Customer Reviews

The Fabulous Johnny Cash

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you even think of yourself as a casual Johnny Cash fan, do yourself a favor and buy this 2002 reissue of the first record Johnny did for Columbia in late 1958. It marks his "major label" debut, his deliberate turn from rockabilly/rock 'n roll to country, gospel and folk songs, and the start of 28 consecutive years making big money with, and for, the company. This remastered disc, with six bonus tracks from the same two-month studio stint that resulted in the 12 original cuts, is really done right. The CD features the original cover and liner notes, plus a nice booklet and updated, detailed notes, and several period photos of John in performance. This effort was not only historically important for Johnny Cash, it was historic for me, too. I bought it when I was 14 and it was hot off the vinyl press. It was my first Cash album, my first stereo LP, and I liked 11 of the 12 songs (Only "Suppertime" seemed weak to me.) Somewhere around the early 70's, my copy vanished. It was almost worn out, the cover was torn up by my many relocations, but I have no memory of what happened to it. When I saw a few weeks ago via Amazon that it had been re-released on CD, I couldn't resist, but not just for nostalgia. The songs are good, the singing strong, and the guitar and bass from Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant and guitar from John himself are all wonderful. The only "dated" feel in the record are the backing vocals by the Jordanaires. Back in those days, "backing vocals" were thought to be vital on all kinds of records, pop, rock and country included. For instance, Buddy Holly's hits had them, and many of Elvis's too. In some songs, the vocal choruses do add some interest and contrast, but more often, to today's ear, they could easily be eliminated. Their presence on "The Fabulous Johnny Cash" does not ruin any song, but we've learned in the 40-plus years since the album came out that Johnny does not need the help of The Jordanaires or anybody else to sell product. Listening to this CD today, for the first time in almost 30 years, I still love 11 of the 12 original selections (feeling "Suppertime" still is a bit weak), but I also like five of the six bonus tracks. (Only "Mama's Baby" seems slight.) So, if you buy this, you'll get 16 excellent examples of late-50's Johnny Cash deliberately aimed at the country music customer of that time. Johnny's reworking of the Frankie and Johnny saga song is clever; his version of the wanderlust train song "One More Ride" is one of the best performances of his entire career; the religious song "That's Enough" is macho and unusual and stirring. You also get "I Still Miss Someone", and I've heard a dozen other singers do that one over the decades, but no one has done it better than Cash, who wrote it. Next comes "Don't Take Your Guns to Town", and as the astute liner notes point out, this one has subleties only a careful listener will realize. It deservedly was a big hit and has retained its popularity as a classic Cash piece. I also like "I'd Rather Die Young", a morbid love ballad, and "Shepherd of My Heart" a happier love song. Johnny wrote "Pickin' Time" in honor of the cotton growers of his native Arkansas. I live adjacent to the cotton growers of far West Texas, and the song is a nice tribute to them as well. "That's All Over" is about rebounding from romantic rejection, and I liked it even before I was old enough to be rejected, or to bounce back. "The Troubadour" points to the "beyond the glory" moments in a star singer's life. The bonus tracks, one assumes, are items which didn't make the final list to be included on the album. I agree that they are slightly less interesting than the songs which were released, but not by much. "Oh What a Dream" and "Fools Hall of Fame" and "Walking the Blues" are each good rockabilly in their own right, and sound as if they should have been released on his prior label, the incomparable Sun Records. To sum up, Johnny did a fine album back then, and Columbia/Legacy has done a great job of updating, expanding and presenting it for the modern fan. The product is worth every penny they are asking for it.

My dad had this record while I was growing up. It was one of only two or three that I was allowed to put on the turntable myself. I listened to it all the the time. At about age 8 or 9 I started getting into Rock n Roll (the Beatles, Stones, Who, etc.) and this record kinda just disappeared from the the stack of records we had. I hadn't heard this record for over 30 years. I recently found this cd... and ordered it immediatley. I could'nt believe how much I've missed these tunes. 'Run Softly Blue River' sounds so beautiful still. That opening 'C' note on the electric guitar still makes me cringe. It was Johnny's guitar player ( I think it's Luther Perkins on this one) that turned me on to Rock players like George Harrison and Keith Richards. And Johnny's voice...........Oh my god, WHAT A VOICE! For me, this record is where it all started. My love for Rock n Roll music started here. Say what you may, but this is an early Rock n Roll record. I highly recommend this one...

