The Best Of

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Every home should have a Johnny Cash compilation. Cash is a genuine titan of popular music, whose finest work should be as venerated as anything by Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, David Bowie or Brian Wilson, and this collection does as good a job of beginning to explain why as any. The virtue of Cash's music is its simplicity. His brutally reductive take on country, set to his distinctive boom-chicka-boom backbeat, directs all of the listener's attention to his supernaturally world-weary voice (even as a teenager, Cash sounded about a thousand years old). This collection is a judicious mix of covers (Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" among them) and original Cash standards. That the producers of this record have a genuine empathy with their subject is confirmed by their inclusion of a live version of the triumphantly nihilist "Folsom Prison Blues" (once identified by Ice-T, no less, as a progenitor of gangsta rap) taped at one of Cash's famous prison concerts . The cheers that greet the line "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" are the eeriest confirmation of credibility by an audience upon a performer ever recorded. --Andrew Mueller

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-10-27 rating:
Rerecorded hell!
This is a re-record from 1998-ish. I own it - I was on holiday and in desperate need of some Johnny when I bought it. Unfortunately this is rubbish. Spend your money elsewhere. There are much better albums out there with the original recordings!

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review by: date: 2007-09-21 rating:
Not the real thing
Most, if not all, of the four reviews already on this page, and the Amazon review itself, are mislocated or confuse this album (Spectrum 554 383-2) with another similar one (notice how the reviewers refer to tracks that are not, in fact, in this listing!). This particular album is not the original recordings, but one of those studio remakes from decades later, probably 1998 so far as can be told from the cover notes. Johnny sounds tired (how many times must he have sung 'Ring of Fire' before he came to make this?).

Of course, you get digital quality with a remake, but I'd much rather have the raw and passionate originals. Caveat emptor.

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review by: date: 2006-04-21 rating:
Blue collar hero
This single CD contains the best of Johnny Cash prior to his resurgence in the late 90s in collaboration with producer Rick Rubin and is difficult to fault with regards to content. All of the absolutely essential classics are included such a I Walk The Line, Ring Of Fire and a duet of Jackson with his enduring soulmate and second wife June Carter.

Cash was one of the few artists who was successfully considered a "man of the people" throughout his career. Tellingly for such a blue-collar hero, his two most famous and critically acclaimed albums were recorded live in American prisons and this compilation features Folsom Prison Blues from the At Folsom Prison LP and the funny A Boy Name Sue from At San Quentin.

The Cash sound stays similar throughout this Best Of with Johnny's deep vocals and fast country-ish acoustic supported by sparing rock'n'roll influenced lead guitar licks, simple root note bass and tight snare-heavy drumming. Female backing vocals and other instruments, such as the brass on Ring Of Fire, are used on occasions to embellish the arrangements with the superb train-like harmonica on Orange Blossom Special being particularly well played and effective.

Having said all this, I'm not a particularly massive fan of Johnny Cash's music though it shows something of the almost universal esteem with which he's held that I have gone firmly on the defensive here. Nevertheless, it's still good to have one JC LP with all the classics and for this purposes, The Best Of Johnny Cash does a very good job indeed.

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review by: wolvie-ware date: 2006-01-26 rating:
I'm a beginner!
Having just seen the new Johnny Cash biopic, Walk The Line, and marvelled at Joaquin Phoenix's wonderful performances as the man in black, I just had to check out the real man's work.

And this was probably the best place for a beginner to start. It includes all his famous songs - Ring of Fire, Walk the Line - plus a couple I hadn't heard before - Sue - and also included my personal favourite, Jackson.

In fact, the only thing I wanted more of out of this best of collection, was more duets with June, as Jackson was the only one on this CD.

A live version of Fulsom prison blues is also very memorable. The Cd gives a very broad range of Cash's music, from early songs to the height of his career, and the only track that's sorely missed is Cry Cry Cry.

Still, essential listening, and a great foundation to start on Cash's other works.


review by: date: 2004-09-14 rating:
Beginner to Cash? Then start here...!
I'd say this is my fourth year as a serious fan of the big JC. This 'Best Of' here, being my first purchase.

You have to understand how important it is to begin with Johnny Cash's "Columbia" years. The purest and most quintessential of all Cash's work is the Columbia era. Forget the 'Sun' era, it's way to vintage when stood against his Columbia recordings [60's].

Every track on this Best Of is genius in it's own right. Right from Ring of Fire to the echos of Walk the Line...and the beautiful but cynical 'It Ain't Me Babe' - great song to help convince you being single is the way it should be!

These songs are the punk of their times, they are stripped of glitzy expensive recordings, they're raw, they powerful and they all a GREAT chapter in any person's life who knows the feeling of love, hard times, and escapism...

Miss it at your peril.

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