Johnny Cash - the Album-by-Album Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by BeatleJWOL, Sep 20, 2020.

  1. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    Got this album, bought from a Victoria Station restaurant! There was one in King of Prussia, PA years ago. One time, while my parents and I were coming home from selling at a train show, the way home always passed the restaurant. Being train nuts, we'd always notice the train cars that made up the restaurant.

    After one good day of selling at a show, my dad decided we'd have dinner there before getting home. So we went there for an early dinner. The food wasn't bad, but it was more the surroundings that we loved!

    On the way out, my dad noticed the album there for sale, and both being a huge Johnny Cash and train fan, had to get it! So that album joined my dad's other favorite Cash LPs in rotation on the Fisher sound system.

    I've got the album now, and actually like it! It's something different to play once in a while, and just a fun album to play, IMO. Part for the music, part for the memory of the worlds of Cash music and trains colliding in one spot at one time!
     
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  2. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Love the story, and didn’t know those restaurants made it that far North. King of Prussia is the home of posh shopping today - more in line with June’s passions than Johnny’s (she loved shopping in NYC).
     
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  3. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    Yeah, I think it may have been one of the farthest north ones they had. I can still think of smelling the steak and burgers they had there!
     
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  4. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    As it turns out, most of us really like this album!
     
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  5. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I liked it enough to do a digital transfer when I found a very clean copy of it in the wild. I remember it being a rather short play, but good.
     
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  6. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I've written a bit about it in another thread. I got to know Johnny over a period from 1990 on to his last year of performances. When he told me he was going to be recording in Los Angeles with Rick Ruben for a new album, and he began actual recording he said it was to be a gospel album. And that the basic tracks would be built up with additional backing vocals. That is nothing like the album ended up being. I think that they did some overdubbed sessions with gospel backing, and everyone agreed it was not working out quite as planned.
     
  7. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    That’s amazing. We’ll get there eventually on this thread, but I imagine those early times with Rubin were quite uncertain. Cash had been through so many producers at that point and really had no commercial viability.

    Also, despite gospel being core to his identity he had had very little success in that sphere. We’re about to cover the gospel album that Columbia simply shelved. Then the next one they let him release on the small Cadet label, and then another on Word. By the time he got to Mercury it was worse. They wouldn’t touch Return to the Promised Land with a ten foot pole, and that was it for Cash, really. Off to Branson you go...

    Yet as we’ll see in future conversations, Rubin drew on the material Cash was demoing during the Promised Land sessions. Plus, Johnny got that gospel album out (even if it wasn’t orchestrated as he seemed to prefer), and things like The Man Comes Around became album centrepieces, not just the obligatory gospel song tacked on at the end of the album (anyone remember J-E-S-U-S?).

    Hope to hear some more stories as we get to the 90’s!
     
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  8. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member Thread Starter

    Good morning everyone! Ha. Jokes.

    Strawberry Cake
    [​IMG]
    Live album by
    Johnny Cash
    Released
    March 1976
    Recorded September 21–22, 1975
    Venue London Palladium, London
    Genre Country, rock and roll, folk
    Length 35:03
    Label Columbia
    Producer Charlie Bragg

    This article is about live Johnny Cash album. For the cake, see Strawberry cake. (thanks Wikipedia)

    Strawberry Cake is a live album and 53rd overall album by country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1976. The album includes numerous pieces of between-song stage banter. The album includes several of Cash's most well-known early songs, such as "Big River", "I Still Miss Someone" and "Rock Island Line", as well as a number of more obscure compositions, some of which were performed by Cash for the first time; this includes "Strawberry Cake" and "Navajo". The title track was released as a single, but did poorly on the charts, peaking at No. 54.

    The concert was held and recorded at the London Palladium on September 21, 1975. An IRA bomb threat warning was given as June Carter Cash started to sing "The Church in the Wildwood" meant the theatre had to be evacuated but the show continued after the building was searched. The bomb threat announcement and the subsequent evacuation order is included on the recording and is, in fact, a "hidden" track and is not listed on the record sleeve or CD cover. Later, prior to the performance of "Destination Victoria Station," June Carter Cash is heard joking that the threat might have been made because she was about to sing.

    Track 7 is mislabelled on the sleeve as "Dialogue" but is, in fact, a comedic a capella duet performance by Cash and June Carter Cash of "Another Man Done Gone", a song Cash had recorded for Blood, Sweat and Tears. Prior to performing "Rock Island Line", a song Cash recorded for Sun Records, singer Lonnie Donegan, who had a major US hit with the song, is introduced in the audience.

