Customer Reviews

American IV: The Man Comes Around (Bonus DVD)

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I don't listen to a whole lot of country music, but when I do I generally like it undistilled. There are a few C&W artists I like without reservations and then there are those who are enigmatic enough that you never know what to expect from them. Johnny Cash fits into both categories.
Cash's "American" series has been interesting and I was eager to hear what was on offer here after his tremendous Solitary Man album. For once, here's an album which lives up to industry hype. I'll be hard pressed to improve on amazon's adulatory paean to Cash's latest work.
I was floored by the ragged glory of Cash's interpretations of this eclectic material the first time I heard it. Very little of it has any connection to traditional country, but with Cash behind the mike, the country just seems to burst forth.
Some of the more familiar songs I heard with new ears. Songs like Hurt, In My Life and Desperado have a whole lot more meaning when sung by a man of Cash's age as he can look back on life's triumphs and disappointments and sound as if he really means what he's singing.
I like the entire CD, but my favorites are the hellfire and brimstone The Man Comes Around, the mournful Hurt, the remorseful I Hung My Head, the reflective In My Life, the swaggering Sam Hall, the plaintive classic Streets of Laredo, and an uplifting rendition of We'll Meet Again.
The video of Hurt is well worth the extra buck fifty. Watch it...again and again and again! Cash's beloved wife appears in it and her recent death gives it a poignancy money couldn't buy.
I agree with the reviewer who said that Johnny Cash is every bit as important to American music as Elvis Presley. In the autumn of his life, he proves with American IV: The Man Comes Around that he still has what it takes to take his place in the pantheon of American music greats

I have heard both Trent Reznor's and Johnny Cash's versions of HURT. Trent's version speaks from a young person's point of view and is fine...but in the hands...and voice...and soul of Johnny Cash, it takes on a resonance and meaning that NIN can't even begin to touch. I have seen the video and listened to the song numerous times and I cry every time. It is particularly heart wrenching now that June has passed...Everyone I know goes away in the end...how much more than one man take?

The other songs are good...and the album is superior...but I honestly listen to it for HURT. This album is the crowning touch to a phenomenal career but HURT is the diamond in the crown...his whole life in one song. People need to get over categorizations. This is brilliant MUSIC, no matter what the genre. This is a brilliant musician. He does not have the best singing voice, but his vocals have more soul in them than ANYONE else out there now. I would put him with Billie Holliday when it comes to singing from the very core of being.

Singers like Johnny come our way so infrequently...we need to hold on to him as long as we can.

Johnny Cash doesn't have the greatest voice, technically speaking. He'll go flat or off-key frequently. And are there many other artists who would allow that sort of thing to get cut to a master, burned to CD and sold? The very rawness makes each of these tracks seem live, almost as though he started singing them at the perfect moment when he FELT the songs most, and no matter that it wasn't perfectly sung...it was perfectly emoted.

The results are some the most hair-raising songs ever released, in my opinion. Cash turns each song into one of utter sadness. This is a man who has felt deep loss, deep disappointment (mostly in himself) and doesn't really expect things to change.

What's wild is that many of the covers he does sound like they were songs written for him. BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER is the blandest of the bunch, but even that sounds new in his voice. But PERSONAL JESUS!! Who would have thought he'd cover that song...and yet in his hands, it is transfored. No longer cold and impersonal, it is a heartfelt, non-cynical song about reaching for the forgiveness of Jesus. It's a hymn. And HURT???? Yikes...good luck getting through that one intact. My skin is prickly just remembering it. When Trent Reznor sang it, sure it was creepy, but did we REALLY believe this young guy had the life experience to sing "everything I've loved goes away in the end." Boy, you better believe Johnny Cash makes that line resonate!! You don't need to see the video (thankfully included on DVD in this version...don't just buy the DVD single...it's only a few bucks more to add the whole darn album!!) to know this is a classic take.

I won't cover every song, but some of my personal favorites include IN MY LIFE (I'm a huge Beatles fan, and it's great to hear this cover...so melancholy) and I HANG MY HEAD, which I swear COULDN'T have been written by Sting. It sounds like a classic western / folk tale. Great stuff.

The title track, written by Cash, is all the affirmation I need that this guy wasn't just sitting around in the studio waiting for Rich Rubin to hand him a sheet of music. He was actively involved, and could still write a mean tune. This one is based on the book of Revelations, and it's spritely, mischievous and more than a little scary. Then man had chops right until the end.

The fact that this was Cash's final effort certainly makes the album more poignant, particularly also knowing that his love, June Carter, left this world before him. I'm sure there will be tributes to Cash for years to come...but none will serve as a better tribute than this haunting masterpiece. It's not for the faint of heart!

It has been said that Johnny Cash could sing the phone book and make it sound compelling. His final recording is a testament to that statement. There is simply not a miss in this entire collection and the whole album sounds as if it is a mournful good-bye.

Cash's rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" stands next to Aretha Franklin's as the definitive version (although I'm still unsure of Fiona Apple's vocal background).

