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CASH @70: An American Original

“Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” This short introduction and deep baritone voice is all that is needed to introduce one of the icons of American country music. For over forty-five years he has continued to make records in a style that has hardly changed, and although his career has seen several highs and lows, he deserves his status as the king of country music. John R. Cash was born in the remote rural settlement of Kingsland, Arkansas in 1932 and on 26th February 2002 will celebrate his 70th Birthday. In this article we trace his career through five important eras – the Sun years, the concept albums, the prison concerts, the gospel music and his creative resurgence at the hands of Rick Rubin.

The Sun Years

Sam Phillips and Sun Records have been studied, examined and re-examined many times over the years but what is important is the fact that when a shy young 18-year old with the weird name Elvis Presley entered the door of the tiny studio located on the corner of Union and Marshall in Memphis in 1954 the world of music would never be the same again. he opened the door for other promising acts who came to Memphis looking for fame including Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and, of course, Johnny Cash.

On his return from the US Air Force in 1954, Johnny Cash married Vivian Liberto and they settled in Memphis where his brother Roy found him a job selling electrical appliances. “I was the world’s worst salesman. I spent more time in my car listening to the radio than I did knocking on doors,” said Cash. Roy introduced him to two local car mechanics – Marshall Grant and Luther Perkins. Along with steel guitar player A. W. Kernodle they worked hard on a repertoire of country and gospel music and approached Sam Phillips, owner of Sun records, hoping to record gospel material, only to be told that there was no market for that type of music. A series of rehearsals followed during which time it became apparent that kernodle just did not fit in. he felt there was no money or future in it and his only contribution to Cash’s career can be heard on an early attempt at Wide Open Road.

They arrived at Sun with a sound that would change very little over the years and for all his musical shortcomings it was Luther Perkins who developed the guitar sound that complemented Cash’s stark baritone. Luther would just keep time and always dreaded the solos for fear of messing up. Sam Phillip’s said of cash’s voice “Johnny Cash is probably the only singer who has a great voice, as such, whether you like it or not.”

With Luther playing his limited lead guitar, Marshall on bass and Cash playing rhythm they recorded the secular Cash composition Hey Porter and, needing a song for the other side, a few days later they taped Cry, Cry, Cry. Both tracks were destined to become the first single credited to Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two. Released in June 1955 Cry, Cry, Cry reached number 14 on the Billboard country charts. For his second single Cash returned to the track he had written during his spell in the Air Force after seeing the film Inside The Walls Of Folsom Prison. Folsom Prison Blues reached the top five in the country charts and was followed in 1956 with his first pop chart entry I Walk The Line. Cash recorded for Sun from 1954 to 1958 recording many of the tracks that would become regulars in his live shows – Big River, Get Rhythm and Give My Love To Rose but he still wanted to record a gospel album. The closest he would get during his time with Sun Records were Belshazar and I Was There When It Happened.

By 1957 Cash was becoming restless and it was clear to Sam Phillips that he was planning a move to the Columbia label. Cash refused to provide new material for sessions and he was keeping his best songs for Columbia as he had been promised a better royalty deal. His producer at the time, Jack Clement, had been trying to steer Cash’s career towards a more pop orientated audience adding unneccesary overdubs to his recordings and, forseeing the move, scheduled a series of sessions that would give them enough material for at least the next four or five years. Convinced that the teenage market did not want to hear songs about the old west, Jack Clement composed Ballad Of A Teenage Queen on which he complemented the basic Tennessee Two sound with his own acoustic guitar and a vocal chorus. With no new compositions from Cash, Clements teamed up with Charlie Rich to work on some new songs, the best of which was Guess Things Happen That Way. the material he recorded during these last few sessions included five tracks from the pen of the great Hank Williams which, when issued, were subject to unneccessary overdubs. With his imminent switch to Columbia cash hoped that much of this material would never see the light of day. How wrong he was!

