johnny cash box

[Little High People]

anyone know about this ... i heard it was out this coming tuesday ... something like unreleased american recordings stuff? if anyone knows, do tell!

[Gary]

Track Listing

Song Title

DISC 1: UNEARTHED VOLUME ONE.WHO'S GONNA CRY:

1. Long Black Veil

2. Flesh And Blood

3. Just The Other Side Of Nowhere

4. If I Give My Soul

5. Understand Your Man

6. Banks Of The Ohio

7. Two Timin' Woman

8. Caretaker, The

9. Old Chunk Of Coal

10. I'm Going To Memphis

11. Breaking Bread

12. Waiting For A Train

13. Casey's Last Ride

14. No Earthly Good

15. Fourth Man In The Fire, The

16. Dark As A Dungeon

17. Book Review - (bonus track)

18. Down There By The Train - (bonus track)

DISC 2: UNEARTHED VOLUME TWO.TROUBLE IN MIND:

1. Pocahontas

2. I'm A Drifter - (version 1)

3. Trouble In Mind

4. Down The Line

5. I'm Movin' On

6. As Long As The Grass Shall Grow

7. Heart Of Gold

8. Running Kind, The - (featuring Tom Petty)

9. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby

10. Brown-Eyed Handsome Man - (with Carl Perkins)

11. "T" For Texas

12. Devil's Right Hand

13. I'm A Drifter - (version 2)

14. Like A Soldier - (bonus track, with Willie Nelson)

15. Drive On - (bonus track, alternat lyrics)

16. Bird On A Wire - (bonus track, with Orchestra, live)

DISC 3: UNEARTHED VOLUME THREE: REDEMPTION SONGS:

1. Singer Of Songs, A

2. L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore, The

3. Redemption Song - (with Joe Strummer)

4. Father And Son - (with Fiona Apple)

5. Chattanooga Sugar Babe

6. He Stopped Loving Her Today

7. Hard Times

8. Wichita Lineman

9. Cindy - (with Nick Cave)

10. Big Iron

11. Salty Dog

12. Gentle On My Mind - (with Glen Campbell)

13. You Are My Sunshine

14. You'll Never Walk Alone

15. Man Comes Around, The - (bonus track, early take)

DISC 4: UNEARTHED VOLUME FOUR.MY MOTHER'S HYMN BOOK:

1. Where We'll Never Grow Old

2. I Shall Not Be Moved

3. I Am A Pilgrim

4. Do Lord

5. When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder

6. If We Never Meet Again This Side Of Heaven

7. I'll Fly Away

8. Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies

9. Let The Lower Lights Be Burning

10. When He Reached Down

11. In The Sweet By And By

12. I'm Bound For The Promised Land

13. In The Garden

14. Softly And Tenderly

15. Just As I Am

DISC 5: UNEARTHED VOLUME FIVE.BEST OF CASH ON AMERICAN:

1. Delia's Gone

2. Bird On A Wire

3. Thirteen

4. Rowboat

5. One Rose, The

6. Rusty Cage

7. Southern Accents

8. Mercy Seat

9. Solitary Man

10. Wayfaring Stranger

11. One

12. Hung My Head

13. Man Comes Around, The

14. We'll Meet Again

15. Hurt

If the first 4 discs are half as good as disc 5 it'll be worth every penny

[Little High People]

so, are the other 4 discs all unreleased stuff from his last few years on american?

[GregK]

the first 4 discs are outtakes from his American recordings, and the fifth disc is a compilation of all 4 released records. Why they didnt release this disc separately is very puzzling to me. You would think they would get more sales with a stand alone best of. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to his Neil Young covers. Should be great

[chris olivarez]

They should put the previously released American recordings in box form. It was interesting to browse through the outtakes list at least some of them were performed by Johnny in other sessions. It will be very interesting to see where the differences are.

[JohnJ]

Interesting article from today's IHT.

Johnny Cash's legacy, on 3 CD's

Neil Strauss NYT Friday, November 28, 2003

NEW YORK I'll play you one song," the record producer Rick Rubin said over the telephone. Two clicking sounds could be heard in the background. Then a voice, singing, came through the earpiece: "I never thought I needed help before/Thought that I could get by by myself."

.

The voice was Johnny Cash's, accompanied only by a softly strummed guitar, the song by Larry Gatlin. Cash's voice cracked and wavered with each word, at times falling out of tempo and tune as if fighting against extinguishment. Yet it continued, slow, determined, choking back emotion: "But now I know I just can't take it anymore/And with a humble heart on bended knee/I'm begging you please for help."

.

The song, Rubin said, was recorded two months after the death of Cash's wife, June, and two months before Cash's own death on Sept. 12 at 71.

.

It is one of 40 to 50 songs that Cash had recorded for "American V," the fifth CD in a 10-year collaboration between Cash and Rubin, who started his career producing the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. The disc is expected to be released next year. In the meantime a five-CD box set that includes 64 previously unreleased Cash recordings was released this week under the title "Cash Unearthed," a name that Cash helped select.

