How's the 4th of July going for you? Hopefully the ice cold drinks are flowing, the hot dogs and burgers are grilling, and the fireworks are getting set to be sent into the air, wherever you might find yourself. It doesn't matter where you are, as long as you are standing on the soil that belongs to the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. And speaking of the greatest, it wouldn't be
American to let July 4th go by without talking about the legendary
Johnny Cash and his
honest, patriotic song "Ragged Old Flag." The social media account belonging to the Johnny Cash estate sent out this reminder for fans to listen to the 1974 tune, which was released around the time Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal was unraveling. https://twitter.com/JohnnyCash/status/1808818166648246536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1808818166648246536%7Ctwgr%5E8b39a779b6819c405b07c33c85934c28b7d51e24%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D600528action%3Dedit The album and its title track addressed plenty of political and social issues, but Cash wanted to share the message that despite everything that can go wrong, the "Old Ragged Flag" still finds a way to make it through it all without tearing, and deserves to be respected. And as he says in the final verse, Cash was mighty proud to say that:
“So we raise her up every morning And we bring her down slow every night, We don’t let her touch the ground, And we fold her up right. On second thought I *do* like to brag Cause I’m mighty proud of That Ragged Old Flag” The song has had its fair share of controversy throughout the years (including a
Super Bowl commercial set to the song), but at the end of the day, Cash laid down a song that spoke about the honor that Americans should feel when they see the red, white and blue flapping in the wind. This live performance of the song is one of the best you'll find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KqrjeScLSI That performance by the Man in Black himself is hard to beat.
Eric Church wanted to craft a performance around the song in 2o20 at the ACM Awards, and he was by no means trying to top it. Rather, Church wanted to honor Cash with a performance that included his song, but it
almost didn't happen . For a period of time, Church couldn't get the proper permission to use the patriotic Cash song. So Eric wrote a letter to John and Rosanne Cash explaining his idea for the performance. Though the exact specifications of the letter haven't ever been revealed, it's credited as the reason that Church was ultimately able to use “Ragged Old Flag” for the touching tribute. Not only did Church and his team have to get permission to use the recitation by Cash, they also had to get some help from an executive at BMG, which controlled the publishing rights to “Ragged Old Flag.” And in addition to that, Johnny Cash’s estate had to be contacted for approval on the images of Cash that were used during the intro video. All in all, there were a lot of complicated hoops to jump through for Church to bring to life the vision he had for the performance. It might have been a struggle, but I'm sure he was happy with how this "Ragged Old Flag" and "Stick That In Your Country Song" performance turned out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hTKplRgkAQ
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