I Dig The Man In Black...

I really don't know why I'm here. By all musical rights, I shouldn't be. My Dad was always a strange, straightlaced kind of guy with musical tastes that ran to folk styles and weird stuff that I don't think anybody else in the world buys. My Mom was more of a rocker, with albums that a kid wouldn't be ashamed to have seen by his young friends. I don't know what Mom and Dad ever saw in each other, but I'm glad they saw something, even it wasn't music.

Needless to say, it's Mom's side of the record cabinet that first introduced me to Johnny Cash. I doubt he was the first musician I ever heard in my life, but he was definitely one of the most frequent early influences on my bizarrely warped psyche.

I've been listening to Johnny Cash since I first knew what music was, and while I generally detest all music country OR western, Johnny Cash is one of the notable exceptions. But then, I've never been sure that he really was truly "country". He's certainly not "pure" country --- which is probably why I can respect the dude.

Sure, country music claims Cash as one of his own, and it is the Nashville side of the music industry where Cash draws his bread and butter. But Cash has always had too robust a sound to be merely "country". He skates well beyond the frontiers of rock and manages to touch its very soul, yet his roots are grounded more in Southern gospel and blues (In fact, Sam Phillips --- the infamous guru behind Sun Records --- initially blew off Cash when he auditioned with a gospel tune, and it wasn't until strike two that Cash piqued Phillips' interest with Hey Porter).

That's about as far I'm gonna go with the background info. I don't think a full-blown out bio on Johnny Cash is going to do y'all any good, and there's no question that other folks have done it better than I could. There's no red-blooded American who doesn't already know Johnny Cash, and if there was, they could mosey down to Blockbuster and rent the recent movie Walk the Line and get a better picture than I could draw.

Cash is an icon, and he kicked out the jams for a good four decades and change.

I've seen the new album, The Legend of Johnny Cash in music stores lately, but I didn't pick it up because it hit me as "yet another dumb *ss compilation", and there must be at least a dozen Johnny Cash compilations on the racks. One more seems superfluous.

But last weekend, I spied this Legend compilation --- the box set --- in a neighbor's garage sale for $5. I said "Snag It" faster than you could say "Bob's your uncle." So I've been reliving some of my childhood --- and a few of my adult memories --- reminiscing with the sounds of The Man In Black...


What You Get For Your Musical $$$...
Yep, the box set is pricey if you buy it in stores. I've seen it around for $40. That'll buy a lot of beer, which is why I wouldn't normally be listening to this album, but in its defense, you do get a good 4 hours jam-packed with classic Cash: over 100 songs. You also get a very cool booklet about Cash's life, chock full of B&W photos.

The music is organized by theme, and I can tell you right now that Disc 1 is the one that I'm gonna be playing out the wazoo for the next year or two: it's where all Johnny's biggest hits are. Everything here was a chart-topper. All hits, only hits, nothing but the hits, so help me God.

The disc kicks off with the powerhouse hit, I Walk the Line --- almost certainly the hit that you'd name as your "favorite forever" Johnny Cash song. Listening to the song, it shocks me to think that The Man in Black recorded this classic back in 1956. Criminey! I wasn't even a gleam in my old man's eyes (never mind the weird taste in music). I just love the deep baritone of Cash's vocals, and this is a song that really lets his powerful voice carry you away, as if the rolling feel of the underlying music wasn't already going to get you. As if.

It's also got a ton of other great tunes, and picking out favorites is like trying to pick out a favorite beer --- they're all so darn tasty!

I've always had a particular soft spot in my heart for Ring of Fire --- another of my "favorite forevers". I'd love the tune even if it were just for the music itself, but as I said, Johnny Cash songs bring back a ton of memories, and I just can't shake the memories of an evening in the early 1980s, hanging out at a buddy's house, watching this porno flick of a bunch of cowboys and cowgirls, hanging out around the campfire, engaging in the kinds of activities that consenting adults engage in, and all to the tune of The Man in Black, belting out Ring of Fire...."I fell into a burnin' ring of fire, I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher, and it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire. The ring of fire". Wow! They just don't do songs like that any more.

And Folsom Prison Blues. Tell me I'm not the only person around here who gets a chill up the spine every time you hear that mournful song. Ever since I was a kid, I'd hear a train whistle coming, and it would bring a song to my heart....Folsom Prison Blues. This is song writing genius to the first degree, and if the masterful lyrics don't get you, you just know darn well that those rolling guitar plucks at the end of the song are gonna nail you for all you're worth.

Disc 2's theme is "favorites", but I have to ask, "if they're so damn favorite, why weren't they number 1 hits?" Okay, so it's a question better not asked. There's still a heck of a lot of great listening on this disc, and quite a few tunes that are favorites of mine. Now it's no secret that I regard Bruce Springsteen as the single greatest rocker in the history of rock and roll, and I just gotta bow down to The Man in Black for dealing us a Boss song with Highway Patrolman. As a rule, I'm not a huge fan of the Nebraska era, and most of its tracks I regard as merely great and outstanding, but not as truly Boss. Highway Patrolman is one of 2 Nebraska cuts that I do think live up to the standards of true Boss, and I'm mighty gratified that The Man In Black sees the attraction here too.

From the historical retro-perspective, it's cool to listen to tracks like Hey Porter and to think about how that's the tune that started Cash on the Sun path. And though it's not what some people might expect of my usual style, I've always loved The Long Black Veil.

Discs 3 and 4 are both discs that I'll probably only spin up once in a blue moon, but there's still some very cool stuff there that I just know a lot of y'all are gonna love. Disc 3 gets closer to Cash's blues roots, and thematically, it's got a lot of the railroad hobo style kind of tunes that permeated Cash's career over so many years. Johnny puts a mean spin on the Leadbelly classic, Rock Island Line, and I love the crooning sounds of the old time favorites like Pick a Bale O' Cotton....oh Lordy, it's just enough to make me wanna jump down and turn around! Streets of Laredo, Wreck of the Old 97, and so forth. I think this would make a good disc to spin up on a mellow Sunday afternoon. If the Sunday afternoon were a bit brighter, I'd pick the lighter hearted sounding Disc 4.

Disc 4 is the "family and friends" themed disc, and it sounds to me like it's got more of the gospel roots tracks than other discs. Tunes like Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord) and You Can't Beat Jesus Christ. It's also got a couple of very cool tracks of stuff done by Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, and more. (See? EVERYBODY loves Johnny Cash!)


Bottom Line...
How can anybody not love Johnny Cash? It would be like hating Moms and apple pie. Cash is one of those very rare acts in the musical world. Not someone who can merely span multiple genres and who can appeal to multiple generations, but who can define the essence of those genres and the very soul of being an American.

Red, white, and blue never looked so black to me.

I give Johnny Cash's 4-disc box set an enthusiastic 2 thumbs up. You can buy other compilations, and there's even a much newer single-disc album sitting on the charts right now. But in my opinion, a single disc can never do justice to a man who made such a profound mark on the music world. Give the 4-disc set a spin, and I think you'll see what I mean.

Until next time, see you in the music store. I'll probably be back over in the Latin Music aisle by then...