    Track listing
    No. Title Writer(s) Length
    1.
    "Big River" Johnny Cash 3:07
    2. "Dialogue" — 0:39
    3. "Doin' My Time" Jimmie Skinner 2:28
    4. "Dialogue" — 0:23
    5. "I Still Miss Someone" Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash 2:55
    6. "Dialogue" — 0:43
    7. "Another Man Done Gone" (mislabeled as "Dialogue") Ruby Pickens Tartt, Vera Hall, John A. Lomax, Alan Lomax 1:11
    8. "I Got Stripes" Cash, Charlie Williams 2:19
    9. "Dialogue (introduction of June Carter Cash)" — 0:38
    10. "The Church in the Wildwood" (not listed on sleeve; interrupted by evacuation announcement) — 0:43
    11. "The Church in the Wildwood" / "Lonesome Valley" A. P. Carter 3:03
    12. "Dialogue" — 1:18
    13. "Strawberry Cake" Johnny Cash 3:06
    14. "Dialogue (introduction of Lonnie Donegan)" — 0:44
    15. "Rock Island Line" Lead Belly 3:25
    16. "Navajo" Johnny Cash 2:59
    17. "Dialogue" — 1:09
    18. "Destination Victoria Station" Johnny Cash 2:48
    19. "The Fourth Man" Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith 2:34

    Strawberry Cake - Wikipedia

    ~~~~~

    A fine live record, but the concert interruption might be the most interesting part. Still, Cash is in great form, the band sounds great, you get the Carter Family too, what's not to like?



    Let's do one more, for good measure...
     
  9. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member Thread Starter

    ...one live, one studio.

    One Piece at a Time
    [​IMG]
    Studio album by
    Johnny Cash
    Released
    May 17, 1976
    Recorded 1976
    Genre
    • Country
    • folk
    • blues
    Length 29:36
    Label Columbia
    Producer
    • Charlie Bragg
    • Don Davis
    One Piece at a Time is the 54th album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released in 1976 on Columbia Records. "One Piece at a Time," which was a #1 hit, is a humorous tale of an auto worker on the Detroit assembly line who puts together a car out of parts he swipes from the plant. "Sold Out of Flag Poles" also charted as a single, reaching #29 on the country singles charts. "Committed to Parkview", a Cash original, would be re-recorded in 1985 by Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, collectively known as The Highwaymen, on their first album, Highwayman; it is one of the few country songs sung from the perspective of a patient at a mental hospital.[citation needed]

    The album is notable for being credited to "Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three", a credit that hadn't been used on Cash releases since the 1960s, and for featuring Cash's recording of "Love Has Lost Again," written by his daughter, Rosanne Cash prior to the launch of her own solo career. On "Let There Be Country", the album's opening track, Cash shares songwriting credit with Shel Silverstein, who had written Cash's biggest hit up to this time, "A Boy Named Sue", which like "One Piece at a Time" was a comedic song.

    "Go On Blues" was later re-recorded during the American Recordings session with Rick Rubin. It was not on the album but part of the promo single for "Delia's Gone".

    Track listing
    All tracks composed by Johnny Cash, except where indicated.

    No. Title Writer(s) Length
    1.
    "Let There Be Country" Johnny Cash, Shel Silverstein 2:58
    2. "One Piece at a Time" Wayne Kemp 4:04
    3. "In a Young Girl's Mind" Hoyt Axton, Mark Dawson 3:09
    4. "Mountain Lady" 2:43
    5. "Michigan City Howdy Do" 2:26
    6. "Sold Out of Flag Poles" 2:45
    7. "Committed to Parkview" 3:14
    8. "Daughter of a Railroad Man" 3:12
    9. "Love Has Lost Again" Rosanne Cash 2:24
    10. "Go On Blues" 2:23

    One Piece at a Time (album) - Wikipedia

    ~~~~~

    I mean, what other song do you call out from this record?



    Wiki designates this page separate from the page for the song itself, which is also worthy of taking a look at, specifically:

    One Piece at a Time - Wikipedia

    Oh, and of course:
    Quite literally something you don't see every day. (also, what a shame! I'm not sure it would fit in the Johnny Cash Museum in Nashville, but it would have been an amazing addition to the collection.)

    Next: He shoots, he sings!
     
  10. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member Thread Starter

    RIDE THIS TRAIN: The Johnny Cash Album-by-Album thread INDEX

    The 1950s:
    Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! - October 14, 1957
    The Fabulous Johnny Cash - November 3, 1958
    Johnny Cash Sings the Songs That Made Him Famous - December 1, 1958 SUN COMPILATION

    Hymns by Johnny Cash - March 2, 1959
    Songs of Our Soil - July 6, 1959
    Greatest! - October 19, 1959 SUN COMPILATION

    1960 - 1964:
    Now, There Was a Song! - May 2, 1960
    Ride This Train - August 1, 1960
    Johnny Cash Sings Hank Williams - September 5, 1960 SUN COMPILATION
    Now Here's Johnny Cash - June 26, 1961 SUN COMPILATION

