and Photos by Jim Marshall. Perseus Books/Nation Books ISBN 9781568584072

Millier, Bill. (retrieved September 7, 2004). Johnny Cash Awards. JohnnyCash.com.

Streissguth, Michael. Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece, Da Capo Press (2004). ISBN 0-306-81338-6.

Urbanski, Dave. The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash. New York: Relevant Books. ISBN 0-9729276-7-0.

Turner, Steve. The Man Called Cash: The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend. Nashville, W Publishing Group, 2004. (The Authorized Biography).

Published works

Cash, Johnny. Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975. ISBN 99924-31-58-X.

Cash, Johnny, with Patrick Carr. . New York: Harper Collins, 1997. ISBN 0-06-101357-9.

Cash, Johnny, with June Carter Cash. Love liner notes. New York: Sony, 2000.

Cash, Johnny, The Man in White, 1986.

External links

Johnny Cash Official Label Website

Johnny Cash Radio Webcast

Official Johnny Cash Lost Highway Artist Page

Johnny Cash at the Country Music Hall of Fame

Johnny Cash at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Johnny Cash at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame

Johnny Cash at the Hit Parade Hall of Fame

Larry King's November 26, 2002 interview With Johnny Cash on CNN

Johnny Cash: Best Photos – slideshow by Life magazine

Category:1932 births Category:2003 deaths Category:Actors from Arkansas Category:American autobiographers Category:American composers Category:American country guitarists Category:American country singers Category:American country songwriters Category:American folk guitarists Category:American folk singers Category:American male singers Category:American baritones Category:American performers of Christian music Category:American Protestants Category:Burials in Tennessee Category:Charly Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Grand Ole Opry members Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from Arkansas Category:People from Cleveland County, Arkansas Category:People from Sumner County, Tennessee Category:People with Parkinson's disease Category:Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:The Highwaymen (country supergroup) members Category:Sun Records artists Category:United States Air Force airmen Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers

Name	Ira Hamilton Hayes
Born	January 12, 1923
Died	January 24, 1955
Placeofbirth	Sacaton, Arizona, United States
Placeofdeath	Sacaton, Arizona, United States
Placeofburial	Arlington National Cemetery, Section 34
Placeofburial label	Place of burial
Nickname	Chief Falling Cloud
Allegiance	United States of America
Branch	United States Marine Corps
Serviceyears	1942-1945
Rank	Corporal
Unit	3rd Parachute Battalion2nd Battalion, 28th Marines1st Headquarters Battalion, HQMC
Battles	World War II

Ira Hamilton Hayes (January 12, 1923 – January 24, 1955) was a Pima Native American and a American Marine who was one of the six men immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community in Sacaton, Arizona, and enlisted in the Marine Forces Reserve on August 24, 1942. He trained as a Paramarine and saw action in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. On February 19, 1945, Hayes participated in the landing at Iwo Jima and fought in the subsequent battle for the island. On February 23, Hayes, together with fellow Marines Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Mike Strank, and Navy Corpsman John Bradley, raised the American flag over Mount Suribachi, an event photographed by Joe Rosenthal.

As a result of Rosenthal's photograph Hayes and the others became national heroes in the United States. He was instrumental in confirming the identity of one of his fellow Marines in the photograph, Harlon Block. Hayes was never comfortable with his new-found fame, however, and after his honorable discharge from the Marine Corps he descended into alcoholism. He died of exposure and alcohol poisoning on January 24, 1955 after a night of drinking, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Hayes was often commemorated in art and film, both before and after his death. He is depicted in the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, based on the famous photograph, and he portrayed himself in the 1949 film Sands of Iwo Jima. His tragic story was the subject of the 1961 film The Outsider, and inspired Peter La Farge' song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes". He was also depicted in the 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers.

Early life

Hayes was born in Sacaton, Arizona, a town located in the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County, the first of six children to Nancy Hamilton (1901-1972) and Joseph Hayes (1887-1978). The Hayes children were: Ira (1923-1955), Harold (1924-1925), Arlene (1926-1929), Leonard (1927-1952), Vernon (1929-1958), and Kenneth (born 1931).

Jobe Hayes was a World War I veteran who supported his family by subsistence farming and cotton harvesting. Nancy Hayes was a devout Presbyterian who was a Sunday school teacher at the Assemblies of God church in Sacaton.