During his time with Sun only one LP was released, With His Hot And Blue Guitar, although several more would be released after his departure. In the UK Cash’s releases were issued on the London label and most of these are now very collectable. His first LP release in the UK was Songs That Made Him Famous, a collection of overdubbed songs while With His Hot And Blue Guitar was finally issued as Rock Island Line. There were also four extended play albums released on the London label. Three of these were identical to their American issues but one was exclusive to the UK. After his departure, Sun continued to issue singles and albums for several years to come. many of the singles would compete with his own Columbia releases for chart placings.

Although cash composed rock ‘n’ roll songs during his time with Sun Records he was ill at ease with that sort of material. Despite this he did write two tracks that were recorded by other artists. Warren Smith covered Rock ‘n’ Roll Ruby which was released as his first single in 1956 while Roy Orbison added his own touch to You’re My Baby (Little Wooly Booger) the same year. Cash’s versions of these songs eventually found a release in the eighties on the 5-album Charly Records set The Sun Years although he is often quoted as saying that You’re My Baby was “the worst thing I ever conceived.”

The material Johnny Cash and the Tennessee two recorded at Sun with Cash’s limited vocals, Luther’s limited picking and Grant’s functional bass playing produced some of the most original country music since the days of Hank Williams.

Columbia Records & The Concept Albums

Johnny Cash had been approached by Don Law in November 1957 following an appearance on Town Hall Party enquiring whether Carl Perkins and Cash would be interested in signing with the label at the expiration of their current contracts, approximately eight months away. Both artists said they would and Cash officially joined in August the following year. Sam didn’t understand why Cash wanted to go and there were misunderstandings following his departure, but moving to Columbia was the logical next step and he left with few regrets. He had new ideas, special projects, the desire to record gospel material and concept albums and he felt Sun was limited. Although Columbia would record Cash with much the same instrumentation they never captured that original Sun Sound.

At his first session for his new label he cut a couple of religious tracks, It Was Jesus and Lead Me Father and these would appear later on his first gospel album. All Over Again was his first single for Columbia and peaked at number 38 in the pop charts while the follow up Don’t Take Your Guns To Town stalled at number 32. His first two albums The Fabulous Johnny Cash and Songs Of Our Soil were collections of country standards and Cash compositions, while his third album, Hymns By Johnny Cash, fulfilled a long standing ambition. Sometime during 1960 the Tennessee Two became the Tennessee Three with the addition of drummer W. S. ‘Fluke’ Holland who had worked previously for Carl Perkins.

Throughout the sixties Cash recorded a series of what can be called concept albums, long before the term was invented. Following the format of songs accompanied by narratives these examined the different aspects and cultures of American life. For each of these projects Cash would spend time researching and reading about the subject matter.

The 1960 release Ride This Train was a musical travelogue, a collection of songs and narratives that told the story of the people, incidents and locations of Americana set to a background of train noises. The listener is taken from coal-mining communities through Cajun country and into Mississippi through songs like Loading Coal, Dorraine Of Ponchartrain and Goin’ To Memphis. Two years later and the subject matter had changed to the working man. Blood, Sweat And Tears relates the story of an oil worker in Roughneck, the hard times experienced by an unemployed sharecropper in Busted, the legendary train driver Casey Jones and the steel drivin’ man in The Legend Of John Henry’s Hammer.

Personal contact between Cash and Peter La Farge stimulated his interest in the plight of the American Indians which had first been expressed in 1959 with his recording of Old Apache Squaw. His concern for their treatment was reflected in the single The Ballad Of Ira Hayes and the controversial Bitter Tears album, both released in 1964, which included material by both La Farge and Cash. Tracks like Custer, As Long As The Grass Shall Grow, White Girl and The Vanishing Race told the true story of the Indians as opposed to that depicted in countless films. The New York Times called Bitter Tears “One of the best LP’s to emerge from the 60’s folk movement.” He even took out an advert in Billboard in reply to the radio stations refusal to play the single. For several years he had wanted to put on a benefit show for the Sioux Indians and his chance came in December 1968. the show was held at the St. Francis Indian Mission, St. Francis, South Dakota and a film crew from New York filmed the show and the events that followed for an hour and a half documentary on Cash for transmission in early 1969. During the show he performed several songs from the Bitter Tears album although the highlight of the show was his rendition of The Ballad Of Ira Hayes. Before singing the song he told the audience, “Let’s have the house lights turned up so we can look each other in the eye and tell it like it really is.”

