Johnny Cash Hospitalized

Johnny Cash was admitted into Nashville's Baptist Hospital on October 7th and treated for bronchitis. He is currently listed in stable condition.

The sixty-nine-year-old country/rockabilly legend has been hospitalized several times in the past year for pneumonia, most recently on February 11th, when he checked into Baptist Hospital after returning from Jamaica. Four years ago, Cash was misdiagnosed as having Shy Drager Syndrome, a form of Parkinson's Disease. Late last year, doctors changed his diagnosis to autonomic neuropathy, a condition that affects the nervous system.

"They're keeping him there as a precaution," Cash's manager Lou Robin says. "This is just a measure so that his bronchitis doesn't grow into something more complicated."

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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