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Rating: There is this man; he is advanced in age and the years gone by now force him to spend much of his day in a wheelchair; for him, who as a child savored the ultimate pleasure of wandering barefoot and feeling the earth, that chair is more tormenting than a cell.
This man, suddenly, meets another, it doesn't matter how or when; he is half his age, could be his son.
But the two couldn't be more different, so they are not bound by blood, if one were to believe the saying "Like father, like son".
According to another saying, however, opposites attract, and between the two the attraction is strong and mutual from the beginning.
What attracts them to each other, it's impossible to know; maybe it's that Johnny one day goes to visit Rick and finds him huddled on the couch, clinging to his dog, barefoot. Just as he liked to do, before time confined him to a wheelchair.
Johnny was once famous, the brightest star in the starry sky of country, after Hank; now no one wants to listen to his music or give him a chance. It's the grunge years, the future is at the doors of Kurt Cobain and his followers; there's no space, no time for the old Johnny.
Rick allows himself that space and time; he is the one who seeks out Johnny and encourages him to get back into circulation.
The times have changed, it's true, and it takes powerful strokes not to sink like a rock, but Johnny is a man and he faces the crossing with such vigor that it makes Mao pale. Johnny and Rick spend ten years side by side and together write the most beautiful note story of the end of the century.
The event is to be celebrated: Rick proposes to Johnny to share with the world many of those moments that, until then, only they and a few other guests had the fortune to share. It's hard work, because ten years are still ten years, but the work is meticulous and in the end, everything is ready for the event.
Unfortunately, the party doesn't go too well.
It happens that Johnny's wife, June, dies; and that of Johnny and June is one of those stories where you just can't go on without your lifelong companion, without your life; thus, the ending is written and Johnny fades away a few days after his beloved.
The party is no longer so, but the event takes place anyway.
Ten years of life condensed in a box set as black as pitch: on the front, a thin white band frames a few black and white photos of Johnny; on the back, a miniature, inverted US flag, centered.
In that box set, a book of scattered thoughts from Johnny and Rick and from those who lived, even if just passing by, those occasions. Few photographs, always in black and white, some tug at the heart.
In that box set, five compact discs. On those discs, Johnny's voice tells of life, love, and death, his and June's, which is then Rick's, which is then everyone's, in the end.
An absolute work of art, akin to the complete works of Fedor Dostoevsky.
Like every work of art, this too has a title: "Unearthed" which, literally, means "dissotterrato". Johnny's death ultimately changes its meaning forever.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Flesh and Blood (02:29)
Beside a Singin' Mountain Stream
Where the Willow grew
Where the Silver Leaf of Maple
Sparkled in the Mornin' Dew
I braided Twigs of Willows
Made a String of Buckeye Beads;
But Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.
I leaned against a Bark of Birch
And I breathed the Honey Dew
I saw a North-bound Flock of Geese
Against a Sky of Baby Blue
Beside the Lily Pads
I carved a Whistle from a Reed;
Mother Nature's quite a Lady
But you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.
A Cardinal sang just for me
And I thanked him for the Song
Then the Sun went slowly down the West
And I had to move along
These were some of the things
On which my Mind and Spirit feed;
But Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.
[SPOKEN]
So when this Day was ended
I was still not satisfied
For I knew ev'rything I touched
Would wither and would die
And Love is all that will remain
And grow from all these Seed;
[SUNG]
Mother Nature's quite a Lady
But you're the one I need
Flesh And Blood need Flesh And Blood
And you're the one I need.
06 Banks of the Ohio (04:07)
I asked my love to take a walk
Just a little ways with me
And as we walked and we would talk
All about our weddingday
(chorus)
And only say that you'll be mine
In no others arms entwined
Down beside where the waters flow
On the banks of the Ohio
I asked her if she'd marry me
And my wife forever be
She only turned her head away
And had no other words to say
(chorus)
I plunged a knife into her breast
And told her she was going to rest
She cried "Oh Willy, don't murder me
I'm not prepared for eternity."
I took her by her golden curls
I drug her down to the river-side
An I there threw her into drown
And I watched her as she floated down
(chorus)
And going home between twelve and one
I cried "Lord, what have I've done?"
I've killed the girl I love
Because she would not marry me
(chorus)
08 The Caretaker (01:55)
I live in the cemetery ol' caretaker they call me
In the wintertime I rake the leaves and in the summer I cut the weeds
When a funeral comes the people cry and pray
They bury their dead and they all go away
But through their grief I still can see their hate and greed and jealousy
So here I work and I somehow hide from a world that rushes by outside
And each night when I rest my head I'm contented as the peaceful death
But who's gonna cry when old John dies who's gonna cry when old John dies
Once I was a young man dashing with the girls
Now no one wants an old man I lost my handsome curls
But I wanna say when my time comes lay me facing the rising sun
Put me in the corner where where I buried my pup
Tell the preacher to pray then cover me up
Don't lay flowers where my head should be maybe God let some grow for me
And all the little children that I love like my own
Will they be sorry that old John's gone
Who's gonna cry when old John dies who's gonna cry when old John dies
16 Dark as a Dungeon (03:00)
Oh come all you young fellers so young and so fine
Seek not your fortune in a dark dreary mine
It'll form as a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal
Where it's dark as a dungeon damp as the dew
danger is double pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls the sun never shines
It's a dark as a dungeon way down in the mine
Well it's many a man that I've seen in my day
that'll live to labour his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard with his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine
And I pray when I'm dead and the ages shall roll
That my body would blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
and pity the miner digging my bones
Where it's dark as a dungeon...
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