When 'I love you' slips my mind at least every other day will you still love me? - from "When I'm Gray," previously unreleased.
(This is the second of four Johnny Cash reviews leading up to the release of this "Johnny Cash: The Legend" 4-CD box set on August 2.) Review of DISC 1 - The Legend: Win, Place And Show - The Hits, here.
DISC 2 - The Legend: Old Favorites and New (27 tracks, 72 minutes)
By Temple A. Stark, Casa Grande, Ariz.
The R in John R. Cash stands for nothing.
The initial impression of disc 2 is that its title "Old Favorites and New" also stands for nothing.
This is the weakest of the four discs though that doesn't mean it's weak; just that it has a few soft spots.
I can't quite place why these songs, together, aren't immediately striking. The only thing I can think of is a layer of over-production on some of the compositions here. It seems slower. Maybe it's the brushing snare drum absent from so many of disc 1's "... Hits."
The slow-down can't be the case of advanced age because again the first handful of songs here are from The Sun days. But by the time the listener gets to "Give My Love To Rose" and "I Was There When It Happened" it gets too "slow and sweet."
"Hey Porter" is one of those when-I-roam-from-home classics - Cash's first hit that got him noticed by the general public - and leads off the "Old Favorites ... " followed by its B-side "Cry, Cry, Cry." Next up is, "Luther Played The Boogie", a while-alive homage to the Cash trio's guitar player Luther Perkins. "Boogie ... was released July 30, 1955, and the song is a simultaneous nod towards being seasoned touring vets. Before they were, that is.
"I taught a weeping willow how to cry, cry, cry. And I showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky."
In a history of lovelorn cliches, this couplet from "Big River" has rattled around my head for a long time. It visits me when I see sudden storms moving in. The wide open spaces imagery speaks to the isolation of lost love and puts the Mississippi delta in mind. The song sets the album back on its legs.
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Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Shit I think I just described why I like music and books so much better than films.
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
wonderful, Temple, wonderful. i so need to get this set. And a slight word of defence with regards "Walk The Line" - the trailer looks great, an also, it was intended to be released in Johnny's lifetime. a lot of the script is from talks the director had with the man himself regarding the project. but i agree, i'd much rather have a wonderful cinema re-release of the brilliant docuementary, the name of which i always mess up. The Man, His World, His Life, His Music, i think. that is a wonderful film right there. Johnny singin songs he's just written to June, those prison shows, my god. what more do we need?
3 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
an man, that Mariah spam amused me no end. "broken worldwide records everywhere", indeed!
4 - Bryan McKay
I would like to break her records everywhere worldwide. That would solve lots of things.