As a child, Hayes was remembered as being quiet and withdrawn by his family and friends. Sara Bernal, his first cousin, stated, "[Jobe Hayes] was a very quiet man, he would go days without saying anything unless you spoke to him first. The other Hayes children would play and tease me, but not Ira. He was quiet, and somewhat distant. Ira didn't speak unless spoken to. He was just like his father." His boyhood friend Dana Norris stated, "Even though I'm from the same culture, I could never get under his skin. Ira had the characteristic of not wanting to talk. But we Pimas are not prone to tooting our own horns. Ira was a quiet guy, such a quiet guy." Despite this, Hayes was a precocious child who displayed an impressive grasp of the English language, a language many Pimas did not know how to speak. He was also a voracious reader, learning how to read and write by age four.

In 1932, the family settled in Bapchule, Arizona, located approximately 12 miles southeast of Sacaton. The Hayes children attended grade school in Sacaton and high school at the Phoenix Indian School in Phoenix, Arizona. Esther Monahan, one of his classmates, stated, "Ira wasn't like the other guys. He was shy and never talked to us girls. He was so much more shy than the other Pima boys. The girls would chase him and try to hug him and kiss him, like we did with all the boys. We'd catch the other boys, who enjoyed it. But not Ira. Ira would just run away." After the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Ira confided to his classmate Eleanor Pasquale that he was determined on serving in the United States Marine Corps. Pasquale stated, "Every morning in school, [the students] would get a report on World War II. We would sing the anthems of the Army, Marines, and the Navy." In June 1942, Hayes graduated at the Phoenix Indian School and returned to the reservation.

On August 24, 1942, Hayes enlisted in the Marine Forces Reserve at age nineteen.

After he completed recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, Hayes trained as a paratrooper at Marine Corps Base San Diego and had a codename of Chief Falling Cloud. On December 2, 1942, he joined Company B, 3rd Parachute Battalion, Divisional Special Troops, U.S. 3rd Marine Division, at Camp Elliott, California. On March 14, 1943, Hayes sailed for New Caledonia with the 3rd Parachute Battalion. Hayes first saw combat in the Bougainville Campaign.

The Marine Corps parachute units were disbanded in February, and Hayes was transferred to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, U.S. 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, California. In September 1944, Hayes sailed to Hawaii for further training.

Battle of Iwo Jima

On February 19, 1945, Hayes took part in the landing on Iwo Jima. He participated in the battle for the island and was among the group of Marines that took Mount Suribachi five days later on February 23, 1945.

The raising of the second American flag on Suribachi by five Marines: Ira Hayes, Rene Gagnon, Harlon Block, Franklin Sousley, and Mike Strank, and a Navy Corpsman, John Bradley, was immortalized by photographer Joe Rosenthal and became an icon of the war. Overnight, Hayes became a national hero, along with the two other survivors in the famous photograph, Rene Gagnon and John Bradley.

When Iwo Jima was secured by U.S. forces, Hayes was ordered to Washington, D.C. Together with the Navy Pharmacist's Mate John Bradley and Marine Private First Class Rene Gagnon, he was assigned to temporary duty with the Finance Division, U.S. Treasury Department, for appearances in connection with the Seventh War Bond Drive.

Rank and medals

Hayes was promoted to the rank of Corporal by the time he received an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps. His decorations and medals include the following:

American Campaign Medal

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with four stars (for Vella Lavella, Bougainville, Consolidation of the Northern Solomons, and Iwo Jima)

Navy Commendation Medal with "V" combat device

Presidential Unit Citation with one star

World War II Victory Medal

Post World War II

(1947)]] After the war, Hayes attempted to lead a normal civilian life. "I kept getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through the reservation, walk up to me and ask, 'Are you the Indian who raised the flag on Iwo Jima?'" Although he rarely spoke about the flag raising, he spoke about his service in the Marine Corps with great pride.

After returning home from the war, Hayes remained troubled that one of his friends, Harlon Block, one of the flag raisers who was killed in action days after, was mistaken for another man, Hank Hansen. Hayes later hitchhiked 1,300 miles from the Gila River Indian Community to Edward Frederick Block, Sr.'s farm in Weslaco, Texas in order to reveal the truth to Block's family. He was instrumental in having the controversy resolved, to the delight and gratitude of the Block family.

Ira Hayes appeared in the 1949 John Wayne film, Sands of Iwo Jima, along with fellow flag raisers John Bradley and Rene Gagnon. All three men played themselves in the film. Wayne hands the flag to be raised to the three men. (The actual flag that was raised on Mount Suribachi is used in the film.)

After the war, Hayes accumulated a record of 52 arrests for public drunkenness. Referring to his alcoholism, he once said: "I was sick. I guess I was about to crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better men than me and they're not coming back. Much less back to the White House, like me."

