What defines a Legend?<\/p>\n
– A musician’s or group’s music that is well-liked.<\/p>\n
– Admired by other musical styles performers.<\/p>\n
– Distinguished as a legend while still alive.<\/p>\n
– Still performing after all these years.<\/p>\n
All of these items relate to country’s Johnny Cash.<\/p>\n
Many groups and artists have become more popular after they
\nbreak up, or even worse, after they’re dead. (It seems that Jim
\nMorrison and The Doors became more famous after Morrison’s death.
\nEven Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “legend” status acheived higher status
\nafter he died.) And, there are other legends kept performing until
\ntheir last breath of air. (Two names come to mind: Elvis Presley
\nand Frank Sinatra. Frank performed till a ripe old age of 83. Elvis
\nnever lived as long, but it would of been great to see him still
\nperforming if he was still alive today, at age 63.)<\/p>\n
\nThe Essential Johnny Cash<\/i> Box Set covers the years
\n1955-1983, where Cash first recorded records for Sam Phillips’ Sun
\nRecords Label. From this period (1955-1958), the most famous song
\nwas “I Walk The Line.” Both Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash had
\nsimilar beginnings in sound: They both started with Sam Phillips
\nand Sun Records, and their music was mostly hillbilly\/country
\nmusic. And both Elvis and Johnny moved on to big recording labels,
\nand the rest as they say, is history. (Elvis went to RCA Victor,
\nCash went to Columbia.)<\/p>\n
However, Johnny Cash’s music dealt with more of the dark sides
\nof life. Cash was from a poor family, and he did have his troubles
\nwith the law. Cash was labeled “The Man In Black,” with his hard
\nstern looks and lyrics of hard times and troubles. Relating his
\nexperiences to music seemed to fit country music, as he wrote or
\nco-wrote many of the songs contained in this box set (39 of 75).
\nRelating to “dark” times, blues music is also best to relate to
\nhard times. “Walking The Blues” (written by Cash) is a great
\nexample of blues music.<\/p>\n
Another song written by Cash, “Rock Island Line” is a song I
\nremember growing up in grade school. His version is a lot faster
\nthan the way we used to sing it. Another “dark” song is “Doin’ My
\nTime” (surprisingly NOT written by Cash), as it relates to the
\nhard-working-man for the love of a woman. Where this song may not
\nrelate to the breaking of the law, these songs have that potential:
\n“Folsom Prison Blues” (the original Sun version) and the famous
\nColumbia label live version tells the story of prison life. And
\nanother popular prison-related song, “San Quentin #2,” Cash sings,
\n“San Quentin, I hate every inch of you.”<\/p>\n
These live recordings were taken from the live concert recorded
\nat San Quentin, with many prisoners in the audience. As soon as
\nCash sang how he hated San Quentin, you hear the prisoners roar
\nwith applause.<\/p>\n
And there are the songs that feature stories, like the famous “A
\nBoy Named Sue.” It was also recorded at the San Quentin concert,
\nwhere a young man lives his life in troubled times, because his
\nfather named him Sue. Another “story” song is “One Piece At A
\nTime,” where the story here is where an auto mechanic builds his
\nown car with many pieces (he steals from the shop) from other cars.
\nThis car has so many different pieces from different years’ cars,
\nas Cash sings at the end, “What model is it? It’s a ’49, ’50, ’51,
\n’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59 automobile. It’s a ’60, ’61,
\n….” as it fades out. This song is sung in the same sense of “A
\nBoy Named Sue.”<\/p>\n
Even story songs like “The Rebel–Johnny Yuma,” “The Big
\nBattle,” “The Ballad Of Ira Hayes,” and “The Legend Of John Henry’s
\nHammer” are great story lines dealing with other characters and
\nevents: Johnny Yuma, The Civil War, and John Henry.<\/p>\n
Like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash had an interest in gospel music.
\n“(They’ll Be) Peace In The Valley” (a song Elvis also covered) and
\n“Were You There (When They Cruciified My Lord)” are brief areas in
\nthe Johnny Cash Gospel section, and they are just as great as the
\nCash standards.<\/p>\n
What also makes this box set so great, is that Cash records
\nsongs by other well-known artists:<\/p>\n
– Charlie Rich’s “Thanks A Lot”<\/p>\n
– Carl Perkins’ “The Ballad Of Boot Hill” and “Daddy Sang
\nBass”<\/p>\n
– Bob Dylan’s “Wanted Man”<\/p>\n
– Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “The
\nLast Time”<\/p>\n
– The Rolling Stones’ “No Expectations”<\/p>\n
– Rodney Crowell’s “Bull Rider”<\/p>\n
– Bruce Springsteen’s “Highway Patrolman”<\/p>\n
– Nick Lowe’s “Without Love”<\/p>\n
And let us not forget some other famous tunes:<\/p>\n
– “Ring Of Fire” — a song that is never tiring. The horns are
\njust great; something never used in Country Music at the time.<\/p>\n
– “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky” — a song that has been covered by
\nmany country and rock acts. Both Cash’s and the group The Outlaws
\nare the ones that stand out in my mind.<\/p>\n
– “Jackson” — many songs relating to a city in one of the
\nstates in the good ‘ol USA: (Jackson, Mississippi, I believe).<\/p>\n
– “Busted” — a song that was recorded by Ray Charles.<\/p>\n
(All of these famous songs listed were NOT written by Cash;
\nneither was “A Boy Named Sue.”)<\/p>\n
And one more song that I always enjoy listening to is “Dirty Old
\nEgg Sucking Dog,” where it relates to the story of a dirty old dog
\n(the animal, I take it, ‘course it could relate to a human…)
\ncausing trouble wherever he goes, where he never leaves the
\nchickens alone.<\/p>\n
Cash is still recording today, and an amazing story was the fact
\nthat his 1994
\nAmerican Recordings<\/i> album was released on American Records,
\na label that normally features hard rock\/heavy metal groups like
\nDanzig and The Black Crowes; likewise hip-hop\/rap artists like Sir
\nMix-A-Lot. Danzig was quoted as saying that he never liked anyone
\nelse’s music, except for Johnny Cash.<\/p>\n
Even in 1994 and beyond, Cash’s new releases have received great
\nreviews. His most recent release is a concert with Willie Nelson
\nfor
\nVH-1 Storytellers<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I often wonder if the Travelling Wilburys will replace Roy
\nOrbison. Even though replacing Orbison would be extremely hard, it
\nwould be best to replace a legend with another legend. Cash would
\nbe a good contender for the job. (“See Ruby Fall” from the box set
\nwas written by Cash and Orbison.)<\/p>\n
Johnny Cash is a Legend. His credential status continues to be
\ngreat today, as it was back in previous decades. It will be a very
\nsad day when Cash does leave us. He is currently having health
\nproblems, but that doesn’t stop him from performing.<\/p>\n
Obviously I couldn’t review every single song from this box set,
\nbut every song is great, as
\nThe Essential Johnny Cash<\/i> Box Set truly defines the best
\nyears of Cash, and from those years the best songs from The Man In
\nBlack, The Legend, Johnny Cash. Covering 25 years of music, and
\nstill growing strong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":27892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5664],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39280","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnny-cash","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39280"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}