The real chiller is "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". This IS the definitive version. One can see June Carter's face and feel the longing and love between these incredible artists. There is no doubt that Cash senses the end here and what an end it is. As blistering, raw and revealing as music gets.

Throw in the video/vocal for "Hurt" and you've got a peerless compilation from a man who knows too much, has given his all, and deserves every bit of respect and admiration this and all of his other work is garnering. Thanks Johnny. May you at last find peace.

Johnny Cash, an American hero expresses himself in "the man comes around". I am a big fan of Johnny Cash, he always put plain old country sound into his music. He always held on to tradition, and didn't change much with the times. Songs like "hurt" and "personal Jesus" are my favorites in this album. When Mr. Cash died he left a legend, and a collection of great music with his signiture of approval in every one. This album is deffinatly worth listening to, over and over. It's a "must own" album!

I'm writing this on first hearing, with tears in eyes. This is the second most moving piece of work I've ever heard by a man facing death, just behind Mozart's Requiem. This is the best work he ever did, shaky voice and all. Some of the song choices may seem peculiar at first, but in context they encapsulate his life and his reconciliation with death.

Any of about 8 tracks could stand alone as a compelling reason to get this CD. Just go out and buy it, and listen.

_I'm on your side when times get tough_ are words from Paul Simon's _Bridge Over Troubled Water_ that Mr Johnny Cash embues with authentic power and recasts it as a strong, willfull statement of faith. Likewise, each of the songs recorded on this cd, AMERICAN IV: THE MAN COMES AROUND, are sung by this American Music Icon with an inspirational inner conviction. Still forceful after 70 years, his voice may betray as it quivers occasionally under the load. The message is never lost as his phrasing conveys, with undiminished force, the inner drive of a man determined to engage life's challenges to the bitter end.

Mr Cash has surrounded himself with some of the best musicians on the planet. This CD is produced by Mr Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Slayer) and supported by Mr Mike Campbell guitars (Gratefull Dead, Bob Dylan, Traci Chapman, Wallflowers, Cracker), Mr Smokey Hormel, g, (KD Lang, Beth Orton, Cowboy Junkies) and Mr Benmont Trench, k, (Bonnie Raitt). Add to that guest appearances by popular luminaries, (in order of appearnce) Mr Randy Scruggs, Ms Fiona Apple, Mr Don Henley, Mr Nick Cave, Mr Billy Preston and more to make this an article of superior craftsmanship.

In the centre of it all is Mr Johnny Cash. He is able to distinguish himself in an honest expression of his beliefs. His spiritual convictions fortify my own. This is because the voice he projects speaks of a faith in a _Personal Jesus_ that is strong enough to encompass the _Hurt_, endure lonesomeness and shame to overcome the challenges of life. A man like this comes around too seldom and I hope we'll meet again.

PEACE

As a marriage and family therapist, I am confronted every day of my professional life with how people spend (or misspend) their lives.
It is too true, I think, that by the time we become adults (maybe by age 40), some of our life is an example, and some is a warning. Johnny Cash's video, "Hurt," is a remarkably moving testament to what it means to look back and to take in, in a deep way, the reality of one's life (not that any of us are very good at that). I caught snippets that video on TV, and was compelled to buy the album and bonus DVD video. If only for that video and for the anthem it embodies, my money was more than well spent. I may buy more copies and send them to my adult children (the youngest of whom is 30). But, even so, I don't know if they'll get it.

But I get it:

"If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way."

When I was growing up, I loved country music. Johnny Cash was a particular favorite until I was around 13, and stopped listening to anything from Nashville. From 1995 until 2000, I didn't buy country albums, watch country videos, or listen to country songs. Gradually though, I started to listen to the songs of Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and others again, but for some reason I never picked up my Johnny Cash cds. That was until I saw the video for "Hurt" on the internet.

I was shocked to see the Man in Black so ravaged by time, so obviously weak and frail, his voice losing it's power. I was also amazed at how wonderfully the song fit the man, and how well he delivered it regardless of his ailments.

Within a month I had purchased this album, and discovered that there was not just one gem on this album, but rather an entire cd of amazing music. Soon after buying American IV, I completed the American Recordings collection (including the Unearthed box set), and finally began listening to those great albums I had had all along. Now everyime I listen to songs like "Folsom Prison Blues", "I Walk the Line", "San Quntin", "Long Black Veil", ect..., I have "American IV: The Man Comes Around" to thank. Do yourself a favor and pick this modern classic today.

I was never a Johnny Cash fan till I heard this C.D. The remake of "Hurt" by Trent Reznor is equal to when Jimi Hendrix did the remake of "All along the Watch Tower" by Bob Dylan. I have listened to Jonny Cash my entire life but never bought any of his music till now. If you're new to his music, this is well worth the purchase. If you're a Johnny Cash fan you'll probably enjoy this sound track. This is a wonderful bridge of the past to the present and Country to modern music. Only something Johnny Cash could do.