Johnny's Cash and Charley's Pride: Lasting Legends and Untold Adventures in Country Music by Peter Cooper

Johnny's Cash and Charley's Pride: Lasting Legends and Untold Adventures in Country Music Reviews

• 
  Still

  I should give this wonderful, richly anecdotal book 5 stars but I’m a pisser and intensely jealous of author Peter Cooper’s writing.
  
  My favorite anecdote in this highly recommended book on the giants of Country/Americana music as well as those lesser known is the following:
  
  
  Porter [Wagoner]’s love for Dolly [Parton] was deep and real, but that didn’t mean he approved of everything she did. In the 1970s, a Playboy magazine writer described Dolly disrobing and streaking in a gravel parking lot, just for the hell of it. An interviewer later asked Porter if he would consider such an action himself. He said that he wouldn’t. When the interviewer asked why not, Porter said, “The gravel hurts my dick too bad.”
  
  
• 
  Jess

  This book meanders a lot, in the best way possible. Cooper's anecdotes make country stars seem less legendary than achingly human, and he throws in observations about toxic fandom and fist-shaky complaints about the songs they play on the radio. I read a library copy, and I'll probably wait for another edition before I buy my own simply because of quite a few typos and homophone errors, but in terms of content, this goes beyond stories of the country music industry to an exploration of how the industry's players reflect the human condition.
• 
  Susan

  Cooper's written a story book for folks who love singer-songwriters. And for me, they are the only "country" singers worth writing about.
  
  Always kind, but never without wit, Cooper doesn't shy from the personal foibles of his subjects.
  
  I found his profile on Kristofferson fascinating. And in the end, a gut punch.
• 
  Pete McAleer

  Did not want this one to end. Peter Cooper is a great storyteller.
• 
  Ken Dowell

  As the title would suggest this is a book of stories about country music and the musicians who make it. There are stories about the biggest names in country from Hank Williams to Taylor Swift. Cooper also introduces some folks we’d otherwise never know, like the woman who mans the door at the Station Inn in Nashville’s Gulch.
  
  He tells the story about how an offer to Flatt and Scruggs to play the anthem for the TV show “The Beverly Hillbillies” was almost turned away by Scruggs’ wife Louise who didn’t like the use of the word “hillbilly.” We learn that baseball great Warren Spahn was an asshole. And did you know that kids’ book author Shel Silverstein wrote the Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue?”
  
  I read this book a short time after visiting Nashville. After going to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Johnny Cash Museum and the Grand Ole Opry. All those things changed what I thought about country music. And they made me appreciate this book much more than I otherwise would have.
  
  Cooper is a writer but also a musician of some note. He writes in a breezy and informal style. He knows Nashville, he knows country music, and he seems to know just about everybody. It’s a little like reading the newspaper: the stories come in all shapes and sizes and one doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the next one.
  
• 
  Kent

  What I like about this book:
  --the stories of music legends both familiar and unfamiliar (like Cash, Haggard, Tubb, Scrubbs, Hank Williams, Swift, Jimmie Rodgers, George Jones, Porter Wagoner)
  --these aren't full-on biographies
  --the anecdotal way the stories are told
  --the writing – lyrical, fun, clever, humorous
  --the author's scattered autobiographical notes – I generally hate it when authors insert themselves into their work; Mr. Cooper, however, is unobtrusive and does so in a way that brings more attention to his subjects than himself
  --the author's deep appreciation for his subjects – he doesn't gloss over flaws, but he doesn't hold those flaws against his subjects, either; he's not a glassy-eyed fanboy, but he is a grateful auditor of their talents
  
  The only two drawbacks:
  --some explicit material
  --the editor may have been distracted; when I started keeping track, I found 6 grammatical issues in the last 40 pages of the book; this was a minor distraction
• 
  Kim Hill Markland

  I absolutely loved reading this book. Cooper is a country music writer and in this book he tells stories about the people he has met, admired, and most of the time become friends with in the country music industry. It is a meandering but easy read. His admiration and love for singer-songwriters is clear. The stories he tells brings the stars down to real life. I learned several things that I did not know. For instance, Merle Haggard was a prisoner incarcerated in San Quentin and attended Johnny Cash's first performance there. Cooper is very respectful of the people he writes about but he does not shy away from the real story to save feelings. There were quite a few typos and mistakes in the version of the book I read, but it didn't distract from the reading experience too much. You do not have to be a country music fan to enjoy this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story.
• 
  Ryan Miller

  The anecdotes are fun, but the real pride here is in Cooper's prose. He writes about musicians as a balladeer composing epic tragedies or a minstrel entertaining the entire pub around a roaring fire. Grab a set of headphones, head to Spotify (or your favorite all-inclusive streaming music service), and immerse yourself to the songs and artists as Cooper describes their lives and their craft. You don't even need to like country music (the old kind, not the new radio versions), to appreciate this book.
• 
  Tim Armstrong

  An enjoyable book on country music with some really good stories. Each chapter focused on a different artist or person associated with country music, past and present. I found some of the chapters on the lesser known people quite interesting, while other chapters, such as those on Johnny Cash and George Jones amounted to little more than quick bios. They weren't bad, but I would have rather had a story relating to the artist or a lesser known artist in place of those bios.
• 
  Dale Cousins

  The corn pone title is a direct quote that goes "if I had Johnny's Cash and Charley's Pride, then I wouldn't have a Buck Owen on my car."
  
  Taaadaa..we'll be here all week! Seriously, an interesting look at Country's stars by music writer Peter Cooper. He spends a good deal of time on songwriters which appealed to me as did the forward by the great God of music writers, Peter Guralnick.
• 
  John

  Many of the stories in this book are well known to country music historians and fans, but that does not make them any less interesting. Like many country songs, there are plenty of tragic stories. Some of the most interesting stories are from the less famous country music figures such as bar owners, road managers, and folks who have spent their lives supporting the country music artists.
• 
  Travis Rountree

  Cooper writes, “If you do it correctly, writing about music doesn’t distract, it informs” (241). Indeed an informative book about not only country music history and industry, but a close personal look at the lives of those who created and continue to create it.
• 
  Robert

  You should probably read this one if you have any interest in music (country or otherwise) or writing about music. It manages to do everything I love in music writing and avoids pretty much everything I don’t.
• 
  MaryElmore

  Peter Cooper has a really unique and engaging style of writing and this book was fun to read!
• 
  Michael Elliott

  Cooper is a very conversational, direct writer. The anecdotes he shares are touching, funny, informative, and at times poignant.