Johnny Cash - Love, God, Murder [Box set, Collector's Edition, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered]

Johnny Cash | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 23, 2000)
• Original Release Date: May 23, 2000
• Number of Discs: 3
• Format: Box set, Collector's Edition, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00004TB88
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,991 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. I Walk the Line

2. Oh, What a Dream

3. All Over Again

4. Little at a Time

5. My Old Faded Rose

6. Happiness Is You

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. What on Earth Will You Do (For Heaven's Sake)

2. My God is Real

3. It Was Jesus

4. Why Me Lord?

5. The Greatest Cowboy of Them All

6. Redemption

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Folsom Prison Blues

2. Delia's Gone

3. Mr. Garfield

4. Orleans Parish Prison [Live]

5. When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)

6. The Sound of Laughter

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

More than a few novelists and literature professors have cited the troika of love, god, and death as the basic subjects of all literary works. It just so happens that most music is about the same stuff, and Johnny Cash's music is especially so. Except in Cash's music, you can tease from the general (peculiarly American?) idea of death the more dramatic, intentional, cruel strain of murder. The distinction is crucial for Cash--and this 48-track, three-CD collection--as the struggle presented throughout this set is to understand the subject of a person's will. The will to love, the will to believe, the will to murder: each involves surrender, and most of Cash's protagonists surrender (or are so vanquished that there's no discernible difference). Barrel chested in its breadth, Cash's voice is as ideal a delivery mechanism for metaphysics as it is for the police blotter, the confessional, and the altar. As for the music, Love, God, Murder goes all out to follow its thematic breakdown, avoiding chronological layout--except for Sun-era classics like "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line" to open Murder and Love, respectively. Murder's inclusion of "Orleans Parish Prison" and its B-side "Jacob Green," both recorded in 1972 at Stockholm, Sweden's Osteraker Prison, testify at once to the American roots and global relevance of Cash's vision. The contrasts between '90s material like Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me Lord" and Cash's own "Redemption" (both from American Recordings) with 1958's "It Was Jesus" and 1959's "Great Speckled Bird" (on God) is inspired, a great way to track the sometimes single-mindedness of Cash in his investigation of human behavior. Sure, the inclusion of short commentaries by Cash, U2's Bono (on God), June Carter Cash (on Love), and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino (on Murder) amounts to very little of substance, but it's always nice to read Johnny on Cash and especially June Carter Cash on Johnny. Fans might question another packaging of Cash hits, but the impeccable logic of the song choices and their thematic placement make this slim box an inarguably good thing for most with a passing interest in--or even a lasting obsession with--Cash. --Andrew Bartlett

Product Description

Legacy jumped at the chance when Johnny broached this: three volumes of his love songs, gospel songs and murder ballads, spanning his Sun and Columbia years up to his recent American Recordings material! "Love" (essay by June Carter Cash) includes I Walk the Line; Ring of Fire; All Over Again; Oh What a Dream , and more; "God" (essay by U2's Bono) includes My God Is Real; Redemption; Why Me Lord , and more, and "Murder" (essay by Quentin Tarantino!) includes Folsom Prison Blues; The Wall; Delia's Gone; Joe Bean , and more. 48 songs with many mono versions and U.S. debuts!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars not your mama's greatest hits June 1, 2000

By michael stevens

Format:Audio CD

With a name like this you know this isn't going to be a hum-drum by the numbers greatest hits package. The three CDs, available individually or in a box set, feature 48 recordings from 1956's "I Walk the Line" to 1996's "The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea." The big hits like "Ring of Fire" and "I Walk the Line" are duly included. The surprise is that they are side by side with more obscure recordings like "The Sound of Laughter" (previously unreleased in the U.S.) and a live version of "Orleans Parish Prison."

