Monday, December 18, 2006

Is there a sticker for older listeners?
My grandma is 88 and is more or less in good health for her age. She really likes Johnny Cash. So in finishing up my shopping today I got her his last album, American V: A Hundred Highways. As this was a used copy, I gave it a listen myself. I'm glad I did because three songs in, I'm considering getting her something else. The first track is a Kris Kristofferson cover whose first lines are:

Lord, help me walk
Another mile, just one more mile
I'm tired of walkin' alone


Then later on there's "Down on the 309," the last song Cash ever wrote. It's about taking the pre-emptive measure of getting placed on that last train...

Take me to the depot, put me to bed
Blow an electric fan on my gnarly ol' head
Everybody take a look, see, I'm doin' fine
Then load my box on the 309


Man. Grandma's tough as hell; she still lives at home and works at her town library. Still, I don't know if she needs an album's worth of reminders of mortality from the Man in Black. I mean, I'm pretty healthy and I was getting a little depressed. I'll probably stick with this present, but she can't have so much as a cold when listening to it.

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