After American IV<\/i>, Cash did not waste any time cutting material for a new album, taking to the studio to work on some 50 songs before he ran out of time.\u00a0 The material is often slower and more contemplative, leading to a much more poignant release as a posthumous album after Cash\u2019s death in 2003.<\/p>\n
The specter of death pervades American V<\/i>. From the very first slow and methodical notes of the spiritual \u201cHelp Me,\u201d which opens the album, to the final “I’m Free From The Chain Gang Now,” a macabre shadow of the grim reaper is everywhere. Take for example \u201cLike The 309,\u201d which is reportedly the last song Cash wrote. In it, Cash sings freely, even flippantly, about progressing into death. It\u2019s odd that with the first chord strike of the song he sings \u201cIt should be a while before I see Dr. Death.\u201d Big talk from a dead man.\u00a0 \u201cLove\u2019s Been Good To Me\u201d and \u201cA Legend In My Time\u201d also have the melancholy air of a man reflecting on his life gone by.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Despite the deathly overtones, the album is a mostly positive experience with hopeful lyrics in Bruce Springsteen\u2019s \u201cFurther On Up The Road\u201d and \u201cFour Strong Winds.\u201d But two are profoundly sad. First, Gordon Lightfoot\u2019s classic \u201cIf You Could Read My Mind\u201d is depressing in that Cash\u2019s asthmatic voice is painfully strained.\u00a0 He sounds as if he is gasping for air at each phrase. Cash\u2019s biographer, Robert Hilburn, noted that by the end of his recording career, studio engineers would piece together phrases from different takes to make a whole song, since Cash could rarely sing through an entire piece at a time. On this track, the necessity of that approach is blatant. Meanwhile, Hank Williams\u2019 \u201cOn the Evening Train\u201d is a tearjerker if there ever was one, especially if the listener has children.<\/p>\n
As posthumous albums go, American V<\/i> is impressively cohesive. The reflection and realization of mortality are evident in nearly every track, but Johnny Cash singing from the grave is a treat for the loyal fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":28402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5664],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-43805","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnny-cash","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43805","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\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43805"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}