.

The CD includes collaborations with Joe Strummer, Carl Perkins, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, Nick Cave and, in a moving version of the Cat Stevens song "Father and Son," Fiona Apple. The solo material ranges from bittersweet new tracks like "Singer of Songs" to stripped-down classic gospel and country, like an organ-enhanced "Big Iron" that rivals the Marty Robbins hit.

.

"Isn't it amazing that my father would pass away and such a body of work would come out?" said Cash's son, John Carter Cash. "It looks like a 30-year section of music, but it was all recorded in the last few years. And what's amazing is how much more there is."

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In his last years, especially once he stopped touring in the late 1990's, Cash was constantly in the studio, recording as many as four songs a day. "I spoke to him when he was in the hospital when June passed away," Rubin said. "And he said: 'I'm not going to do all the things that people normally do when they lose their partner. I'm not going to go out and spend money or chase girls. I'm just going to work every day.'"

.

Cash was in a wheelchair and almost blind at the time, Rubin said. Yet his work ethic only grew stronger. He and Rubin had already recorded four of a projected 10 CD's, and Cash was scheduled to travel to Los Angeles to complete the fifth later in September. Even the box set was not a posthumous idea but a project that Cash, his son and Rubin had worked on together.

.

"He said that anytime he wasn't working, all he could do was think about June and he didn't want to be alive," Rubin said. "When he was working, there were people around, and there was music going on, and he was singing, and it was a reason to continue on. Because without that, there was none."

.

John Carter Cash said that for his father writing and recording songs were ways "to express his grief, his angst, his faith in God, everything."

.

The songs that came out of Johnny Cash's last decade add up to one of the most moving musical monologues delivered by a man to his maker. Even the extras on the box set hold up to any of the Grammy-winning single CD's Cash and Rubin released together, testifying to a body of work just as powerful as the first songs Cash recorded when he stepped into Sun Studio in the 1950's. Back then, Cash was a young rebel with a rolling basso profundo that rattled listeners with the intensity of a caged beast torn between domesticity and the wild. With his last recordings, the power comes from the resignation, vulnerability and honesty in Cash's voice as he reflects on his own mortality.

.

His version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt," for example, from "American IV," is much more stirring than the original; when a man in his 70's surveys the "empire of dust" that is his life, it has a much more palpable sense of regret than when a man in his 30's expresses the same sentiment. Even more direct, in a new recording of his lesser-known 1959 song "The Caretaker," Cash sings, "Who's gonna cry when old John dies?"

.

The New York Times

[Tjazz]

Costco has this box for $50

[mikeb]

It is great!

Johnny Cash was one of the few performers, IMHO, that exuded a palpable aura when he was singing, even if it was just him and a guitar ...

[GregK]

this box just reeks of quality, from the absolutely amazing performances all the way through, to the packaging itself. Even the paper the booklet is printed on seems extra fancy. And the performance of "As long as the grass shall grow" with June is astounding.

[Dmitry]

The other day I listened to Rick Rubin's interview on Fresh Air. Very interesting, very moving.

I am only slightly familiar with Cash's music and even less with the country music as a genre.

Should I just spring for the box or get a cd or two first, to test the waters?

[Tjazz]

The other day I listened to Rick Rubin's interview on Fresh Air. Very interesting, very moving.

I am only slightly familiar with Cash's music and even less with the country music as a genre.

Should I just spring for the box or get a cd or two first, to test the waters?

I would suggest buying the 3-CD Essential box set on Columbia.

If you just want a taste, visit the library.

[Eric]

you might want to try and snag one of the American CDs used on amazon for a taste

I have the first one and come back to it often - it is a blast to listen to

I have been waiting on this set, just to find a good price used

Eric

[Dmitry]

D-train,

The box is nice, Sylvie Simmons did a swell job w/the notes but there's some real dogshit on there too; Johnny always had it in him but tho' Rubin deserves a lot of credit, some of the suggestions he made for covers were puh-thetic.

Instead, I suggest you get thee to J&R and get the following for $6.99 a pop, txxx to their apparently eternal Sony mid-price sale:

"Murder": imagine the putrid Springsteen cover isn't on there & this is as hot & radical as Cash gets. A burning hot branding iron on the flabby ass of American greed & hyprocrisy.

(Backup: "Love," w/excellent notes from June Carter Cash & my rediscovery of one of Johnny's few '70s gems, "The Ballad of Barbara.")

"Ride This Train": folk populism w/historical narrative introductions; essential Americana.

(Backup: "Sings the Ballads of the True West.")

"The Fabulous Johnny Cash": JC's Columbia debut.

(Avoid: "God," the third & least of the "Love, God, Murder" trilogy; fallen Johnny is great; fealty to the Lawd Johnny is mostly a dreary drag.)

The three cd Columbia set is pretty hot all in all & a fine intro, that horrible, horrible LAME Springsteen cover (must be a way to pimp a few more publishing $$$ to "the boss") which soils disc 3.