    Hymns from the Heart - April 2, 1962
    The Sound of Johnny Cash - June 4, 1962
    All Aboard the Blue Train with Johnny Cash - December 3, 1962 SUN COMPILATION
    Blood, Sweat and Tears - January 7, 1963
    Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash - July 8, 1963 COMPILATION
    "Tall Men" SINGLE / "Pick a Bale o' Cotton" SINGLE

    The Christmas Spirit - November 11, 1963
    Keep on the Sunny Side - April 6, 1964
    I Walk the Line - June 22, 1964
    Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian - October 26, 1964
    The Original Sun Sound of Johnny Cash - November 23, 1964 SUN COMPILATION

    1965-1969:
    Orange Blossom Special - February 22, 1965
    Johnny Cash Sings the Ballads of the True West - August 2, 1965 / Mean as Hell - March 1966
    Everybody Loves a Nut - May 2, 1966
    Happiness Is You - October 10, 1966
    Johnny Cash's Greatest Hits Volume 1 - 1967
    Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter - August 7, 1967

    From Sea to Shining Sea - January 15, 1968
    At Folsom Prison - May 6, 1968 LIVE

    Old Golden Throat - June 1968 COMPILATION
    The Heart of Johnny Cash - 1968 COMPILATION

    The Holy Land - January 6, 1969
    At San Quentin - June 16, 1969 LIVE
    More of Old Golden Throat - July 1969 COMPILATION

    1970-1974:
    Hello, I'm Johnny Cash - January 26, 1970 / "What Is Truth" SINGLE
    The Johnny Cash Show - October 19, 1970 LIVE
    I Walk the Line - November 23, 1970 / Little Fauss and Big Halsy - November 23, 1970 SOUNDTRACKS
    Man in Black - May 31, 1971
    A Thing Called Love - April 3, 1972
    America: A 200-Year Salute in Story and Song - August 7, 1972
    International Superstar - November 1972 COMPILATION
    The Johnny Cash Family Christmas - December 4, 1972
    Any Old Wind That Blows - January 15, 1973
    På Österåker - January 1973 LIVE
    The Gospel Road - April 2, 1973 SOUNDTRACK
    Johnny Cash and His Woman - September 3, 1973
    "Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup" SINGLE / "Pick the Wildwood Flower" SINGLE
    Ragged Old Flag - May 6, 1974
    The Junkie and the Juicehead Minus Me - September 23, 1974

    1975-1979:
    The Johnny Cash Children's Album - January, 1975
    Johnny Cash Sings Precious Memories - January, 1975
    John R. Cash - April 28, 1975
    Look at Them Beans - September 29, 1975
    Destination Victoria Station - 1975 COMPILATION
    Strawberry Cake - March 1976 LIVE
    One Piece at a Time - May 17, 1976

    Sites used to compile this thread:

    Johnny Cash albums discography - Wikipedia
    Johnny Cash singles discography - Wikipedia
    Music | Johnny Cash Official Site
    Johnny Cash | Discography | Discogs

    Other reference sites:
    Johnny Cash – Raise My Glass to the B-Side - @jalexander 's wonderful review site! Be sure to read between my posts in this thread for J's additional posts calling out contemporary singles and performances alongside the albums we're discussing.
    Home - Folsom Prison Blues - The Johnny Cash Discography, including a session-based discography listing recordings and performers by date
     
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  11. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I loved One Piece At A Time from the first time I heard it on the radio in 1976. I have to believe that even listeners who were not fans of Johnny Cash (Were there even such people on the planet at the time?) had to like the humor and cleverness of that song. I love the horns on Daughter Of A Railroad Man (No great surprise there).

    One thing I've noticed is that the sonics on this particular song and album seem to my ears to be really good for its time. Engineer Charlie Bragg had worked with Charlie Rich on his breakout blockbuster album, Behind Closed Doors, although the very gifted Lou Bradley ran the soundboard for most of the iconic songs from the album (Title single and The Most Beautiful Girl), but maybe he learned some tricks from him, Lol. Billy Sherrill had started out as an engineer himself, and according to Lou Bradley, he might reach over and adjust a knob occasionally (Lou said he sure wasn't going to slap Billy's hand away, because the guy knew what he was doing, Lol).
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
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  12. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    I simply cannot believed they demolished that piece of history. What a frigging shame. I would have given them a nice offer for it, Lol.
     
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  13. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    I’ll leave detailed thoughts later, but my immediate answer is Committed to Parkview. What a song.

    Also, are we going to cover the gospel album recorded before Strawberry Cake and released on Bootleg Vol IV?
     