Having dealt with the plight of the American Indian, Cash then turned to the American West of the late 19th century. Before starting work on the project he spent months immersed in books, magazines and conversations with, among other, Tex Ritter. The outcome was the two album set Ballads Of The True West. Sitting alongside the narrations were songs like The Road To Kaintuck, The Ballad Of Boot Hill, Hardin Wouldn’t Run and Johnny Reb, which told the story of this important period of American history.

By the mid-1960’s Cash’s career had hit an all-time low with a serious addiction to prescribed drugs along with the occasional night spent in prison, more for his own personal safety than that of anybody else. He was arrested in 1965 for trying to smuggle amphetamines across the Mexican border and was fined $125,000 for starting a fire in Los Padres national Wildlife Refuge. All these personal problems were having an adverse effect on his career when he started missing sessions and shows. His personal life at this stage may have been a mess but he still managed to place several songs on the chart including Ring Of Fire and It Ain’t Me Babe, a Bob Dylan track, on which he duetted with June Carter. Ring Of Fire had been written by Merle Kilgore and June Carter and recorded by June’s sister Anita. Cash had told Anita he that he would give her six months and if her recording was not a hit he would release the song himself. When Cash recorded the song it was with the addition of Mexican trumpets, an idea that had come to him in a dream. In 1968 June Carter became the second Mrs. Johnny Cash and nearly all of cash’s subsequent albums would include at least one duet. two of their singles, Jackson and the Tim Hardin track If I Were A Carpenter both won Grammy Awards. The bad times of the mid-sixties were now behind him and better times lay ahead.

Inside The Walls Of A Prison

As early as 1955 Cash had written and sung about prisons and throughout his career the subject matter would be a regular source of inspiration for his songs. Doin’ My Time, Folsom Prison Blues, The Wall, San Quentin and Starkville City Jail are just a few of the numbers recorded and performed regularly throughout his career. As early as 1961 Cash had played concerts for inmates of some of America’s most notorious prisons and at an early concert in San Quentin future country music star Merle Haggard was in the front row!

Cash’s career took an upward swing with the release of a live album recorded at the notorious Folsom Prison in 1968 and it became one of his biggest sellers. It was producer Bob Johnston who suggested that Cash should walk out on stage unannounced and say those immortal words “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash” before kicking off Folsom Prison Blues. The result was incredible and captured on the subsequent album release. So successful was this introduction that it remained a part of his concert appearances for years to come. The atmosphere on the album was electric as was the ‘captive’ audiences response to material like Twenty Five Minutes To Go, Cocaine Blues and Dark As A Dungeon. Although the original album was edited before release and certain comments were taken out the recent CD re-issue has restored some tracks and comments that add to the excitement of the original album. He repeated the exercise the following year with a successful concert at San Quentin which was also filmed and televised by the British TV company Granada. The Shel Silverstein composition A Boy Named Sue, taken from the San Quentin album gave Cash his first UK top 20 hit in 1969 when it reached a respectable number 4 on the chart. Cash only learnt the song the day before the concert. As with the Folsom album this has recently been re-issued in an expanded form on CD.

The excitement of all this success was soon soured by the news that guitarist Luther Perkins had been seriously burnt in a fire at his home. Perkins, who had been such an important part of the sound behind Johnny Cash died a few days later. Carl Perkins, no relation, filled in for several months before Bob Wootton took over as lead guitarist with the Tennessee Three.

