Johnny Cash : Ring of Fire – The Legend of Johnny Cash
UMTV 602498878507
It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that tracks such as ‘I Walk the Line’ and ‘Fulsom Prison Blues’ were recorded at Sun almost fifty years ago. It’s also hard to stomach the fact that the man who sang these wonderful numbers is no longer with us. It’s actually two full years since The Man in Black passed on to who-knows-where.
If you’re unfortunate enough not to own a good collection of Johnny Cash’s music, then this will probably be the one you’ll want to get your hands on. It includes many of this best known songs spanning the near half-century he was here to serenade us.
Issued to coincide with the forthcoming biopic ‘Walk the Line’ it includes a good selection of the Rockabilly stuff, the obligatory live tracks from San Quentin and more recent recordings such as those by or made with U2 and Trent Reznor’s ‘Hurt.’ Some songs such as the latter are very moving, others illustrate Cash’s empathy with those on the edge of society, while there are a few like the title track and ‘I’ve Been Everywhere ‘ are just pure joy to revisit.
Setting aside the obvious criticism that you just can’t truly represent such a great star’s work on just one album, I’d say this is as good a cross-section of JC’s work as you’re gonna get, so get it!
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