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Johnny Cash- The EP Collection – Liner Notes

Extended Plays were a popular record format in the 1950s and 1960s. Looking like 7” singles and playing at 45rpm they normally contained four tracks and would sell at about twice the price of a single. Aimed at buyers who couldn’t afford albums or only wanted a selection of hits they would normally contain material already available on albums or singles. They came in glossy laminated covers looking like miniature album sleeves and have become highly collectable. Between 1956 and 1958 five extended plays were issued in the US on the Sun Records Label. In the UK the London label, distributors of Sun product, issued four of which one was identical to its US counterpart, two were issued under different titles with one slight change to the content and the fourth was a UK only compilation. We have put together a compilation of this material along with a selection of bonus tracks from the period and the notes follow the running order of the CD rather than the recording dates.

The CD opens with I Walk The Line a song that has become Cash’s signature tune and when released as his third single in May 1956 became his first pop chart entry reaching #19. The track appeared on both the UK Johnny Cash EP and the US issue I Walk The Line. The distinctive sound on this track was achieved by a piece of paper inserted into the strings, giving the effect of a snare drum. Cry, Cry, Cry was originally issued as the flipside to his first release Hey Porter in June 1955 but it soon became obvious that the a-side was starting to fade and local DJ’s picked up on it sending Cry, Cry, Cry to the #1 spot in the local Memphis charts. In the UK it appeared on Country Boy No. 2 while in the US it was issued on So Doggone Lonesome. Cash had written the song after hearing local DJ Eddie Hill announce ‘Stay tuned, we’re gonna’ bawl, squall and run up the wall!’ After considering You’re Gonna’ Bawl, Bawl, Bawl! as a title Cash finally changed it to You’re Gonna Cry, Cry, Cry. The next track is “Country Boy” a classic track that Cash would return to during sessions for his 1996 release ‘Unchained.’ This track gave it’s name to two of the UK extended play releases. Up next is Next In Line issued on the flipside of Don’t Make Me Go and featuring a slap bass introduction from Marshall Grant. This double-sided hit peaked at #9 in the country charts.

Onto Home Of The Blue and this is the first track presented here on which Cash was not the sole composer. Co-written with Glenn Douglas and L. Alpine the track opens with Luther Perkins playing a descending scale that leads into Cash’s vocal. With Give My Love To Rose we find Cash taking a change of direction. This western ballad had been issued as a single in August 1957 and later appeared on the UK only EP Johnny Cash in November of the following year. A great track that Cash would feature in his live performances for many years. In 1953 Lonnie Donegan had resurrected the old Huddie Ledbetter song Rock Island Line and here we have Cash’s 1957 recording. An ideal choice of material for Cash to record it first appeared as the opening track on With His Hot And Blue Guitar, his first and only Sun album released during his time with the label. In the UK this album was released with the title Rock Island Line. Cash has always had a fascination with trains and is often quoted as saying that the trip by train to avoid the floods of 1937 made a lasting impression on him. On Train Of Love we find him following the theme first explored on Hey Porter and one that he would cover many times on single and album throughout his career. The legendary Hank Williams often ended his live shows with the line ‘If the good Lord’s willing and the creeks don’t rise, we’ll see y’all again real soon,’ and this was probably the inspiration behind the Jerry Reed composition If The Good Lord’s Willing which Cash recorded in August 1957. By late 1957-early 1958 Cash had made up his mind to move from Sun Records and sign with the Columbia label.

