The Essential Johnny Cash

by Johnny Cash

Overview

Part of Sony Legacy's ambitious, much-deserved reissue campaign in honor of Johnny Cash's 70th birthday, The Essential Johnny Cash arrives as a two-CD collection of 36 songs ranging from the Man in Black's first Sun hit, "Hey Porter," to his 1993 collaboration with U2 on "The Wanderer." So consider Essential a sort of Johnny Cash Rosetta Stone; an album filled with tracks that help music lovers understand the daunting range of Cash's art. As a songwriter and interpreter, he has been the master of all he embraces -- and he has embraced a whole lot: folk, traditional country, gospel (the monumental "Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)"), rockabilly from the Sun era, western songs, topical songs ("The Ballad of Ira Hayes"), protest songs, patriotic songs, love songs, heartbreak songs (has there been a more vivid account of a forlorn soul than "I Still Miss Someone"?), and duets (with June Carter Cash, Bob Dylan, and Marty Robbins -- the latter being an overlooked gem, a salute to solid American values in "Song of the Patriot"). While future reissues will restore to print ten Cash albums previously unavailable on CD -- two rare and underrated Cash titles were reissued in December 2001: America and Ragged Old Flag -- Essential lives up to its name, especially for those who might be unfamiliar with the full scope of this treasured artist's monumental contribution to American music for nearly half a century.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/12/2002
Label:	Sony
UPC:	0696998629028
catalogNumber:	86290
Rank:	4011

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Hey Porter
2. Cry! Cry! Cry!
3. I Walk the Line
4. Get Rhythm
5. There You Go
6. Ballad of a Teenage Queen
7. Big River
8. Guess Things Happen That Way
9. All Over Again
10. Don't Take Your Guns to Town
11. Five Feet High and Rising
12. The Rebel - Johnny Yuma
13. Tennessee Flat Top Box
14. I Still Miss Someone
15. Ring of Fire
16. The Ballad of Ira Hayes
17. Orange Blossom Special
18. Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

Disc 2

1. It Ain't Me Babe
2. The One on the Right Is on the Left
3. Jackson
4. Folsom Prison Blues
5. Daddy Sang Bass
6. Girl from the North Country
7. A Boy Named Sue
8. If I Were a Carpenter
9. Sunday Morning Coming Down
10. Flesh and Blood
11. Man in Black
12. Ragged Old Flag
13. One Piece at a Time
14. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky
15. Song of the Patriot
16. Highwayman
17. The Night Hank Williams Came to Town
18. The Wanderer

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Johnny Cash   Primary Artist
Carter Family   Track Performer
Waylon Jennings   Track Performer
Kris Kristofferson   Track Performer
Willie Nelson   Track Performer
Bob Dylan   Track Performer
June Carter Cash   Track Performer

Technical Credits

Johnny Cash   Arranger,Composer,Producer
Tim Hardin   Composer
Shel Silverstein   Composer
Bob Dylan   Composer
Carl Perkins   Composer
Billy Edd Wheeler   Composer
Edge   Composer,Producer
Brian Ahern   Producer
Earl Ball   Producer
Bono   Composer
Charlie Bragg   Producer
June Carter Cash   Composer
Adam Clayton   Composer
Jack Clement   Composer,Producer
Don Davis   Producer
Brian Eno   Producer
Flood   Producer
Bob Johnston   Producer
Frank Jones   Producer
Don Law   Producer
Chips Moman   Producer
Larry Mullen   Composer
Ervin T. Rouse   Composer
Sam Phillips   Producer
Merle Kilgore   Composer
Frank Bez   Cover Photo
Lisa Sparagano   Art Direction
Gaby Rodgers   Composer
Roy Cash   Composer
Traditional   Composer
Jaan Uhelszki   Collaboration

Editorial Reviews

Issued in commemoration of Cash's 70th birthday, this double CD is a good survey of 1955-1993 career highlights (and a different release than the similarly titled three-CD The Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983). Is it a good place to start? That depends on what you have or don't have already, considering that so many greatest-hits compilations containing some or much of this material appeared prior to this, yet another repackage. All of his very biggest hits are here, and it leans very heavily on his first 15 years of recordings, with just eight of the 36 tracks postdating 1970 (and only one of them, his 1993 U2 collaboration "The Wanderer," postdating 1986). For that reason some may complain that it doesn't give some phases of his career proper weight, and certainly not evenly distributed weight. But let's be cold about this: Cash's best records were between 1955 and 1970, and focusing on his early work, as this compilation does, means higher overall quality. It's too bad nothing is included from his acclaimed, unadorned 1994 album, American Recordings, but otherwise this will serve as a quite satisfactory best-of for those who want both the familiar hits and a few good, not-so-overplayed ones, like his versions of "It Ain't Me Babe," "Jackson," and "If I Were a Carpenter."

All Music Guide - Richie Unterberger

1/2 "...Cash is seductive even when laying a murderous demon and shows cracks even when he's supposed to be a pillar of the community. If he looks like America, he sounds like democracy."

Rolling Stone - Milo Miles

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