On the Shelf 116: Johnny Cash
May. 9th, 2014 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Tupac Shakur recently said "Now that I'm dead, I am going to spend less time in the recording studio".
Johnny Cash may get similar treatment. He already had a rap/remix album and American Recordings Part 5&6 got some harsh reviews (I think they're both good, although certainly could have been one record and not two).
Out Among the Stars may equally benefit and suffer as it is now being released as a "lost" Cash album.
One can't review the album without some context. The album was originally recorded in the early 80s, during country's "Urban Cowboy" period, planned to be produced by Billy Sherrill (who was best known for work with Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich and George Jones).
I also feel compelled to point out (as most reviewers will) that Cash is not infallible, and the truth is country didn't want him in that era, and he felt likewise. The Cash Meme (like similar 80s icon Ronald Reagan) is almost that of Chuck Norris facts, and that Cash could never do wrong (Chuck Norris himself probably also falls into this triumvirate).
The album The Baron that Cash did record with Sherrill in 1981 was not a good move commercially or critically, and it's unlikely Nashville would have done anything different with Stars. 1983's Johnny 99 is a stronger album (with its two Springsteen covers), but outside of the Highwaymen group, Cash was a pssing legend in Nashville's eyes by then.
Stars clearly wouldn't have changed anything.
So is it good?
It's quite good.
But it's good if you are a Johnny Cash fan, and not just a fan of the Cash meme. if you only interested in the early songs and American recordings, and really only interested in songs where Johnny is gunning someone down; and when you think of Cash, you think of the Social Distortion version of "Ring of Fire" , his Danzig and Nine Inch Nails covers, and that song he did with U2- you might be disappointed.
Stars is classic Cash, which means there's a song about the greatness of living in Tennessee (George Jones plays the County Fair) and "I drove her out of my mind"- a song about driving an ex over Stone Mountain's cliff.
This is what you are getting. A duet with Waylon of Hank Sr's "I'm moving on". "Baby Ride Easy" is a due with June, in which Johnny proclaims we'll make it "if you're cooking ain't greasy".
It also should be mentioned that the recordings were beefed up for 2014 ears. It's hard to believe anything but that these recordings would have sounded different back then.
Marty Stuart and others who were there on the original sessions have added to these tracks. This is surely in the benefit of the record, not only on the songs listed above (which would have surely been played for more comedy effect) and gives a real gravitas to songs like "She Used to Love Me A Lot" (which heads into American Recordings territory) and the other June Carter duet "Don't you think it's come our time".
It all makes for a very enjoyable Cash record that should make a lot of people happy. It does feel a bit patched together but in the best ways, like a compilation of great lost music. It's certainly worth it to the people who have searched out further into the Cash discography.
Johnny Cash may get similar treatment. He already had a rap/remix album and American Recordings Part 5&6 got some harsh reviews (I think they're both good, although certainly could have been one record and not two).
Out Among the Stars may equally benefit and suffer as it is now being released as a "lost" Cash album.
One can't review the album without some context. The album was originally recorded in the early 80s, during country's "Urban Cowboy" period, planned to be produced by Billy Sherrill (who was best known for work with Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich and George Jones).
I also feel compelled to point out (as most reviewers will) that Cash is not infallible, and the truth is country didn't want him in that era, and he felt likewise. The Cash Meme (like similar 80s icon Ronald Reagan) is almost that of Chuck Norris facts, and that Cash could never do wrong (Chuck Norris himself probably also falls into this triumvirate).
The album The Baron that Cash did record with Sherrill in 1981 was not a good move commercially or critically, and it's unlikely Nashville would have done anything different with Stars. 1983's Johnny 99 is a stronger album (with its two Springsteen covers), but outside of the Highwaymen group, Cash was a pssing legend in Nashville's eyes by then.
Stars clearly wouldn't have changed anything.
So is it good?
It's quite good.
But it's good if you are a Johnny Cash fan, and not just a fan of the Cash meme. if you only interested in the early songs and American recordings, and really only interested in songs where Johnny is gunning someone down; and when you think of Cash, you think of the Social Distortion version of "Ring of Fire" , his Danzig and Nine Inch Nails covers, and that song he did with U2- you might be disappointed.
Stars is classic Cash, which means there's a song about the greatness of living in Tennessee (George Jones plays the County Fair) and "I drove her out of my mind"- a song about driving an ex over Stone Mountain's cliff.
This is what you are getting. A duet with Waylon of Hank Sr's "I'm moving on". "Baby Ride Easy" is a due with June, in which Johnny proclaims we'll make it "if you're cooking ain't greasy".
It also should be mentioned that the recordings were beefed up for 2014 ears. It's hard to believe anything but that these recordings would have sounded different back then.
Marty Stuart and others who were there on the original sessions have added to these tracks. This is surely in the benefit of the record, not only on the songs listed above (which would have surely been played for more comedy effect) and gives a real gravitas to songs like "She Used to Love Me A Lot" (which heads into American Recordings territory) and the other June Carter duet "Don't you think it's come our time".
It all makes for a very enjoyable Cash record that should make a lot of people happy. It does feel a bit patched together but in the best ways, like a compilation of great lost music. It's certainly worth it to the people who have searched out further into the Cash discography.