Sam Phillips and Jack Clement, seeing the move approaching, recorded a substantial amount of material to last them for several months following Cash’s departure. Not wanting to use his best material Cash would cover other artists material during these sessions and in May 1958 recorded five songs from the Hank Williams songbook. Four of these, I Could Never Be Ashamed Of You, You Win Again, I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still In Love With You) and Hey Good Lookin' were all issued on the 1958 release Johnny Cash Sings Hank Williams. For that release they were subject to unneccesary overdubs including piano, drums and vocal chorus from the Gene Lowery Singers but for this release we have chosen the undubbed masters. It’s back to early 1957 and another train song for Wreck Of The Old ‘97 an old track originally written and recorded by Henry Whittier under the title Wreck Of The Old Southern ’97 in the 1920’s. Country star Hank Snow also recorded a version of this great track. Next up is the classic Folsom Prison Blues. What can be said about this track that hasn’t already been said a dozen times. Written during Cash’s spell in the US Air Force following a screening of the movie Inside The Walls Of Folsom this track became a regular in his live shows. Cash had recorded an unusual high-pitched version in early 1955 but it was the re-recorded version from July 1955 that became Cash’s second single for Sun and also appeared on the I Walk The Line’EP.

Cash was heavily influenced by the the music of Jimmie Skinner and in August of 1957 he recorded Doin’ My Time a hit for Skinner back in 1941. Covering two of Cash’s favourite themes, trains and prisons, it was an ideal choice of material for him to record. Around this time producer Jack Clement started to experiment with the sound in an attempt to give the material a more commercial, pop orientated feel. As well as playing acoustic guitar on some of the tracks he added piano, drums and a vocal chorus to certain tracks. Both Guess Things Happen That Way and The Ways Of A Woman In Love appeared on the 1958 EP Johnny Cash With The Tennessee Two and were released as singles in May and August 1958 respectively. The sentimental ballad You’re The Nearest Thing To Heaven follows and features a double-tracked vocal from Cash. It was overdubbed with a full chorus before finding a release as a single in August 1958. Stuart Hamblen had written Remember Me (I’m The One Who Loves You) and over the years the song had become a country standard recorded by many artists including Sun stablemate Jerry Lee Lewis. Cash laid down his version in August 1957 and it was issued on the So Doggone Lonesome EP. A restrained version of I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow follows. It was recorded before the other Hank Williams material and appeared on his first album and then on the Johnny Cash EP. Both So Doggone Lonesome and I Was There When It Happened are taken from the So Doggone Lonesome EP released in October 1957. Lonesome is a blues number that originally appeared on the flipside of Folsom Prison Blues while I Was There Wen It Happened was a gospel track.

When he first approached Sam Phillips he was keen to record this type of song but Phillips pointed out that this type of material did not sell. However, Cash did go on to record another gospel track, Belshazzar, while at Sun. One of Cash’s greatest recordings for Sun, Big River, was written by Cash after he read an article entitled 'Johnny Cash has the big river blues in his voice.’ Released as a single in December 1957 it appeared on the Home Of The Blues EP the following year. This was one of many Sun recordings that Cash would re-record for his new label, Columbia, over the coming years. Both Ballad Of A Teenage Queen and There You Go were originally scheduled for release on the I Walk The Line EP but were replaced with Folsom Prison Blues and Doin’ My Time. Ballad Of A Teenage Queen gave Cash his first #1 in the country charts and reached #16 in the pop charts. There You Go was released as the follow-up to ‘I Walk The Line’ in 1956 and also reached # 2 in the country charts. Once again Jack Clement was responsible for the added vocal overdubs to “Ballad...”. Another Hank Williams track Cold Cold Heart was left off Sings Hank Williams and remained unissued for several years. As with the other tracks it is presented here in it’s undubbed version. The final three tracks on the CD Hey Porter, Get Rhythm and Don’t Make Me Go were the A-sides of his first, third and fifth releases.

Following Cash’s departure from Sun Records, and his signing to Columbia, in August 1958 Sun continued to release material, much of it stockpiled from the series of sessions held in late 1957-early 1958. Between November 1958 and November 1964 they issued six long play albums and several singles. When Shelby Singleton purchased the catalogue in the late sixties it seemed Cash material was everywhere. Twenty singles were issued in 1969 and a further eighteen albums were released between 1969 and 1982.

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