Unlike most career-length compilations "Love, God, Murder" makes no attempt to exhaustively catalog Cash's five decade long career. Instead it focuses his substantial body of work into three dominant themes: Love, God and Murder. This unusual approach is justified, and invaluable when you learn that Cash hand picked the songs to be included. Its an original attempt by an original American artist to present his life's work in a thematic framework. Oh yeah its also a blast to listen to.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars cash makes it all real September 2, 2003

By "perryink2"

Format:Audio CD

Unlike the rest of his greatest hits packages, this trio of discs (16 tracks each and themed neatly as Love, Murder and God) were hand-picked by Cash from across the spectrum of his all-encompassing career - from early Sun recordings in the `50s to Rick Rubin-produced comeback discs in the middle of the new country `90s. But familiarity is not an issue: no kidding, one listen to this bunch and poof! you're an instant Cash fan. There's something undeniably magical about his formula for story-telling. It's not country, it's not honky tonk, it's not rock and roll, it's something more primal, like twisted campfire songs sung/spoken by a black-clad bullfrog sitting on the fence between heaven and hell. Themes aside, the imagery of love, God and murder float through all three discs, though Murder was the first stop (don't ask why) and it's the best; packed with black-humoured tales from the Old West (Don't Take Your Guns To Town, Mister Garfield), of hangings, gun fights, prisons (Folsom Prison Blues, Austin Prison), luckless outlaws (Cocaine Blues) and merciless sheriffs, all brought to vibrant life and stamped indelibly with Cash's echoed and haunting baritone, token sound effects and spartan acoustics. The spirit of the Murder set is epitomized in Joe Bean, the tale of an ill-fated bandit who, despite his mother's best efforts at the Governor's office, is hanged on his birthday. Mid-song, Cash and a chorus break in to `Happy Birthday Joe Bean' only to be interrupted by the sound of the gallows creaking open and the audible - gack! - of a freshly hung Bean. Try to stifle the chuckles when the bunch resume singing the birthday refrain. It's dark, twisted - and damn funny, tongue-in-cheek violence that makes Uzi-blasting gangsta rappers sound like the Muppets. From Murder to Love, if only because it has a bevy of familiar tracks (I Walk the Line, Flesh and Blood, Ring of Fire, Oh What a Dream). While not quite as captivating a listen as Murder, it boasts the same brilliant storytelling - bittersweet, gruesome and genuine - and unencumbered acoustic pluck, a steely guitar style so evocative of the Old West the backbeat sounds as if it's been stapled to the front end of a coal-fired express train. No surprise - in Cash's world of Love the roses are faded, the hearts are broken and commitment is more likely to end in fiery destruction than a silver anniversary. Forget chocolates and candles. The love celebrated here is the real goods - the pain, desperation, the doom, the jealousy - not the simpleton sonnets of undying amour espoused in new country aggrandizement. Finally, there's God. With its age-old imagery of fire, brimstone and anticipated salvation, it's a closer companion piece to Murder, a fact played out as Cash's big authoritative baritone resonates like a tent revival preacher, transforming the subject matter - this time a black and white hymn book packed with Old West spirituals - into hypnotically colourful illustrations of heavenly affirmation and Holy fire (It Was Jesus, My God Is Real, Redemption, Belshazzar, The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea). Yes, there may be more to life than love, murder and God. But in dashing his world of outlaws, heartbreak and faith with impossibly human fallibilities, contradictions and twisted consequences, Cash makes it real, so real you'll ultimately feel like celebrating the fact you're alive.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eminem has nothing on Johnny Cash December 28, 2001

By David Deal

Format:Audio CD

What struck me the most about this three-disc set are the 16 songs that comprise the "murder" disc. Songs such as "When It's Springtime in Alaska" and "Cocaine Blues" are every bit as stark and brutal as anything you'll hear by modern rap stars. I've always respected Cash as a singer and musician, but hearing this set re-acquainted me with Cash the outlaw. It's interesting to note that Cash was singing about murdering his loved ones (e.g., in "Cocaine Blues") decades before Eminem was rapping about murdering his wife, Kim. But Cash is more than an outlaw, as the "Love" and "God" discs demonstrate. Whether singing original songs or interpreting songs written by others, Cash reveals himself to be a complicated man wrestling with demons while aspring to love people and worship God.