Realized I haven’t commented on One Piece at a Time. First off, this is Johnny’s first album with Motown producer Don Davis, and the results are quite impressive. Rather than pushing Johnny in a soul direction, he pushes him back to basics. The accreditation to “and the Tennessee Three” is appropriate as most of the songs have a real classic Cash vibe. Johnny’s vocals are strong on this album too. Once the foundation is laid, the songs are augmented here and there with supporting instrumentation, but the arrangements are overdone. Strings on Mountain Mama. Jew’s harp on Sold out of Flagpoles. Brass on Daughter of a Railroad Man. A few highlights are Let There Be Country - really catchy. The classic title cut. The heart breaking Love Has Lost Again. The thought provoking Committed to Parkview. The awesome lead guitar on Michigan City Howdy Do. And the most Sun-like song in a while, Go On Blues. A solid album though easy to forget. Also, no June songs here. My longer review: Album Review: Johnny Cash – One Piece at a Time
The Last Gunfighter Ballad Studio album by Johnny Cash Released January 1977 Recorded February 21, 1975–October 6, 1976 Studio House of Cash Studios (Hendersonville) Genre Country outlaw country Length 30:23 Language English Label Columbia Producer Charlie Bragg Johnny Cash The Last Gunfighter Ballad is the 55th album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1977. Highlights include the title track, "Far Side Banks of Jordan" and "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine", the latter of which features Cash's brother Tommy Cash. The title track was the album's only single, reaching #38 on the country charts; it tells the tale of an aging gunslinger who finds himself unable to deal with the modern way of life. "Ballad of Barbara" is a new recording of a song that had first appeared as the B-side of Cash's 1973 single "Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup", while "City Jail" is a studio version of a track first released on the live album På Österåker. "Far Side Banks of Jordan", a duet featuring Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, is a remake of a track first recorded in 1975 for a planned Gospel album that was recorded in full, but for reasons unknown was never released (the 1975 version of the song, along with the other tracks, would not be released until 2012). The song is noted for its lyrics which feature June pondering the possibility of dying before her husband (she would in fact die several months before Cash in 2003). Track listing No. Title Writer(s) Length 1. "I Will Dance With You" Jack Wesley Routh 2:49 2. "The Last Gunfighter Ballad" Guy Clark 2:48 3. "Far Side Banks of Jordan" (with June Carter Cash) Terry Smith 2:42 4. "Ridin' on the Cotton Belt" Cash 3:25 5. "Give It Away" Tom T. Hall 2:55 6. "You're So Close to Me" Mac Davis 2:50 7. "City Jail" Cash 3:56 8. "Cindy I Love You" Cash 2:15 9. "Ballad of Barbara" (with Tommy Cash) Cash 3:49 10. "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine" Gene Autry, Jimmy Long 2:54 The Last Gunfighter Ballad - Wikipedia ~~~~~ Another solid record, and I think a standout here is the Johnny/June duet. Your usual blend of sadness and transcendence that comes with all of Cash's best gospel work. Also lots of fun to hear Johnny and Tommy taking on The Singing Cowboy at the end here. Let me know what makes this album special for you! Next: Storytime with Cash.
Another one I can't recall any of the songs off it. I have the last few albums still to play but hope to find time this week to rectify that.
Thanks, I checked it out. Doesn't seem to have the gravitas of the live version. The music almost seems too happy for the lyrics. I'll listen a few more times though.
Agreed. Pa Osteraker is your friend: Such a good album if you want the early 70s stuff without the orchestration.
That's really nice, better recorded than the original. Although I do like the strings on the original.
A few thoughts on The Last Gunfighter Ballad... first, the title track, written by Guy Clarke, is pretty decent. A tune about fading ways, that probably reflected some of the zeitgeist in rural America at the time, and even America more broadly as it came out of Nixon and Vietnam. But, man, what a lost opportunity. If I pick up a Johnny Cash album with that title, and see Cash on the cover pointing his gun at me with a hat drawn down over his eyes, what am I supposed to expect? An album of bad@$$ cowboy songs. And this was the height of the outlaw movement, no less. But do we get that? Um, no. Much like the Junkie, the Juicehead, and Me we get some dark material opening the album and then a mixed bag of material following on. There’s not really any bad songs here, but just a collection of decent mid-tempo 70s country. A few highlights, though: The opening track has a real Waylon vibe with the clavinet bassline. Also written by stepson-in-law Jack Routh who will be important in Cash’s band over the next few years Far Side Banks of Jordan is an excellent gospel time with June Give It Away is a very catchy, and positive Tom T Hall tune Ballad of Barbara is an improvement over the earlier b-side version and manages to combine the bass-heavy Waylon sound with a sun records vibe Nice connections to his father and brother in this album too City Jail was released in live format on Pa Osteraker. The studio version lacks the punch of the live format My longer review: Album Review: Johnny Cash – The Last Gunfighter Ballad
Bob Luman released four Cash covers with backing vocals from Johnny including this glacial rendering of I Still Miss Someone
Rolling up on page 30, just want to say I appreciate your contributions very much, @jalexander . Really fills in the gaps in these many albums.
Johnny and June would often perform "Far Side Banks of Jordan" at concerts around the time of this album release. They would re-record the song for June's 1999 Press On album and perform it on stage a few times during the last couple years of their lives.
I think the newer version of Sunday Morning Coming Down is missing the emotion and sadness of the original version as well. I also miss the majestic string and brass arrangement by Bill Walker, but we all know that I am just that kind of guy, Lol.
I really like that version by Bob Luman. Wow, I am going to have to pull out my Bear Family box set of Bob Luman's and give that album a spin. I always loved his original version of Lonely Women Make Good Lovers as well.
@BeatleJWOL and @jalexander have made this Johnny Cash thread a very interesting and highly informative read. I am discovering music by Cash that I never knew about and rediscovering songs that I had forgotten about. I never realized just how strong my emotional connection to his music was until Jason started this fine adventure. I knew I loved Cash's Sun period, but I had truly forgotten how much I liked some of his 70's material, but then again that's when I really fell in love with country music.
I’ve learned lots here too. I love hearing stories from those of you who were there. Even where my age overlaps with parts of Cash’s career, there was no country music in my house! In particular, I dont know the songs that Johnny was hearing back in the day like some of you, so getting that context is so helpful. Working through the albums has also given me the impetus to revisit my blog a bit too. I wrote my reviews working off of Wikipedia’s discography, my own collection, and what I knew of release dates. For this thread I’ve been following the sessionography, which showed some mistakes on my initial run where outtakes were associated with the wrong albums. I’ve also discovered a few new songs along the way like June’s mid-60s single. Last, after three years of inactivity I’ve started working on my reviews again. Hopefully I’ll keep ahead of the thread so I have content to offer in the forthcoming albums! I finished the 70s last night, which was a major milestone. Keep it up!
Also, a couple of outtakes from the One Piece era weren’t on YouTube so I uploaded them last night. Temptation is a fantastic June duet that they were still singing in the 80s. Why was this never properly released?
Oh Lard. A cover of Red Ingles and Cinderella Stump(Jo Stafford) parody take Tim-Tay-Shun done SORT of straight. I mean they didn't have to fake an accent.....
