Customer Reviews

Johnny Cash Remixed

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Hubby and I are huge Johnny Cash fans, and there has been much heated discussion in our house about this newly released collection of classic Johnny Cash songs remixed by artists such as Alabama 3 (think Sopranos theme), Count de Money, Snoop Dogg's new QDT team, and Pete Rock. Since our musical tastes vary widely (dance, blues, hip hop, classic rock, punk, rockabilly, country, Motown, Stax,....) but we tend to like "original" sound, we really weren't sure about this. I decided to refrain from looking at any reviews until we had listened to the CD and watched the "making of" video which is also available at the Johnny Cash Remixed website.

The project was Executive Produced by John Carter Cash (Johnny and June's son), Snoop Dogg, and Mathew Knowles (Beyoncé's father), so there is some real music pedigree and blood connection to the original music in this work, which was conceived as a way of bringing some of Cash's seminal music to a wider audience. As my husband is a Southerner born and bred and LOVES Johnny Cash I let him listen first. His response was that I "had to listen to it" because it "managed to be respectful to Cash's music while still interesting in a contemporary way."

So I listened, and then listened again and again. And while I found some of the new mixes tiresome (Snoop Dogg's conversational remix of "I Walk the Line" is a bit too forced and overdone while Kennedy's "Sugartime" sounds like a bad repetitive commercial jingle), I generally enjoyed the plays on classic country blues. Philip Steir's "Get Rhythm" makes me want to dance my blues away just like the shoeshine guy whose story is the song, and Count de Money's remix of "Big River" is riveting.

Then I decided to see what others have had to say and was truly shocked to see the negative reviewer and listener response to this controversial recording. Rolling Stone's Mark Kemp calls it "musical comedy" while Pitchfork Media's Stephen Duesner likens it to "a small, remote geyser through which a little bit of hell bubbles up into our world." Even our very own Lisa Solod Warren said back in August, "The album is frankly a disappointment."

Well, either we have absolutely no taste in music whatsoever or this album really is that controversial, and I would prefer to believe the latter. If Johnny Cash Remixed is causing this much of a stir then it is worth a listen, and the majority of reviews notwithstanding I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

Regarding the first two reviews:
It seems that if it was okay for Johnny Cash to take songs from nine inch nails, tom waits, leonard cohen, bob marley and depeche mode (!) and put his unique stamp on them I'm not sure why it would be wrong for other artists to do similar work with his catalog.
Some of the tracks do not work (snoops version IS atrocious, some are extraordinarily good. Unfortunatley some people do not have the same open mind that Johnny Cash seemed to have.

Taking on classic Johnny Cash songs is no easy job for a remixer/producer. There have been many remix projects that were nothing short of a disaster.

Most of the selections on JOHNNY CASH REMIXED are enjoyable updates. The best examples are "Big River" remixed by Count De Money, "Get Rhythm," remixed by Philip Steir, "Doin' My Time," remixed by The Heavy, ""Country Boy," remixed by Sonny J., "Leave That Junk Alone" reconstructed (new vocals) by Alabama 3, "Folsom Prison Blues," remixed by Pete Rock, "Straight A's In Love," remixed by Troublemaker, and "Sugartime," remixed by Kennedy.

The set starts off with the definitive classic "I Walk The Line," which is one of the few remix/remakes that doesn't work. First off, the harmonic keys between the new music and the Cash vocal samples clash throughout the song. Snoop Dogg dominates the track--- Johnny's vocals seem to be an after thought. Cash sounds like he's coming out of a pocket AM radio.

"Doin' My Time" features a new vocal with Cash (barely) in the background. "Leave That Junk Alone" also features a new lead vocal, but with Johnny's vocals sounding richer. "Folsom Prison Blues"(106 BPM) is one of the best mixes on the set, as is "Sugartime (92 bpm)."

Most of the tracks not mentioned lean towards a darker ambient side that you'll have give a few listens to at first. There aren't any house/dance or electronica versions here, and we can all be glad they didn't go that route. The tempos are in the range of the originals on most of the songs. For true fans of Johnny Cash this will be something different and unique to treasure, and have some fun with.

I'm a country music fan, so I can't rate this album as great, but it is interesting. Listeners should not try to compare it to Johnny Cash's own work, but should consider this a totally separate undertaking. I listen to the album occasionally and enjoy it. I think the mood of the album is somewhat dark, but sometimes that is just what I want to hear.

While nobody can (or ever could) speak on Johnny's behalf, I have a strong suspicion that, had Johnny--that man of great and innumerable contradictions--lived to hear this album, he finally would have felt understood, felt like people finally "got" him. All of the naysayers need only to recall the opening verse from Cash's song (which is present only--but strongly--in spirit on this album), "What Is Truth":

The old man turned off the radio,
Said, "Where did all of the old songs go?
Kids sure play funny music these days,
They play it in the strangest ways."
Said, "It looks to me like they've all gone wild,
It was peaceful back when I was a child."
Well, man, could it be that the girls and boys
Are trying to be heard above your noise?
And the lonely voice of youth cries, "What is truth?"