Hayes' disquiet about his unwanted fame and his subsequent post-war problems were first recounted in detail by the author William Bradford Huie in The Outsider, published in 1959 as part of his collection Wolf Whistle and Other Stories. The Outsider was filmed in 1961, directed by former World War II veteran turned film director Delbert Mann and starring Tony Curtis.

The 2006 film Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood, suggests that Hayes suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Death

On the morning of January 24, 1955, Hayes was found dead, lying in his own blood and vomit, near an abandoned adobe hut in Sacaton, Arizona. He had been drinking and playing cards at a bar on the reservation with his friends and brothers Vernon and Kenneth. An altercation ensued between Hayes and a Pima named Henry Setoyant, and all left except Hayes and Setoyant.

The Pinal County coroner concluded that Hayes' death was caused by exposure and alcohol poisoning. However, his brother Kenneth still believes that the death resulted from the altercation with Setoyant. The Gila River Police Department did not conduct an investigation into Hayes' death and Setoyant denied any allegations of fighting with Hayes.

In the 1961 film of his life, The Outsider, his death is dramatized for the screen. He is shown freezing to death on an Arizona mountain top, after a night of drinking.

Hayes is buried in Section 34, Grave 479A at Arlington National Cemetery. At the funeral, fellow flag-raiser Rene Gagnon said of him: "Let's say he had a little dream in his heart that someday the Indian would be like the white man — be able to walk all over the United States."

Commemoration

Hayes' tragic story was immortalized in a song, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", by Peter LaFarge. Covers of this song were done by Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Smiley Bates, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Kinky Friedman, Tom Russell, Hazel Dickens, Patrick Sky, and Townes Van Zandt. In 1964, Cash took the song to number 3 on the Billboard country music chart.

On November 10, 1993, the United States Marine Corps held a ceremony at the Iwo Jima Memorial commemorating the anniversary of the Corps. Of Ira Hayes, USMC Commandant General Carl Mundy said:

Portrayal in film and literature

Ira Hayes appeared as himself in the 1949 John Wayne film, Sands of Iwo Jima.

In the 1960 telefilm The American, he was played by Marine veteran Lee Marvin.

Tony Curtis played Hayes in the 1961 film The Outsider.

Hayes was portrayed by Adam Beach in the 2006 movie Flags of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie was based on the 2000 bestselling book of the same name by James Bradley and Ron Powers.

The poet Ai dedicates her poem "I Can't Get Started" to Hayes.

Monuments and memorials

The rearmost figure in the USMC War Memorial.

Hayes Peak, the northernmost mountain in the Sierra Estrella.

A statue of Hayes in his hometown of Sacaton, Arizona.

See also

Native Americans and World War II

PTSD

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima

*

Survivor guilt

References

Further reading

Flags of Our Fathers, by James Bradley, Hardcover, Bantam, 2000, ISBN 0-553-11133-7

Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story written and illustrated by S. D. Nelson, (Lee & Low Books, 2006) ISBN 978-1-58430-263-6.

The Outsider and Other Stories, by William Bradford Huie, Panther Books, GB 1961, originally published in the USA 1959, by Signet as Wolf Whistle and Other Stories

External links

Gila River Indian Community official website

Peter LaFarge Biography

The Flag Raisers on Iwojima.com

Flags of Our Fathers - Movie

Category:1923 births Category:1955 deaths Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Arizona Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Battle of Iwo Jima Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Category:Native American military personnel Category:United States Marines

Name	Dream Evil
Background	group_or_band
Origin	Gothenburg, Sweden
Genre	Heavy metal, power metal
Years active	1999–present
Label	Century Media
Url	www.dreamevil.se
Current members	Nick NightDannee DemonRitchie RainbowPete PainPat Power
Past members	Snowy ShawGus GMark Black

Dream Evil is a power metal band from Sweden, assembled and integrated by renowned musical producer Fredrik Nordström in 1999.

Biography

Producer Fredrik Nordström had the ambition of creating a power metal band of his own for a long time, but had difficulty finding anyone with musical ideals similar to his own. However, while on holiday in the Greek islands during the year of 1999, Nordström met the young guitarist Gus G. (from Firewind). The musicians got along quite well, despite an age difference of over a decade. Plans for a band commenced - Gus had already been planning to relocate to Gothenburg, and upon his arrival he looked up Fredrik at Studio Fredman to begin writing.

The first person asked to join the new band was Snowy Shaw (from King Diamond, Mercyful Fate and Notre Dame), but the drummer initially refused their invitation. He would later change his mind and agreed to play on the band's debut album in a session capacity.

