JOHNNY CASH

The man comes around

2LP/CD, american

Yes, it is true, Johnny Cash’s Farm has become some sort of Mecca for musicians and recording with the man has become like an audience or absolution, which many musicians try for. Therefore it is a good thing, that the list of people playing and singing with Johnny Cash is still picked with great care. The same goes for the list of songs, he chooses to sing and record, and that Johnny Cash is still able to make any song he sings his own, in his very own style and atmosphere. And the older he gets, the more deepness and wisdom vibrate with the lyrics and the songs. Therefore let’s all hope he is able to provide us with many more songs and stories, because with a man of his age, his time is limited. It is impossible to rank the “american recordings”-albums, they are each essential.

You should see this last part of Johnny Cash’s career, started and guarded by Rick Rubin as one big whole, where each new record with American is just another chapter of one big whole. And “The man comes around” is another very fine chapter full with big emotions, deep wisdom and the energy life springing out everywhere. It is unbelievable how Johnny Cash can take songs as commercialised, sweetened and mainstream such as “Bridge over troubled water” (Simon & Garfunkel) or “Desperado” (The Eagles if I am not mistaken) and make them good, not only by arrangement, but by finding an edge in the lyrics and message of the songs which really draw them into the universe of Johnny Cash. I mean, who would have thought that Sting(!) is able to write a song from the perspective of a murderer? But this fits perfectly into a row of songs which have been a tradition in country music: “Five more Minutes to go”, “Long Black Veil” or “The Banks of the Ohio” and many more all deal with the same matter. Or just take the part called “Murder” from Johnny Cash’s trilogy “Love, God Murder” and you’ll see that there is a strong line between them. Moreover, the added vocals by Fiona Apple really make that song an epic and not the 3-minute radio-hit it once was.

The highlights, songwise, of this album are quite others. There is “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode, which comes in a thundering acoustic version and vibrates with the well-known religiousness of Johnny Cash. By the way, the acoustic guitar is played by John Frusciante of Red Hot Chili Peppers-fame and always the aspiring rockstar. Well, there you go. Then there is “I am so lonesome I could cry” which features the perfect pairing I ever could think of: Johnny Cash doing a duet with Nick Cave and it is a song by Hank Williams. Or rather “the” song by Hank Williams. And you can hear how Nick Cave really tries to stand up to this big man, and you can be sure that Nick Cave knows more than most other people, who he is trying to compete with. And he does well as he always does. Ever since Johnny Cash covered “The Mercy Seat” the connection between Nick Cave and Johnny Cash has deepened and widened at the same time. (Nick Cave announces “The Mercy Seat” at his concerts as a “Johnny Cash-song”.) Another highlight for me is “Danny Boy”, that Irish traditional that is usually sung, when somebody dies or at the wake of a young man (young man in Ireland is up to 65 years old.) but there are a lot of personal reasons in that for me. (Hey, Danny Boy!)

Maybe the most important song on this collection is the title song “The Man comes around”, one of four Cash originals on this record, and I would advise you to read the liner notes written by Johnny Cash himself about that song to get the real meaning of it. I could only shorten and thereby distort the meaning. But it starts with a voice citing lines from far apart with a crackling voice, very much like a telephone line into the afterworld. Isn’t that a scary thought? Getting a phonecall by a dead man. Moreover, it might hint at the fact that Johnny Cash knows very well that he is almost due, that he is getting prepared to go the way of all earthly creatures and this is also where the song comes from. The whole album actually features this feeling of a man getting ready for his last ride, sorting out his businesses and feelings, especially in all the love songs – which there are plenty: “Give my love to Rose” (an old Cash favourite), “First time I saw your face” and “In my Life” (by John Lennon). – and the songs about criminals or people suddenly meeting their fate – such as “Desperado” (with Don Henley himself singing), “Streets of Laredo” (who would ever have thought someone could give life for real to that old song again) or even “Wichita Lineman”.

Also the line-up of old heroes round up here to play on this record is impressing. Just let me give you a few names: Glen Campell, Billy Preston, Randy Scruggs, Jack Clement, Marty Stuart and many more. This is really an old men’s league, but they are getting better every year. Let’s just hope they all have a few years more, even if it is only for the most greedy and egoistic wishes, such as: getting more of these songs to hear. Or to give everyone the chance to stumble upon the work of this great singer and songwriter, maybe the last real songwriter in that league and size still alive. It always amazes me, how big Johnny Cash has become again, how many magazines and newspapers write about his newest record and so on. I still remember, about twenty years ago or so, he sung a song in “Wetten dass..”, the biggest tv-show in german-speaking television at that time, and people argued a lot about him being completely out of sync and practically a stumbling wreck. Then word went around that his wife had died only a few days ago, but there he was, trying to stand as tall as ever doing his job, which at this time he described as singing songs until the world was at peace. (The whole man in black thing, y’know.) Most people had already given up on Johnny Cash at that time. I was only about ten years old or so, but my father handed me some records by Johnny Cash early on and I listened to them the whole years through. People looked at me strangely when I played his songs on the guitar, “Man that’s country! How can you listen to that?”. Then the first “American recordings” came out, and I was out and over myself with joy, so much that I told the owner of the independent-shop where I bought it, how I felt. And what I got was a wise-ass smirk that really told me what a twerp I am. Well, it told me not to talk to those people again, they just sell them records. Now times have changed, my collection of Cash albums has hit the thirty-mark, and I will still stick to the man and I do hope that he will be around for a lot more years because when he finally goes it will be a sad sad day indeed. But as he says: “We’ll meet again” and the whole world will sing along.

11/2002