With this album, Johnny Cash--along with folks who know and feel what Johnny Cash was all about--can at last be heard, loud and clear, above the fiercest critics' noise. Five stars.

The great Johnny Cash proved in his lifetime to be more open minded than his fans. He adopted the same philosophy of another music great, Duke Ellington, who said:

"There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind".

Cash took songs from Trent Reznor, Depeche Mode, Roberta Flack, and interpreted them his way. It is only fair that other artists render tribute to Cash by playing his songs as well. Get over it, people.

I'm really not sure why people have such negative reviews about this project.I went into this with an open mind,and was just as happy going out as I was going in.I find myself playing it over and over.Here's why:
#1--Johnny Cash Rules.
#2--Original Vocals by Johnny Cash
#3--Luther Perkins(My Hero)on guitar.
#4--Marshall Grant(Bass)--although he's somewhat muted here.
#5--This is a tribute---not a mashing.Good DVD included.
It's just something fun to listen to,nothing more,nothing less.
Crank Up "Big River"...it has the beat that I felt was always there anyway....Awesome!!!
I really enjoyed "Straght A's in Love"--one of my personal favorites.Souped up and scratchin'!!
If you like hip/hop(which I don't)or modern music(which I don't),let Johhny Cash bridge the gap........amazingly,it all works.I love it!!!
Maybe Jerry Lee,Roy Orbison,Carl Perkins...will be next??Let's hope so!!

I bought this album after I heard a similar remix of walk the line techno remix by dj wolf(?). Johnny Cash was always pushing boundaries with music and always appreciated the views of artists to express themselves as freely as they wanted. If these artists wanted to honor Mr. Cash by remixing his sounds to the beats of their sounds I have to think that a man who fought so honestly for this type of thing in HIS day would appreciate it in THEIR day. Its not a disgrace to his music its an homage to the way that his music influences still to this day. All the so-called Johnny Cash fans rant and rave about how this is a disgrace and a terrible idea and they can't believe how a true Cash fan would like this or even call this music. Well you have taken a beautiful idea of the freedom of the artist(something that Cash and Waylon fans can truly appreciate) and turned it around just to make music expression as a whole so narrow minded. This CD is good...not great. I am not a fan of techno or remixes..however I think that TRUE Cash fans and TRUE music fans would enjoy at least a listen.

Johnny Cash/Various Artists
"Johnny Cash Remixed"
(Compadre Records, 2009)
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Yeesh. What a misfire. Well, no, actually, not a misfire, just a really dumb idea to begin with. I mean, yeah sure, it's great and groovy that everybody wants to be down with the late, legendary Man In Black, but this half-baked dance/electro/hip-hop remix set is just plain awful. About as subtle as a flaming bag of poo. It was cool when De La Soul sampled "Three Feet High And Rising" back in 1989, but that's about as far as we needed to go. Really. (Axton)

It is one thing that songs are interpreted by different people with their own style, music, and voice. We usually call these events remakes and covers of the songs and quite a few times works. Johnny cash performed remakes and covers in many instances. There are many tributes albums that follow this convention.

When parts are added, removed, and replaced from an original recording, you are remixing the recording. This is exactly what it was done in this album. The original style and music has been replaced with a new interpretations, but Johnny cash voice has been kept as if he was singing at this new event (new time, new band). While this type of event has been done before, it is usually not accepted by fans of the original singer/band (especially when the singer is no longer with us or the singer did not endorse it) and in general does not work commercially either. Remixes work when the actual singer produces new songs in different styles such as pop, country, cumbia.

It was not hard for me to get a little bit sad when listening Louis Armstrong recording of "What a Wonderful World" mixed with Kenny G music and style. I though"What a sacrilege to one of the most famous singer and his music." Hard to imagine that a caliber of Louis Armstrong would be pair with someone like Kenny G.What a Wonderful World

There have been other occasions that remixed of this sort work. For example "Forever Cool" of Dean Martin did have some success. Forever Cool has duets that pair current singers with deceased ones (the voice of the original singer goes in and out) arranged with new style and music. I feel that duet remixed are a little more accepted, it is almost give you a short moment of how the original songs used to be.Forever Cool

Natalie Cole remixed "Unforgettable" as a duet with his dad. I feel that this was a very successful remix because Natalie Cole was the daughter of Nat King Cole and we believe that it would be approved by her dad.Unforgettable: With Love

Another example of a Remix duet that has worked was at Selena 10th Anniversary Reunion Concert. Selena's brother A. B. Quintanilla and his group, Kumbia Kings, performed a duet with Selena in a specially remixed version of her hit "Baila Esta Cumbia.Duetos (CD/DVD)

I feel that this effort to remix Cash's Sun recordings did not work at all due to heavy introductions of hip hop and techno/electronic country shuffle. This album degrades Cash's sound in such modern context; to the point that someone can see it as a music comedy. Listen to it before you buy it. You can listen the full version on my space [...]

In short, there have been some great remix tributes produced for various artists and genres, but this effort is not one of them. I do not recommend this remix.