Behind the Story: A Legend in My Time

I literally couldn’t fall asleep tonight, so I’m currently writing this at 4 AM on a Tuesday morning (God, I love Summer Vacation).

A Legend in My Time came about from the Johnny Cash cover of Don Gibson’s Legend in My Time, as mentioned in the author’s note and description. I was browsing a Half-Price Books with my family and found a goldmine. I saw that this particular Half-Price Books was selling practically every single American Recordings album (with the exception of III). When I heard that song on A Hundred Highways I knew something had to be written about it.

Thus, after a little bit of brainstorming, I decided to make a This is Spinal Tap-influenced story, one about how these artists were insanely popular 25-35 years ago, but now were just washed-up and jaded (the movie’s funny, but I absolutely love things like that; probably another reason why I like Moody Blues so much). I actually came up with the idea of using the newspaper clippings first, because I wanted his story told in a way that put you in Cash Money’s shoes back then during the height of his fame.

I decided there needed to be some interplay if I wanted to live up to Legend in My Own Time, and decided on having Cash Money talk about what fame meant. The idea of his reputation having harmed him beyond recovery actually was originally going to be both his reputation and the record labels not wanting someone who sang all of his regrets. However, I simplified it because I already have a story talking about shitty record labels, and I wanted Cash Money to appear more broken by himself instead of simply a victim.

Interestingly, that simplification made the story go further away from the song, but still, I felt it was needed.

By far my longest one-shot story, I did a ton of worldbuilding for A Legend in My Time. There’s tons of references to old 60’s music and artists, including Cash Money’s career itself.

Cash Money’s career is a mishmash of The Beatles’ and Dion’s, and follows the career arc of Johnny Cash (popular, insanely popular, career breakdown, underground comeback), as well as Cash Money’s main character traits being based on Johnny Cash.

As for the references, The Beatles started off playing at a bar (two, actually, they did 5-hour shows in Hamburg as well as lunch shows for The Cavern), before getting a manager, and then getting signed on a wildcard choice for Pearlaphone. They were forced to release 2 albums a year and ended up breaking up because the main songwriters were trying to exercise their control over the band (along with a lot of other reasons, but that’s the main one).

Dion was a raging success with The Belmonts, but he broke up with them and soon became a sensation all on his own. He became so famous that he reached Elvis levels— nobody needs to call him with his last name (DiMucci, by the way) for you to know exactly who it is. Unlike Cash Money though, he didn’t actually lose fame because he jumped on the bandwagon, he just naturally fizzled out. However, he was winning Grammys for his albums up to 2006, and still records music to this day (the madman’s literally been recording music, with The Belmonts or otherwise, for 8 decades).

Johnny Cash was the most obvious influence on Cash Money. Johnny Cash was a terrible alcoholic and drug addict, which likely had a contributing factor to his death in 2003. He was incredibly famous in the 50’s and 60’s, but his music slowly got incredibly weird and people just simply backed away slowly. His American Recordings series of albums did, however, actually give him a sustainable comeback, to the point where you can still hear his cover of Hurt on Alternative stations because it charted higher on the 2002 Alternative charts than it did on the Country charts.

And one of Johnny Cash’s earliest albums is indeed called Johnny Cash Sings the Songs That Made Him Famous, as listed on Spotify.

I took those three bands and artists and mixed them into an entirely new career that I wrote an entire story around.

Other music references were abound. The Beetles are obviously The Beatles, and Diagonal Line was quite literally Dion (Dian, in-story) in my original thoughts of the thing, though he has some Frank Zappa-like opinions.

Cash Money and the Cashiers were named in the standard way 60’s bands were, which is [lead singer] and the [plural noun]. Examples of this include Johnny Moondog and the Silver Beetles (early Beatles name), Dion and the Belmonts, and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

There are other musical references, but I won’t explain them because I feel like this is already becoming a music education post, and I’m not on Author’s Academy right now.

There isn’t really much to say besides that though, most of the story was based around those musical figures and trends. The ending was mainly there to emphasize Cash Money’s regret and is actually meant to be a cautionary tale. That’s kind of silly, I know, but I still feel like it lives up to the precedent set up by A Legend in My Time, as covered by Johnny Cash.

And until next time: be awesome!
-Dashie

By the way, here’s a timeline of the events that happen in the story (as well as a few extras) if written out in human time form:

1961: Cash Money and the Cashiers start playing at The Princesses’ Cove
1962: The Cashiers release Songs for the Sun
1963: The Cashiers release Cash Money and the Cashiers Sing the Songs That Made Them Famous
1964: The Cashiers release Pay Out!.
1965: The Cashiers release All Around Equestria
1966: The Cashiers release Forever and Ever, followed by a highly publicized breakup
1967: Cash Money announces solo career.
1968: Cash Money releases An Unending Road, a Psychedelic Rock concept album
1969: Cash Money releases Change Will Come, another Psychedelic Rock album
1971: Cash Money releases The Classics, a Rock and Roll Revival effort
1973: Cash Money releases Built to Last, a 70’s Rock album
1976: Cash Money releases The City of Loneliness a hackneyed attempt at Progressive Rock
1980: Cash Money releases Bold and Brave another 70’s Rock album
1995: Cash Money releases Equestrian Recordings: A Collection of Folk Songs and Other Oddities
1997: Cash Money releases Equestrian Recordings II: Moving On
1999: Cash Money releases Equestrian Recordings III: The Tear-Stained Path
2001: Cash Money releases Equestrian Recordings IV: Once Upon a Time
2003: Cash Money releases Equestrian Recordings V: A Final Farewell
2004: Cash Money announces plans for retirement
2005: Cash Money releases his final album, Cash Money
2015: This story takes place