This, the first Johnny Cash LP on Columbia, was the first to present him as the multi-faceted artist he always was. One of the best things about it is the variety of material, from pop songs, rockabilly/honky tonk, ballad, and gospel as well as the variety of emotion, swaggering, wistful, wary, fervent, heartbroken, you name it.
It starts off in a country-pop vein with the first four tunes, all good but more lightweight feeling. But with song number five, the hopped-up wanderlust anthem One More Ride, the record picks up and doesn't let up until it drops you off sweetly with Suppertime. Without a doubt, That's Enough is the highlight of the record. It wasn't the first gospel number Cash recorded at Columbia, but the euphoria and catharsis of Johnny proclaiming "I've got Jesus, and that's enough" are so palpable you'd think he just saw the light right then and there. It never fails to give me goosebumps. The remaining cuts vary in tempo and style but they never let up on that emotional intensity. A perfectly programed album.
The bonus tracks are all very strong, especially Walking the Blues and Mama's Baby, a great pop number.
If you like any Johnny Cash or heartfelt music of any kind, you should get this CD. It's the real deal.

Though I like the Sun stuff better than this, this is still a mighty fine record. I don't particularly like the opener, "Run Softly, Blue River", don't like "The Troubadour" either. And I really can't stand "That's enough." I don't know why, but thankfully now I have this record in my iTunes playlist and those songs aren't on it. The rest of the record is great. There's just something about Johnny Cash. Most singers age and you can hear it in their voices, Johnny's voice stayed the same right up to the end.

Johnny's version of "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" puts you right in the story. "Fools Hall of Fame," is a rocking county number that I've always loved and I know my name is right up there in the Fools Hall of Fame. Of course, "I Still Miss Someone" is one of my favorites, everybody loves that song, how could they not? But on this record they saved the best for last. Gotta love "Walkin' the Blues." Gotta love it and I do.

Columbia's year-long reissue program, celebrating Cash's seventieth birthday, began in February with the release of "The Essential Johnny Cash," and continues with enhanced releases of several crucial original LPs. Each album is remastered, and expanded with new essays, bonus tracks and a newly penned introduction from Cash.

Cash's 1959 Columbia debut, "The Fabulous Johnny Cash," picks up where the Sun recordings left off, though in superbly recorded stereo. The Tennessee Two (Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant), augmented by a studio drummer and the Jordanaires, support Cash as he invents the Americana songbook. Country and western ("I Still Miss Someone" "Don't Take Your Guns to Town"), train songs ("One More Ride"), rural celebrations ("Pickin' Time") and gospel tunes ("That's Enough") form a seamless blend under Cash's command. Bonus tracks include the superb acoustic backed, "Walkin' the Blues."

Over the decades, Cash's sound, forged on his very first single at Sun, has proven a remarkably spacious and fertile ground in which to develop his genre-bounding songbook. Given the depth and breadth of his catalog, a compilation, such as "The Essential Johnny Cash" serves as a Cliff's Notes introduction, while the original LPs provide richly detailed chapters in the story of an American musical icon.

4-1/2 stars, if Amazon allowed fractional ratings.

my father gave me this record in 1959....and even as a little boy, this was the one that turned my head around!
This is the real Johnny Cash! and this re-mastered CD is the best I have ever heard it in my life!
The 2002 re-master even sounds more crisp and strong than the 2008 re-issue

This is a great album. It was great 20 years ago when my grandfather first let me listen to it on vinyl and it's still great today especially with the unreleased tracks.

This was Johnny Cash's first album for Columbia Records. Two singles were released from the album, "Don't Take Your Guns to Town" (#1 Country, #32 Pop) and "Frankie's Man, Johnny" (#9 Country, #57 Pop). The album also features the classic "I Still Miss Someone" (which was the b-side of "Don't Take Your Guns to Town", incidentally). Most of the other songs on the album are very good, particularly "One More Ride", "That's Enough" and "Pickin' Time". The CD adds six bonus tracks, five of which are previously unreleased in the U.S. These songs are generally not as good as the ones that were on the original album, although they are not bad by any means. "Walking the Blues" is a great country-blues, and the alternate take of "Oh What a Dream" is a real treat, being the first take of the first song Johnny ever recorded for Columbia. Recommended to fans of Johnny Cash.

Johnny was with Columbia records (now part of the Sony group) for a quarter of a century, during which he had his ups and downs and recorded albums in a variety of styles, sometimes themed, yet his underlying trademark sound was always there, even when it was buried under layers of strings.

The most famous of Johnny's own songs on this set are Don't take your guns to town (one of his most famous hits) and I still miss someone (one of the most often covered JC songs). I particularly like his version of Frankie and Johnny. There are many variations of this song with different lyrics. In most of them (including the ones by Elvis and Brook Benton), the man is unfaithful, but not in this version.

This is a brilliant collection, but don't expect it to sound like his late sixties or seventies music. The only instruments credited are guitar, bass, drums, bass and piano - and I don't hear much piano. In later years, other instruments would be added to vary the sound, but these recordings, like the Sun recordings which preceded them, are very simple and stark.

I LIKE THIS CD BECAUASE IT HAS 6 SONGS NEVER BERORE HEARD IN THE USA.IT HAS CLASSIC SONGS INCLUDING MY FAVORITE I STILL MISS SOMEONE.EACH TIME I PLAY THIS CD I SING ALONG.