Hello... how about Johnny Cash?

[fange]

With some "new" material coming out soon, seems as good a time as any to talk about Cash, his music, his TV shows, whatever.

What do you think of the Man in Black?

This is the info from the new video -
"The album ‘Songwriter’ features 11 previously unreleased recordings from 1993 and all songs are written solely by Johnny Cash, one of America’s greatest songwriters.



Co-produced by John Carter Cash and David Ferguson, the album features new musical arrangements with Marty Stuart, Dave Roe, Pete Abbott, and others, plus special guests Dan Auerbach and Vince Gill."



It's not bad, for me. It's got that tongue-in-cheek, wry humour that Cash could do so well, and who doesn't like a gentle double-entendre once in a while?

 How much 'studio magic' has been sprinkled on it 30 years after the fact? I don't know. But that voice always sounds great to me; always, even when he was singing indifferent material.

["BING E BONG"]

Yeah, you're dead right - even with so-so material, there's always THAT VOICE. It's as cool as it gets.

I like the song. I have to confess I rarely find much to enthuse about his music (although I really enjoy Live At San Quentin, which beats many celebrated rock live LPs as far as I'm concerned) - he always goes at the same medium pace, it seems, and musically there isn't a great deal of variety. But there's a purity and an honesty in it all that makes it (and him) stand tall.

[Charlie O.]

Apr 24, 2024 5:47:29 GMT fange said:

How much 'studio magic' has been sprinkled on it 30 years after the fact?

Quite a lot, I'm guessing. Were these just voice and guitar demos that they've dressed up, or what?

I liked that song okay, and I'll be curious to hear the album, even if it is sullied with Dan Auerbach.

[osgood]

I like that track and definitely will give this release a try.

As per Mr. Cash output, I've got a collection from his Sun years (that I seldom play), the Folsom Prison and San Quentin records, the lovely Storytellers record he did with Willie Nelson and the Rick Rubin things. I think I am well served with that, but I might be wrong since I have almost nothing from his most successful years. But never felt the need to go for that.

[fange]

For my money, a good compilation to cover his great 60s & 70s Columbia studio tracks is an absolute must, Os.

[fange]

The emotion, the pure conviction in his voice, gets me every time with this one. When Cash spits out, "They let him raise the flag and lower it, like you'd throw a dog a bone", that's righteous anger that sees no colours or divides except right and wrong.

[adamcoan]

I love him.

[fange]

Apr 24, 2024 15:27:04 GMT adamcoan said:

I love him.

Favourite song or period, Jimmy?

[davey]

Apr 24, 2024 12:30:50 GMT fange said:

The emotion, the pure conviction in his voice, gets me every time with this one. When Cash spits out, "They let him raise the flag and lower it, like you'd throw a dog a bone", that's righteous anger that sees no colours or divides except right and wrong.

In general, at his best there’s a kind of moral authority about his singing. It’s not sanctimonious. It’s not inhumanly “good.” It’s the voice of a flawed man who carries enough scars to know better.

This is a great example IMHO:

[fearlessfreap]

I don’t like the goth shit he did with Rubin, but I do like his 50’s- early 70’s music.
I saw him play in New York around 40 years ago. It was a fun show and Gary Rossington and Allen Collins from Skynyrd were in the stage wings.

[adamcoan]

Apr 24, 2024 23:52:07 GMT fange said:

Apr 24, 2024 15:27:04 GMT adamcoan said:

I love him.

Favourite song or period, Jimmy?

Walked into a charity shop and found a massive box set of his albums ( c.d. set ) parents used to play him , when I was a wee laddie. Every one of those records had a gem or two. The later stuff was mostly hit, occasional miss. He had 'it' whatever 'it' is. Loved the bloke, angel & devil that he was.

[Sneelock]

I don't deny him his third act. I worked around filthy rich people enough to know that EVERYBODY needs more money.
some of it was good but frankly I didn't need goddam hipsters saying Johnny Cash was cool for Johnny Cash to be cool.

I always liked him. I started to LOVE him when I saw him play that "man in black" song on his TEE-VEE show.
I think most of what he did on Mercury makes the Rubin stuff sound better. otherwise - he had a good long run of pretty top notch stuff. the "social conscience" stuff, the jokey stuff, the "me and my legend buddies" stuff - he stood out even in THAT crowd.

my wife and I moved into the house we rent now the weekend Johnny Cash died. we heard good Johnny Cash songs for days.

a week or so back somebody was watching a YouTube of him impersonating Elvis on a TV dance show in the 50's! what a good long run. I liked how he played an unflattering version of himself on a Colombo episode. he was singing for a Ministry but he was banging teenagers. he dressed and talked like Johnny Cash and played the same songs. pretty ballsy. maybe he faked a helicopter crash we don't know about? NAH. still, I think he was a pretty cool guy under all the circumstances.

[DarknessFish]

I don't agree with the criticism of his final act. I'm not a Johnny Cash fan at all, but I think it's rare to see a major star/icon actually perform works of meaning late in life. Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, and Shirley Collins all make the grade, but there aren't many others. Better to do what he did, rather than just try and re-flog the same old schtick in denial of the aging process.

[Charlie O.]

Apr 30, 2024 7:10:06 GMT DarknessFish said:

I don't agree with the criticism of his final act.

Me neither. Though there was a whiff of novelty around it at the time, not to mention hype... the actual recordings were mostly pretty damned good.

[Sneelock]

it was pretty universally praised. I thought he seemed diminished

it wouldn't be until Bowie's "lazurus" that another major figure would so obviously deteriorate before our eyes.

I'm not saying it's better to burn out than fade away but it was weird.

same with Cohen. he was praised enough by others. it's weird watching entertainers wither up and die. better than seeing them become parodies of themselves? agreed. still, it felt weird.