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[miko2]

Today's Song: Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash

The Longview fireworks display last night was a good one. They spent about $30,000 on it according to the paper. It lasted 20 minutes. They shoot them off from an island on the lake downtown, where they have an all-day festival with the usual greasy food booths, junky trinket sellers (one was selling $90.00 fiddles though, I guess that's a step up from pewter jewelry and hemp carry bags). It rained on us after we got there for about half an hour, but then it stopped. My sister and I walked through the merchandise booths and I bought a couple of hats, one for myself and one that she liked but wasn't willing to pay $5.00 for -- I got it in case it rained again. Of course, after that it cleared up nicely.

Every year after the fireworks are over they apparently play AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long". My sisters and my parents are irritated about this, they say it's a "bad song" and shouldn't be played at a family event, and I have to agree that a song about the amazing sex you had last night with your one-night stand is not very appropriate for such an event.

Anyway... my dad's a big Johnny Cash fan so I figured this song would work better for the 4th of July:

Johnny Cash -- Ring of Fire

It really did feel at times like we were about to be engulfed in a ring of fire -- the fireworks explode right overhead.

I suppose most people know the story of this song, but Johnny Cash and June Carter fell in love while they were both married to other people, and at a time when Cash was dealing with alcohol and drug abuse. June wrote this song about it with the help of Merle Kilgore, and her sister Anita recorded it, but it didn't become a hit until Johnny recorded it with the Mexican-style mariachi trumpets added. He actually claimed to hear the song played that way in a dream, and told Anita, "I'll give you about five or six more months, and if you don't hit with it, I'm gonna record it the way I feel it." And that's exactly what happened.

It's considered to be one of the greatest country songs ever -- and greatest songs period. It's been covered hundreds of times, by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Jones, Hank Williams Jr, Ray Charles, Earl Scruggs with Linda Rhonstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Blondie, Tommy Cash, Carlene Carter, June Carter Cash (of course), Dwight Yoakam, Wall of Voodoo, The Bobs, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, The Levellers, Grace Jones, Slim Whitman, and the Leningrad Cowboys, just to name a few of them. The most commercially successful cover of this song was by the punk band Social Distortion, and also happens to be a favorite cover version of mine:

Social Distortion -- Ring of Fire