Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire

Legend has it that papa Carter, June Carter’s father, would go for hunting trips in Ontario, and when he did, his go to guide was grandpa Kelly (as in my grandfather), and sometimes he would bring Johnny Cash with him. Is this true? I do not know, but I sure like to believe that it is.

Speaking of Ontario, it was in Toronto when Johnny Cash proposed to June Carter successfully. If the biopic movie “Walk the Line” is to be believed, Johnny asked June to marry him many times before that fateful night in Toronto. This moment was capped off wonderfully with the performance of “Ring of Fire” one of Johnny’s most famous songs and written by June. It is a song about falling in fall, and how that can consume you. All who know the details of “Ring of Fire’s” history have wondered how revealing this song is of June’s feelings, and perhaps her forward thoughts regarding her relationship with Johnny.

Like most people who have souls of rock and roll, I do not listen to a lot of country music. Naturally, like most rock and roll enthusiasts, I do however listen to a lot of Johnny Cash. Sometimes I think about the passion rock and roll individuals like myself for Johnny Cash, and I ponder if this is a unique phenomenon in the history of music; but when I do think as such, I always rediscover a logically explanation. Even though rock and roll already existed in Cash’s day, the rebel spirit that would later come to dominate rock and roll was first and best personified in Cash’s hard attitude and acceptance of the outlaw code. In many ways, country music legend Johnny Cash was the first true rock and roll hero.

Since I could not help but mention the fateful night in Toronto where Johnny and June finally accepted each other forever, I think it only sensible to talk a little more about “Ring of Fire.”

“Ring of Fire” is probably the most obvious song to write a blog post about. I am not unique among members of my generation for having this song as my introduction to Johnny Cash. This is one of his more famous songs. When I first heard “Ring of Fire” my young mind interpreted the song literal, about actually falling into an inferno, which I thought was awesome. Naturally as I grew older, I suspected there was a deeper meaning, and in fact a rather obvious meaning and it was not hard to piece together this song was about falling in love.

However, “Ring of Fire” depicts a danger to falling in love. Love can do terrible things to people. As stated earlier, June Carter wrote this song for Johnny to perform, and it is only natural that I, and presumably many others, would look at this song as a indirect lover letter to Johnny from June, and with Johnny singing it, the reply in kind is complete. Now assuming I know and understand the history between Johnny and June correctly, they were in love for a long time, but there was some persistent separation between them. Them being together was a complicated challenge of some sort, and they flirted with the idea and with each other, but June withheld and they coexisted and worked together under this looming desire for a long time before June finally caved with one of the most iconic happily ever afters followed.

But she must have known. If not in the forefront of her thoughts, June Carter must have known in her subconscious, or in her heart, that this burning desire could not be ignored forever. I believe June knew what she was writing and I think in her own way this was her subtle way of telling Johnny, but also, telling herself, that they both would fall into that burning ring of fire and they would emerge, at last, together. I like to think this song was written as a permission note to Johnny Cash to ask June Carter repeatedly to marry him, to help build up her courage to one day finally say yes.

There is one potential major flaw in my theory, June Carter may not have written “Ring of Fire” with her future husband in mind. June’s sister Anita Carter performs the original version of this song. So, it is possible that all that deep thinking I have given to “Ring of Fire” being a musical love note between June and Johnny is projection from the assistance of hindsight. But hey, it is also possible that I am onto something here.

The takeaway, I think, is that “Ring of Fire” is effectively a perfect song. It is universally relatable, it has that country music twang, but also that rock and roll vibe, and it might also possible divine insight into the relationship between two music icons who lived complicated, fascinating, and uplifting lives both apart and together.

- King of Braves