Save the American stuff for later, hoss.

clem

Wrote down.

clem, you should do some record reviews for AMG instead of the narcissist Tom Jurek. I'd read 'em.

[Stefan Wood]

There are a lot of good things in this box set: more solo material that came from sessions that led to his first cd on American, his recordings with Tom Petty, Nick Cave, and especially Carl Perkins! and his disc of gospel material. Sure, with something of this size there are a few duds, I don't like that the 5th disc is a "best of" set, when that could have been sold separately. Anyone who buys this set is already a Cash fanatic, so I think it is redundant.

[jazzbo]

I have heard Cash singing "Redemption Songs" (the Marley composition which I LOVE) and I think that is on this collection.

If it is, it's a strong reason to check it out!

[Eric]

Lon,

I think he does it with Joe Strummer? Have you heard Strummer's version (from his new CD). Very nice, as is most of that CD (Streetcore).

Eric

[jazzbo]

No haven't heard Strummer's. I heard the Cash as just Johnny and his guitar, very moving (it's a song that moves me.) May not be in the box set in question, but it was a really nice listen.

[ghost of miles]

The other day I listened to Rick Rubin's interview on Fresh Air. Very interesting, very moving.

I am only slightly familiar with Cash's music and even less with the country music as a genre.

Should I just spring for the box or get a cd or two first, to test the waters?

I heard that interview too. I'd like to check out Cash's version of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" that Rubin was talking about. Still have a soft spot for the Von Freeman interpretation as well.

Edited February 19, 2004 by ghost of miles

[medjuck]

Though both Rubin and Gross seem to think that Roberta Flack wrote the song.

[ghost of miles]

Though both Rubin and Gross seem to think that Roberta Flack wrote the song.

That's odd--I thought I heard one of them say that she didn't write the song. Which is correct, of course. But I was in the car at the time, just half-listening...

[JohnJ]

Dmitry, I would recommend trying the first 'American Recordings' CD as a prime example of late Johnny Cash. Powerful stuff.

For earlier Cash, 'The Sun Years' CD contains the classic versions of many of his best songs.

The justifiably famous prison concerts, 'Live at Folsom Prison/San Quentin' are also well worth checking out. The song "San Quentin" always sends chills down my spine.

[mgraham333]

Cash Family Draws Line Around 'Ring of Fire'

Thursday, February 19, 2004

It may be an obvious match-up, but Johnny Cash's classic "Ring of Fire" won't be used to sell hemorrhoid-relief cream anytime soon.

The Tennessean of Nashville first reported late last month that a Florida TV production company wanted to pitch the idea of using the classic song in a commercial for Preparation H or similar products.

Merle Kilgore, who wrote the 1964 hit with Cash's wife, June Carter Cash , told the newspaper he was mightily amused by the idea when the production company called him. After all, he used to mock-dedicate the song "to the makers of Preparation H" whenever he played the song live.

But Cash's daughter Rosanne said she and her siblings were less fired up.

"There is no way we will ever let that happen," Rosanne Cash told the newspaper. "We would never allow the song to be demeaned like that."

The script for the commercial would have featured Kilgore's own rendition of the song, not Cash's, but the Cash children still hold veto power through June Carter Cash's songwriting credit.

"He [Kilgore] started talking about this moronic tie-in without talking to any of us," Rosanne Cash added. "The song is about the transformative power of love and that's what it has always meant to me and that's what it will always mean to the Cash children."

June Carter Cash died a few months before her husband last year.

"I certainly didn't want to upset the Cash family because I love them," said Kilgore, who now manages Hank Williams Jr. "I just thought it was kind of funny."

"Ring of Fire" may not be associated with hemorrhoids, but the Out There editors definitely remember it being used in a British TV ad for very spicy foods a few years ago.

Source: Fox News

[Dmitry]

Though both  Rubin and Gross seem to think that Roberta Flack wrote the song.

That's odd--I thought I heard one of them say that she didn't write the song. Which is correct, of course. But I was in the car at the time, just half-listening...

Rubin DID say that Flack "didn't write it, but recorded it", so you heard right, Ghost.

They replayed the interview a couple of hours ago here on WNYC.

[David Williams]

Did he point out that it was Ewan McColl, the English folk singer, who wrote it?

[Big Al]

This is my first real exposure to Johnny Cash; I was fortunate enough to find a copy of Unearthed at the FW Library. After listening to this stuff, not only do I want to get my own copy of the box, but ALL of the American recordings.

Listening to these recordings—especially the tracks where he only accompanies himself—transports me to other places, places deep inside the soul. Cash was truly able to take a song, ANY song, and make it his own. And when he sings the song, you KNOW it’s real; whether he’s singing about killing a girl who won’t marry him or expressing remorse for the same deed; whether he’s wrestling with the devil or praying to the Almighty; every word rings true.

Thanks for starting this thread. This music moves me like nothing, and I mean NOTHING, I’ve ever heard, and makes me wanna investigate more of Cash’s recorded legacy from here.