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  14. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    Oh goodness, what a great song, easily the best song on the album. I had never played it before. This is a very clever and sincere bit of writing by Cash that obviously reflects on some of his own experiences. Wow, why is this not considered a classic Cash song? Maybe it is, Lol. Oh yeah, its got Jerry Carrigan on the drums and David Briggs on the piano. My favorite part of the song, besides the clever lyrics, might just be George Tidwell's very subtle trumpet playing as the song fades out. I think this is a brilliant song and features a great vocal performance by Cash. Thanks Jeff for drawing our attention to this one.

     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
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  15. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    That’s the problem when you get this deep into Cash’s catalogue. It’s simply so vast that it’s, first, inevitable that it won’t be A+ album after A+ album that even where albums are good, it’s just another good album. And, second, in the context of a sea of merely good albums, truly great material like this simply gets lost. In this particular case, it would be revisited by the Highwaymen, but it’s still lesser known.
     
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  16. RSteven

    RSteven Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brookings, Oregon
    That is a truly great point, and I find the very same thing happens with Elvis Presley's song catalogue. Some really fine songs and performances got buried in both the mediocre soundtrack period of the 60's and several of his average to weak 70's studio albums, yet there is some gold to mine on almost of those albums. Peter Guralnick once said that "You can almost drown in the music library of Charlie Rich," and the Elvis biographer meant that as a compliment. I think you could easily say the same thing about Johnny and Elvis's music catalogues.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
  17. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Yeah, these guys simply came from a different world.

    Compare it to an 80s band like U2 who were releasing about an album a year, then started slowing to every two years, then ultimately every 4-5 years. Even when they did a two-part album (Innocence and Experience) they were three years apart.

    My favourite current band, Khruangbin, have released three albums since their 2015 debut plus the odd single or EP. If you only release 10 songs in 3 years, they’d better be good!

    Cash came from a factory era. Two albums a year, which he did consistently for decades (apart from that 18 month gap in the early 60s). In general, albums were hammered out in a week or two, sometimes a day or two. This is why I find the outtakes particularly interesting because sometimes you see a song evolving over a few years. Something must have been driving him to get a particular song right. In the 70s, these were largely gospel songs, and his insistence on releasing such albums despite Columbia’s lack of enthusiasm speaks volumes.

    And of course in 1975 alone he put out five albums! Most bands would be lucky to do that in a career.
     
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  18. Michael Manning

    Michael Manning Forum Resident

    Location:
    Nashville, TN
    Strawberry Cake is one of my favorite Cash albums. I love how he and his band sounded at this time with his vocals drenched in echo. I had been itching for a mid '70s live album from Cash and there it is. When it came out I was 12 years old and had a few albums in my collection (maybe 14 LPs) and my mom thought I had too many records. The day we saw this album in a local store she wouldn't let me buy it. "Son, you've got too many records," she said and literally pushed me past the record section. Well, it was around 20 years later when I finally got a copy of this, by then, hard-to-find album. BTW, I've got about 8,000 LPs now.
     
  19. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member Thread Starter

    I've got Bootleg Vol IV way on down my list but you are more than welcome to call it out this week, or we can wait. Either way is fine by me :)
     
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  20. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Happy to wait, although I’d recommend we discuss A Believer Sings the Truth and Believe in Him - both of which are in Bootleg Vol IV- in chronological order as they were released at the time of recording (whereas the third album on that collection was not).
     
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  21. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Strawberry Cake is a very solid live album and distinct to previous ones. I think of them as:
    • Folsom: the wild one
    • San Quentin: the really personal one (with lots of new material)
    • Madison Square Garden: the urban gentleman
    • Pa Österåker: the singer songwriter live album (with no entourage)
    By the mid-1970s, Cash was shifting to a simpler songwriting style after embracing the more literate approach of Kris Kristofferson for several years. This album really captures that simpler style.

    The first few early Cash numbers are killer. Despite a five-piece band (including Jerry Hensley on lead guitar over Bob Wooten’s classic riffs), the arrangements are really stripped back and capture that classic Tennessee Three vibe perfectly. And then instead it all the hits, we get several new songs. Strawberry Cake is a decent duet with June. It had been debuted a few months earlier as an acoustic duet with electric guitar overdubbed in the studio, but that version has never been released. Navajo is an unreleased number about Native rights, a cause close to Cash’s heart. And Destination Victoria Station is the new train song from the compilation of the same name. So like San Quentin, Cash uses a live album to push new stuff, rather than Cash in.

    Another highlight are the dialogues between songs. They really convey Cash as master storyteller helping his audience engage with his material. Great stuff.

    My longer review: Album Review: Johnny Cash – Strawberry Cake
     
  22. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Johnny collaborated with Earl Scruggs for an anniversary album the previous year. I Still Miss Someone and My Ship Will Sail were released on Vol 2.
     
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  23. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    These were produced by Bob Johnston too!
     
  24. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    It’s All Over was a single only release.
     
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  25. jalexander

    jalexander Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    The b-side was a duet with June.
     

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