Johnny Cash: The Songs

by Don Cusic

Johnny Cash's voluminous recordings rank as some of the best in country music history. Hundreds of his songs, including 'I Walk The Line', 'Five Feet High and Rising', 'Don't Take Your Guns to Town' and 'Folsom Prison Blues' are among the bedrock of the country music canon. Cash's songs tell stories - in his unmistakable tragicomic voice - that most writers can't tell in 500 stories of hope, despair, vengeance, lust, God greed, violence, repentance and love. Up to the days directly preceding his death in September 2003, Cash continued to write and release acclaimed albums. His latter-day recordings garnered two Grammys and an MTV Video Music Award, while his final studio album, American IV, went gold in the US - confirming the allegiance of his fans, particularly young ones. His collaborations with producer Rick Rubin and American Records built bridges between generations and transcended musical styles. On these albums, Cash worked with contemporary rock singers including Nick Cave and Joe Strummer, and covered songs by acts as diverse as Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Beck and Depeche Mode. With the 'American Recordings' series, Cash found thousands of young, loyal listeners who otherwise wouldn't consider themselves fans of country music. Johnny The Songs is an unprecedented collection of lyrics penned by 'The Man in Black' throughout a career which spanned six decades. It confirms Cash's legendary status as an icon in music and excellently demonstrates why he is now regarded by many as one of the world's great poets.

Genres: Music

378 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 2004

Reviews

[Psam Ferdinand · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're a massive fan of Johnny, I guess this is an essential book to have along with your old CDs and/or vinyls. If you've started listening to him in the recent years and you've bought all the "Solitary Man" albums, then bear in mind most of those tracks were cover songs and you won't find any of those in this book. I consider myself a big fan of his music and read this considerably large book from beginning to end but I can't say it left a big impression, as most of his lyrics are either simple religious hymns or otherwise straightforward stories that doesn't require much thought when reading it. This may sound harsh or critical but my point is, there is so much more to Johnny than his lyrics, it's his persona, his voice, his performance and his life. It's perhaps like reading a play but never seeing it on stage. - - - - Ferdinand.

[Tim Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically just a collection of songs written by Cash. Cash was an amazing poet and his songs deserve 5 stars. This is a review of a book however, and as such its kind of boring. I like to listen to the songs rather than just read the words. And the introduction by the collection editor is full or misinformation.