There was no doubt that 1969 was one of Cash’s most successful years. Hot on the heels of his prison albums he swept the board at the Country Music Association Awards taking five of the awards including ‘Entertainer Of The Year’, ‘Male Vocalist Of The Year’ and ‘Album Of The Year’ for San Quentin. Shelby Singleton, who had purchased the entire Sun records catalogue released twenty singles and numerous albums on his Sun International label in what he called the ‘Summer Cash’ campaign.

Throughout the seventies and early eighties Cash continued to release albums and singles, and despite many being up to the standard of his earlier material, they could not repeat the success of the late-sixties. After thirty years Columbia/CBS, unwisely, dropped him from their label and a short spell with Mercury records followed. It is a surprise that he managed to secure another record deal following his last single for CBS. Chicken In Black was one of the worst singles he released and the accompanying video, featuring Cash dressed as a chicken and robbing a bank, did little to improve the situation.

The Gospel Road

As previously mentioned Cash had wanted to record gospel music as early as 1955 but Sam Phillips, not seeing a commercial market, was not prepared to venture into this field. It was only after his move to Columbia in 1959 that the opportunity to record gospel music became a reality. During the early sixties two gospel albums were issued, Hymns By Johnny Cash and Hymns From The Heart released in 1959 and 1961 respectively. Both albums featured traditional material alongside Cash originals and, although not gaining the same chart action as his regular material, both albums were well received. Like Phillips, producer Don Law knew the albums would not be commercial successes but realised the sales potential and knew that the albums would recoup their costs. Cash followed these albums in 1962 with the single release of Peace In The Valley, a track that had been covered by Elvis Presley in 1957. In mid-1968 John and June travelled to the Holy Land to record material for a new gospel album. One of the highlights, and a concert favourite, was the Carl Perkins composition Daddy Sang Bass which was also issued as a single in 1968. Gospel music has remained a major part of cash’s career and there are very few occasions when an album or concert did not include a gospel track. Having had the opportunity to record gospel material Cash turned his attention to another project, a film on the life of Christ. This dream became a reality in 1974 with the release of The Gospel Road. Cash produced, scored and narrated the film which he described as “my life’s proudest work.” The accompanying two-album set featured material by some of America’s most gifted songwriters, including Kris Kristofferson, Joe South, John Denver and Cash himself.

Between January and June 1979, Cash concentrated on a series of sessions for yet another album of religious material, this time a double. Released in late-1979 on the Cachet label, and subsequently re-issued as a single album on CBS, A Believer Sings The Truth was a real ‘family’ affair with guest appearances by Cindy Cash, June Carter-Cash, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Jan Howard and bass player Marshall Grant. Unlike the earlier albums this one concentrated on more contemporary songs and included When He Comes, Over The Next Hill and the old Sister Rosetta Tharpe classic This Train Is Bound For Glory.

Throughout the wilderness years of drug abuse it was to gospel music that Cash often turned and there is no doubt that this kind of material was a major part of his career.

Creative Resurgence

Following his departure from Mercury in the early nineties Cash finally found a sympathetic home at Rick Rubin’s American label where he recorded the acclaimed American Recordings album, earning him another Grammy Award for ‘Best Contemporary Folk Song Album’, and a new legion of fans. Over seventy tracks were recorded for the project, mostly featuring just Cash and his guitar. The albums concept was sin and redemption and Cash has always stated that the album should have been called “painfully honest.” The opening track, Delia’s Gone, was turned into a video and featured the UK model Kate Moss. Scenes of her being tied up and shot were too much for MTV and they banned certain scenes of the video. During a concert Cash said about the song, “It’s not an anti-woman song... it’s an anti-Delia song!”

The 1996 follow-up Unchained included covers of material by Beck (Rowboat) and Soundgarden (Rusty Cage) and featured guest musicians Tom Petty, Marty Stuart and Mick Fleetwood. In 2001 Solitary Man: American III was released and, again, received critical acclaim from the music press. MOJO magazine voted the album the top album of 2001 beating the likes of Madonna and Travis.

Cash is the only living artist to be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll, Country Music and Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame and is currently putting the finishing touches to his new album, provisionally called American IV.

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