Synopsis
The boxed set Unearthed, released shortly after Johnny Cash’s death in September 2003, contains a version of Cash’s classic song “The Caretaker” in which he asks, “Who’s gonna cry when old John dies?” The answer to that question is the millions of fans, admirers, and fellow musicians who have felt the power of Cash’s words and voice for the past six decades. His many recordings rank among the best in country music history. Up to the days preceding his death, Cash continued to write and record. Hundreds of his songs, including “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues” are among the bedrock of the country music canon. Cash’s songs tell stories of hope, despair, vengeance, lust, God, greed, violence, repentance, and love. His late recordings garnered him two Grammys and an MTV Music Award, and his final studio album went gold. His collaboration with Rick Rubin and American Records built bridges between generations and musical styles: working with singers like Nick Cave, Fiona Apple, and Joe Strummer, and covering songs by Nine Inch Nails, Glen Danzig, and Soundgarden, Cash’s last records found thousands of young, loyal listeners who wouldn’t otherwise consider themselves fans of country music.
Library Journal
These books add to the flurry of material on Johnny Cash, who died a year ago on September 12. Streissguth (editor, Ring of Fire) offers the more interesting entry, using the Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison album as a vehicle to analyze Cash's down-home, plebeian image. He starts with "Folsom Prison Blues," which Cash partly borrowed from pop orchestra leader Gordon Jenkins and first recorded for Sun Records in 1955. After broadly describing the singer's initial rise to fame, Streissguth chronicles Cash's prison concerts, which began in 1957 at Huntsville, AL, and continued for the next ten years. He insightfully shows how the confluence of such forces as the demand for prison reform, the rise of country rock, and the 1960s emphasis on the downtrodden led to the success of Folsom Prison and, in turn, the transformation of Cash from a successful country singer to an American icon. Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 photos many by noted music photographer Jim Marshall and peppered with a few reminiscences by Folsom prisoners, the book will attract a general audience as well as Cash fanatics. Songs, on the other hand, provides little new information. After some brief, oft-told biographical facts, Cusic, a country-music authority, discusses and then prints the lyrics of many Cash songs. He divides the lyrics into such broad categories as God, railroads, prisons, wars, soldiers, patriotic odes, people, music, places, growing up country, and outlaws. Though indicating the songwriter's main preoccupations, the book reveals that the lyrics are rather mundane when they have been wrenched from the emotional tension of Cash's music and voice. It will appeal only to the most die-hard fans. Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington Lib., Seattle Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.