A musician with a mind of his own

The relationship between American politics and popular music began long before Taylor Swift urged her fans to vote for Democrats or Ted Nugent visited President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. The second episode of Netflix’s new series on the history of music tells how country superstar Johnny Cash helped President Richard Nixon harness the power of white Southern voters in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

ReMastered: Tricky Dick and the Man in Black chronicles the personal and political ties that brought Cash and Nixon together. In April 1970, at the height of the Vietnam War, Cash gave a concert at the White House for the president and high-ranking Republicans. Liberals accused Cash of selling out to power, while conservatives praised him for his patriotism.

The GOP in the 1960s wanted to galvanize the white vote in the South, partially with economic policies that would benefit the working class, but also with a lexicon of code words and symbols that connoted white power. (Republican strategist Lee Atwater infamously confirmed that racism was part of the strategy in a 1981 interview.)

Nixon, born and raised in California, played piano and violin and loved classical music and show tunes. But he also recognized the importance of country music in Southern culture.

In a White House recording used in the documentary, Nixon said, “Country music is the Johnny Cash crowd.”

“It gets you elected,” an aide says. Nixon responds, “Yeah. You know, it’s Southern.”

Nixon also identified with Cash’s impoverished upbringing and self-made success. The president invited Cash to play at the White House and requested two songs specifically that would have stroked conservative pride: Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” and Guy Drake’s “Welfare Cadillac.”

Cash demurred and instead played a new song called “What Is Truth” that lamented the pain of war and sympathized with youth protesters. Journalists and modern historians for years made it seem like Cash pulled off a liberal ambush at the White House concert by playing the song. But the documentary shows that a very patriotic Cash agonized over the Vietnam issue. He saw the suffering the war caused firsthand when he and his wife, June Carter Cash, played for troops at an Air Force base near Saigon in 1969. But he was also raised never to criticize the government—he even stood up for Nixon’s plan in Vietnam on an episode of The Johnny Cash Show that came out some time before the White House concert.

ReMastered shows a smart, gifted musician carefully and deliberately studying culture and politics. Cash spoke his mind, but he also wasn’t afraid to change his opinions. It is hard to imagine a contemporary musician stepping out from behind the polish of their brand and encouraging people to think for themselves the way Cash did. Today’s music stars are one-dimensional, and their fans risk becoming the same.

ReMastered is available on Netflix and is rated TV-MA for violent images of the war and some bad language. Tricky Dick and the Man in Black is the second episode of an eight-part series investigating famous cultural moments in music. The first episode was released in October and looks into the shooting of reggae musician Bob Marley in 1976.

No match for Mayweather

The news sounded like the plot to a great movie in the making: A tried-and-true American boxer heads overseas to take on a Japanese up-and-comer in a mixed martial arts (MMA) match, proving he truly is the greatest fighter in the world. Turns out, the proposal for a fight between American Floyd Mayweather and Japanese kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa was too good to be true.

In a statement Wednesday on Instagram, Mayweather apologized to fans, saying he only went to Tokyo to promote a three-round exhibition match with a fighter from Japan’s Rizin Fighting Federation. Mayweather, 41, said Wednesday that the 20-year-old Nasukawa and his representatives blindsided him at a news conference Monday by announcing a fight he never agreed to. “Once I arrived to the press conference, my team and I were completely derailed by the new direction this event was going and we should have put a stop to it immediately,” he said.

Mayweather is 50-0 in his professional boxing career but has never fought professionally under MMA rules, which allow more kicking and wrestling-style moves and have fewer, but longer, rounds. He beat famous MMA fighter Conor McGregor in a boxing match last year. —L.L.

Mickey’s revenge

Disney still plans to pull all of its movies from Netflix in 2019 and start its own streaming service. The company announced this week it will call the platform Disney+, and it will feature loads of original programming that draws from the Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars franchises. Disney purchased Fox for $71.3 billion this year and plans to put films from the 21st Century Fox library on its streaming platform, too. —L.L.

Remote voting

In an election year that saw record voter turnout, viewer turnout was high, too, for TV coverage of the midterm results. Nielsen said 36.1 million people tuned in Tuesday night to watch live election coverage. Fox News had the most viewers with 7.78 million. NBC followed with 5.69 million, and ABC came in third with 5.26 million. CNN and MSNBC came in fourth and fifth place, respectively. —L.L.

Lasting melody

Francis Lai, composer of the theme song to the 1970 movie Love Story, died this week at age 85. The score was one of the most memorable from movies of its time, and several singers of the day, including Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, and Shirley Bassey, recorded a popular version with lyrics. —L.L.