umm..nick cave and fiona apple are a far cry from Matchbox 20. As for Don Henley, well...hey, dude can sing / drum, ok? let him be.
and yes, the new one is great (probably the best one so far) tho i could have done without the Roberta Flack song, as that was always one of my favorites, and I don't like anyone covering it.
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 21 March 2003 07:27 (twenty-three years ago)
It's gd, but not as gd as the one before it, I don't think - there's nothing to match 'I see a Darkness', or even 'Beast in Me' from the first rec in the series. I think the song selection on the new one overdoes the 'contemplating mortality' schtick a bit too much - 'We'll Meet Again' esp.
― Andrew L (Andrew L), Friday, 21 March 2003 09:20 (twenty-three years ago)
I've only heard bits and pieces of the album and it didn't really impress me at all. I htink the earlier releases sound better than the new one. However, a week ago I saw the video to Hurt for the first time, and I must say that I have a new respect for his version of the song. If you haven't seen it, look for it on the net or something. He really makes the song his own through the visuals.
― Jonathan, Friday, 21 March 2003 12:40 (twenty-three years ago)
I've loved his American recordings series up until this point, but I have to admit that this new one was really really a mixed bag. I don't dislike some of the covers as much as I thought I was going to, but parts of this album are just...well, HOKEY, which is maybe a bit hard to take, 71 yrs old and in failing health or not.
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Friday, 21 March 2003 16:51 (twenty-three years ago)
seven years pass...
New Cash bootleg shows the man, his times
By TED ANTHONY, AP National Writer
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20110222/capt.cb93cd46c0694956a2ee217852cba09a-cb93cd46c0694956a2ee217852cba09a-0.jpg?x=345&y=345&q=85&sig=cGYAqWlApreRwkXLktLeyw--
Who is that man with the deep, twangy voice pitching the products of Home Equipment Co.? He beseeches you: Buy aluminum screens, wire fences, awnings, fiberglass insulation. "You know, folks," he says, "even without air conditioning you can make your home several degrees cooler this summer and for the summers to come with Home Equipment Co.'s Cool-Glo Awnings."
So sayeth Johnny Cash. And not just any Johnny Cash — the 23-year-old Cash of May 21, 1955, coming to you from the mists of country-music history on KWEM-AM 990, back when his backing band, the Tennessee Three, was the Tennessee Two.
"From Memphis to Hollywood," Columbia/Legacy's latest Cash "bootlegs" is drawn, like its predecessor, from material in the House of Cash estate. A chronicle of his first 15 years at Sun and Columbia records, its trove of Cash arcana, B-sides and unreleased demos takes you from the very earliest captured moments of the Man in Black's career from 1955 all the way into his high country stardom of the late 1960s.
Good music all, but it is the front-end tracks from the dawn of the Cash career that captivate the ear over and over again. You find yourself marveling that the elder statesman of the reflective "American" series in the final years of his life was once this young man, with his rebellious streak poking through and his peak years ahead of him.
Here is a performer still tentative enough to stumble and stutter on the radio when he's reading the ads for his sponsor on "The Johnny Cash Show" on KWEM-AM. And here is a boyish icon-to-be who sounds so earnest and eager when he asks for listeners' input: "Write us a card and letter and we'll try our best to get the song on that you wanna hear. If we don't know it, we'll learn it."
The music itself is fascinating. Cash makes sure, on the show, to do at least one "sacred song" — "Belshazzar" — to play to the religious constituency. And the demos delivered up later — including a deliberate, sedate version of "I Walk the Line" and a charmingly quiet "Get Rhythm" — show a genius just starting to find its groove.
In entertainment, the "from the vaults" conceit is often an overrated notion — a marketing ploy. Not here. Listen to this CD and hear the hinge point between rural parlor music and outlaw country. Johnny Cash was one of the unforgettables, and this is a glimpse directly into both his young soul and the context from which he came — a reminder of what American country was, and how its stars built their careers rung by rung.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110223/ap_en_mu/us_music_review_johnny_cache
― NYCNative, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 18:26 (fifteen years ago)