Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Everywhere Johnny Goes

Johnny Cash was known as a performer of Country music, which is also sometimes called Country & Western. The latter is appropriate in the context of his song "I've Been Everywhere" which has been represented on the map below, shared on the popular Facebook page Terrible Maps.

Most of the locations are in the United States and even those that are elsewhere are in the Western Hemisphere. This is not what is usually meant by Country & Western, of course, but it works for the purposes of this post. And given that this is for a course on world music, we might call this an example of half-world music.

It is often good to avoid the comments in social-media posts, but I recommend the comments on this one. Some are unduly sarcastic or pedantic, but many do offer some geographic insights and opinions. They also mention other musicians with a claim to the song -- Johnny Cash was not the first nor the last person to record it.

Herewith, the song itself, with helpful subtitles.

I have not examined the map or lyrics in detail, but I estimate that I have been to about half of the "everywheres" mentioned.


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