Vocalist Niklas Isfeldt had done backing vocals for some of HammerFall's songs produced by Nordström, and since he was not involved in any major projects at the time, he agreed to take the position. He also brought along his longtime friend and Pure-X bandmate Peter Stålfors, who assumed bass duties.

Up until the moment the first promotional photos were shot, the entire band had never been in the same place at the same time before. Some members did not even know each other.

The band soon got a deal with Century Media Records, and intended to name themselves Dragonslayer due to the medieval and fantastical themes of the songs written by Gus and Nordström. The label did not find the name original enough, and thus the band settled for the name Dream Evil, inspired by the Dio album of the same name.

Dream Evil's debut album was released in April 2002, and received positive feedback from the metal press. At one point the album, titled Dragonslayer, reached number one on the Japanese import charts. The band proceeded to play a series of festivals, and also supported Blind Guardian during a part of their world tour.

The band members found that they got along well as a unit, despite the somewhat random manner by which they had been brought together - Snowy Shaw decided to join the band permanently, and Dream Evil went on their first Japanese tour. During their stay in Japan, the band was invited by HammerFall to support their 2003 European tour. Their label manager hinted that it would be a good idea to have a new album out by then.

With little time on their hands, the band wrote the basis of several songs on the flight back to Europe, and on the day of their arrival entered the studio in order to record a new album. They took two weeks in total to record Evilized, and most songs were recorded as they had been written. It was released on the 20th of January, and one week later Dream Evil proceeded to tour Europe with HammerFall and the less known Masterplan.

For their third album, the band actually took time to write the songs and fine-tune them in the studio. The Book of Heavy Metal took two months to be recorded, and was released in May 2004.

Guitarist Gus G. left the band in late 2004 in order to dedicate more time to Firewind, being replaced by Mark Black (then known as Mark U Black). Black had previously filled in for Gus on a few other occasions and replaced him permanently on their tour as support act for Saxon.

Niklas Isfeldt and Peter Stålfors briefly left in 2005 to be replaced by Jake E. Berg (aka Jake Steel, of Dreamland) and Tommy Larsson, but returned before recordings or live shows were done. At the start of 2006, Snowy Shaw abruptly quit Dream Evil. After a period of silence for several months, Dream Evil announced Pat Power (Patrik Jerksten), a co-worker of Fredrik Nordström from Studio Fredman, as Snowy's replacement.

The first album featuring the new line-up, United, was released on October 13, 2006.

Dream Evil announced on December 7, 2007 on the website that Mark Black would be leaving the band and will be replaced by Daniel Varghamne aka Dannee Demon.

On March 3, 2008, the band announced that they had begun work on a new studio album, tentatively titled In the Night. The album is set to be released January 25, 2010 in Europe and January 26, 2010 in North America.

On July 23, 2008, the band announced that their first live DVD/CD set, Gold Medal in Metal (Alive & Archive), will be released on August 25, 2008.

Line-up

Niklas Isfeldt - Vocals (1999-2005, 2005-Present)

Daniel Varghamne - Lead Guitar (2007-Present)

Fredrik Nordström - Rhythm Guitar (1999-Present)

Peter Stålfors - Bass (1999-2005, 2005-Present)

Pat Power - Drums (2006-Present)

Former members

Gus G. - Lead Guitar (1999-2004)

Mark Black - Lead Guitar (2004-2007)

Snowy Shaw - Drums (1999-2006)

Jake E. Lundberg - Vocals (2005)

Tommy Larsson - Bass (2005)

Session musicians:

Magnus Olsfelt - Bass

Daniel Svensson - Drums

Klas Bas - Bass

Discography

Dragonslayer – (2002)

Evilized – (2003)

The Book of Heavy Metal – (2004)

United – (2006)

In the Night – (2010)

EPs

Children of the Night – (EP, 2003)

The First Chapter – (EP, 2004)

Live

Gold Medal in Metal (Alive & Archive) – (2008)

Notes

External links

Dream Evil Official Website

Category:Swedish power metal musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1999 Category:Century Media Records artists

Name	Barry Sadler
Placeofbirth	Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States
Placeofdeath	Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States
Caption	Sadler on the cover of the Ballad of the Green Berets LP.
Allegiance
Branch	US Air Force US Army
Serviceyears	1957 - 1966
Rank	Staff Sergeant
Unit	Special Forces
Battles	Vietnam War

Barry Sadler (November 1, 1940 – November 5, 1989) was an American author and musician. Sadler served as a Green Beret medic and Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Most of his works have military themes, and he billed himself under his military rank as SSG Barry Sadler.

