Product Description
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The Legend of Johnny Cash spans his entire career for the first
time on a single disc. Featuring 21 of his s on the Sun,
Columbia, Island, and American s labels, it's the first
compilation to include his work on American. Also highlighting
the package is a 16-page deluxe booklet with photos and essay by
author Rich Kienzle.
His Sun Records tracks begin with his first single, "Hey,
Porter"/"Cry! Cry! Cry!," a Country Top 20 penned by Cash and
produced by Sam Phillips. Straddling country and rock 'n' roll,
they scored in 1956 with the Top 10 Country "Folsom Prison
Blues," #1 Country/Top 20 Pop "I Walk The Line" and #1 Country
"Get Rhythm." Also heard from his Sun days are 1958's "Big River"
(#4 Country/Top 20 Pop) and "Guess Things Happen That Way" (#1
Country/Top 20 Pop).
Cash signed with Columbia in 1958 and five years later had a #1
Country/Top 20 Pop hit with "Ring of Fire," a ballad co-written
by June Carter, who in 1967 would duet with him on the #2 Country
"Jackson" and later become his wife. In 1969, the live Johnny
Cash at San Quentin yielded his biggest hit: Shel Silverstein's
novelty "A Boy Named Sue" (#1 Country/#2 Pop).
Kris Kristofferson composed Cash's 1970 #1 Country hit "Sunday
Morning Coming Down" while Cash himself composed his personal
philosophy on 1971's #3 Country "Man in Black," his nickname for
the rest of his days. Also from his Columbia tenure are 1976's
"One Piece at a Time" (#1 Country/Top 30 Pop) and 1985's
"Highwayman" with Waylon Jennings and Kristofferson.
Cash joined Mercury in 1986 and The Legend of Johnny Cash
includes a track from that period titled "The Wanderer," a duet
with U2 written by Bono and U2, taken from the group's 1993
release Zooropa. That same year Rick Rubin, known for producing
rap and rock acts, offered to record Cash singing whatever he
chose. 1994's American s, including college radio
favorite "Delia's Gone," brought Cash to a new generation and won
the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy. On 1996's Unchained,
Cash brilliantly interpreted Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" as well
as the Hank Snow classic "I've Been Everywhere" and copped the
Grammy for Best Country Album. On 2003's American IV: The Man
Comes Around, he revisited old favorite "Give My Love to Rose"
and gave new meaning to Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" (the video for
"Hurt" was 6 times nominated at MTV's 2003 VMAs and also won a
Grammy for "Best Short Form Music Video" that same year). From
2003's posthumous box set Unearthed, The Legend of Johnny Cash
adds an early take on "The Man Comes Around."
.com
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This introduction to the Man in Black's catalog is about as fine
a one as can be found on one disc, primarily because the 21
classic tracks span J.R. Cash's entire career, from his first
rockabilly single, "Hey, Porter"/"Cry! Cry! Cry!" (Sun Records,
1955), to his last significant alt-country tracks (American
s, 2003). Though Cash had his peaks and valleys in the
studio, what shines brightly on this collection is how
constant--how unwavering--his creativity remained, whether he was
writing and performing original material or interpreting the work
of others. His voice, too, remained a majestic thing of wonder,
even as Cash often sang off-beat; settled his bass-baritone
somewhere around, if not on the note; and cared more about power
and emotion than strict rules of measure--something that became
especially important as illness changed his great oaken voice
into a frail instrument. In this way, he was able to infuse
novelty songs ("One Piece at a Time," "A Boy Named Sue") with
undeniable cool and maintain the poetry of Kris Kristofferson's
"Sunday Morning Coming Down" even in the awful advent of a
gloppy, too-peppy string section. Other chestnuts here take on
new dimension in retrospect. "Jackson," a duet with wife June
Carter Cash, seemed almost comedic ("hotter than a pepper
sprout") when it was released, but now reveals the couple's own
white-hot sexuality, primarily in June's elegant, if
straightahead vocal. The surprise of The Legend of Johnny Cash is
how seamlessly the newer material blends with the seminal, and
how full-circle it sometimes comes: Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage"
doesn't seem markedly different from the quietly defiant songs
that Cash defined himself with in the '50s and early '60s. Yet
the compilation producers, like Cash himself, saved the best for
last. "Hurt," Trent Reznor's poignant meditation on addiction, is
devastating as written, but becomes a thing of terrible beauty in
the ailing Cash's ravaged, autobiographical delivery. Sequenced
as the final cut on the album, it ends with a kind of shocking
void; stunning in its intensity, dropping the listener off a
cliff of something very akin to grief. No artist, no matter what
genre, could have planned a more haunting exit. --Alanna Nash