Background

Sadler was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the second son of John Sadler and Bebe Littlefield of Phoenix, Arizona. Sadler's parents divorced shortly afterward, with his father dying of a rare form of nervous system cancer at age 36. Littlefield took Sadler's older brother, Robert, to various places in the Southwest, working temporary jobs in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Military service

Enlistment

Sadler dropped out of the Leadville, Colorado high school in the tenth grade. He hitchhiked across the country, and joined the U.S. Air Force after a year of wandering the country. Sadler was trained in radar and was stationed in Japan at age 17. After a few years in the Air Force, Sadler joined the Army, hoping for more excitement.

Wounded in action

While serving in the Vietnam War, he was severely wounded in the knee by a feces-covered punji stick while leading a patrol in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, southeast of Pleiku in May 1965. At the time, Sadler was on an antibiotic for dysentery, so no major ill effects from the punji stick were seen. He used only a cotton swab and an adhesive bandage while finishing the patrol. But later, Sadler developed a major infection of the leg, sending him home. During dangerous surgery, Sadler's doctors found themselves forced to enlarge the wound in order to drain it and administer penicillin. While he was recovering in the hospital, Sadler heard Robert F. Kennedy dedicating the new JFK Center for Special Warfare at Fort Bragg. At that moment, Sadler promised himself that if his leg successfully fought off the infection, which it eventually did, he would give away the rights to his song.

The Ballad Of The Green Berets

Sadler recorded his now-famous song, "The Ballad Of The Green Berets," a patriotic song in ballad style. The recording was encouraged by writer Robin Moore, author of the novel The Green Berets. The book became a 1968 movie, The Green Berets, starring John Wayne, with "The Ballad of the Green Berets" arranged in a choral version by Ken Darby as the title song of the film. Moore wrote an introduction to Sadler's autobiography, I'm a Lucky One, which he dictated to Tom Mahoney and which Macmillan published in 1967. "The Ballad of the Green Berets" was picked up by the RCA Victor Records label in early 1966 and became a fast-selling single, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for five consecutive weeks from March 5 to April 2, 1966. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The song was a big hit in many U.S. cities; it spent five weeks at No. 1 on the weekly Good Guys music survey at WMCA, the top pop music radio station in New York in 1966. He sang it for his television debut on The Jimmy Dean Show. Sadler recorded an album of similarly themed songs which he titled Ballads of the Green Berets. It sold a million copies in the first five weeks of its release.

Death

Sadler moved to Guatemala City in the mid 1980s and often hung out at a bar/restaurant called La Europa (also known as Freddie's Bar for the German proprietor). He continued to publish the Casca books (mostly using various ghostwriters), produced a self-defense video (which was never released) and even helped with vaccination programs in rural villages.

It was in Guatemala City that he was shot in the head one night in a taxi. He was airlifted to the U.S. by friends from Soldier Of Fortune Magazine, where he was hospitalized and remained in a coma for several months. He died little more than a year later in the Alvin C. York Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The circumstances involving his shooting remain a mystery. It has been variously claimed that he committed suicide, that he shot himself accidentally while showing off to a female companion, and that he was assassinated for allegedly training and arming the Contras. The most common story identifies the incident as a robbery. According to his companion at the time, he had been training Nicaraguan counter-revolutionaries and had received death threats.

Popular culture

In Mitchell Freedman's alternative history novel A Disturbance of Fate (ISBN 1931643229), Barry Sadler becomes president in 1984 after serving two terms as governor of Arizona. In Freedman's scenario, Sadler carries out the agenda pursued by Ronald Reagan of promoting pro-business policies and personnel into federal posts. His use of the military promotes a second Civil War in 1986 (which Freedman's characters refer to as "the Great Struggle") which leads to the defeat of the forces under President Sadler's control. Sadler himself is captured in the novel after a failed suicide attempt and dies in 1991 of a heart attack while in solitary confinement.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

BARRY SADLER FANSITE

Official site

Official Casca website

http://www.sizemoremusic.com/sadler_history.htm

Obituary

Findagrave

Category:1940 births Category:1989 deaths Category:American historical novelists Category:American male singers Category:American military personnel of the Vietnam War Category:American novelists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Burials in Tennessee Category:Members of the Special Forces of the United States Category:American anti-communists Category:People from New Mexico Category:Recipients of the Purple Heart medal Category:United States Army soldiers Category:United States Air Force airmen Category:Deaths by firearm in Guatemala