Customer Reviews

Man in Black : Johnny Cash Live in Denmark 1971

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I was surprised to find at my local Barnes & Noble the live Johnny Cash DVD, "Man In Black: Live In Denmark 1971". A little gasp of excitement took my breath away & a zing of electricity ran up and down my spine, when I first saw the title. The number 1971 were what really popped out and held my attention. Johnny Cash and his music are like a fine wine. While it rarely disappoints, there are certain years, that you are constantly on the lookout for. And 1971 was a very good year for Mr. Cash and his music. This was a period where career-wise, Johnny Cash was pretty much "on top of the world". He had a number of creative singles at the top of the C&W charts, numerous music awards and was currently hosting a successful music-variety, television show. He truely was at the top of his game. With anticipation I put this DVD on and happily found myself not disapointed at all! "Man in Black: Live in Denmark 1971" is the taping of a music performance for Danish television in front of a small, live audience. At 60 minutes it's short and concise, but the performances are wonderful! Cash, his band and all his guest performers are in top form. It's like seeing a well oiled engine running on all cylinders. The format reminds me a lot of the recently released CD of a 1969 live performance "Johnny Cash at Madison Square Garden", but on a smaller, more intimate scale. First we get Johnny and the Tennessee Three. Then one by one we are treated to the considerable talents of Carl Perkins ("Blue Suede Shoes"), the Statler Brothers ("Flowers on the Wall"), June Carter Cash ("If I Were a Carpenter","Darling Companion") and finally the 'first family of country music', the Carter Family("No Need to Worry"). How can you go wrong with this much talent on one stage? The show's set list is quite good. It's an interesting mix of both signature songs ("A Boy Called Sue", "Folsum Prison Blues") and material that might not be as well known ("A Song To Mama"). While there are plenty of commercial hits, it seems like this particular show goes towards the more spiritual side of Cash's music.This is most evident in the show's big finale, when all the performers take a turn on a rousing version of the gospel number, "Children, Go Where I Send Thee". During this song the whole group goes into a jam that gets your toes a tappin' and takes you to just another place! It's like lightning in a bottle. It's that good! Out of all Johnny Cash's live DVD releases so far, this is one of the best! The remastering of both the DVD's picture & sound are both excellent. Makes it hard to believe this program is over thirty years old. If you are a fan of Johnny Cash or just a fan of good music in general, I would highly recommend "Man In Black: Live In Denmark 1971!

When this DVD, "Man In Black: Live In Denmark" was recorded in 1971, Johnny Cash was at his popular peak. Having his famous prison recordings top the charts just a few years earlier, Johnny was riding high with a weekly hit TV series and a number one record with "A Boy Named Sue". This concert taped in front of a small Danish TV audience is nothing short of phenominal. It far outshines his other concert DVD's "Live From Austin", and "Live from Montreux". The sound quality is great, and the musicianship displayed by his band is top flight. Johnny is in fine voice on such classics as "Folsom Prison Blues", "A Boy Named Sue", "I walk The Line", "Me And Bobby Mcgee" and "Sunday Mornin' Comin Down". This 19 song set also features Guitarist Carl Perkins blazing through his classic "Blue Suede Shoes". The Statler brothers are on hand to sing back-up and are wonderful singing perfect harmony on one of their signature songs "Flowers On The Wall". June Carter is on hand with the Carter family, as she sings three duets with her husband Johnny, most notably "If I Were A Carpenter", and "Help Me Make It Through The Night". The concert ends with some rousing gospel numbers "Rock Of Ages" and a showstopper of a tune "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" which features Johnny, Carl Perkins, June Carter and The Statler Brothers, all singing some good time country gospel that immediately catches the viewers attention. It is ironic that on the day this Dvd was released, 35 years later, the late Johnny Cash has the number one cd in America with his American recordings 'A Hundred Highways", vol-5. In my eyes, Johnny Cash has long surpassed Hank Williams, as country musics all-time icon.

This is a great time capsule of the Johnny Cash show, circa 1971, when he had just adopted the "Man In Black" persona, wherein he declared his solidarity with the trampled and downtrodden. Politics don't figure that prominently in this performance, which was taped live on a Danish TV show, but Cash's tried-and-true country roadshow/revue offers plenty of fascinating historical highlights. Rockabilly legend Carl Perkins was working as Cash's guitarist, and Johnny gives him an early cameo... The Statler Brothers step forward as well, with muttonchops and hippie-ish hair, to sing "Flowers On The Wall" (what else?) and throw on some nice harmonies. June Carter Cash dominates the middle of the show, singing solos and choppy duets with Johnny, and then she introduces the late-era Carter Family, with Mother Maybelle, and sisters Anita and Helen, and they get the biggest response of the night, especially when June cranks up the volume with a shamelessly corny, sentimental homage to Mother Maybelle. The ever-earnest Danes, who sat at polite but rapt attention the whole time, go nuts for the goofily staged tribute, and it proves a rousing close to the show. Of course, there's Johnny Cash, too, and while he's super-laidback he also connects with the audience and with his songs, championing modern songwriters such as Kris Kristofferson (with three songs, including the then-scandalous "Sunday Morning Coming Down") and really hitting it home with his newly-minted personal anthem, "The Man In Black," which still packs a wallop today. The production values and pacing are quite modest, but that's mostly because that's how TV looked and felt back then (I remember) and if you want an accurate look at what Cash's act was like back then, this is a great video to check out. [...]

MAN IN BLACK: JOHNNY CASH, LIVE IN DENMARK 1971 is a must have DVD for any and all Johnny Cash fans! The picture and sound are great, and so are the performances!

If you have seen the 2004 biography movie, WALK THE LINE, then you can place this concert performance a few years after the events shown in the film, at a time when Johnny's career is near it's absolute highest peak of fame and fortune, having attained two big selling live albums and a popular, prime time, hit TV show, all around the late 1960s and early 1970s!

On LIVE IN DENMARK 1971 the singing by Johnny is great and so is everybody else's, and the band sounds great, too! Around age 40, sober, past his drug addicted years and settled into a stable, married, family life with June Carter, Johnny's singing is more confident and capable than at any other time in his career, in my opinion.

The opening song is a confident version of "A Boy Named Sue." Next is the best performance of "Sunday Morning Coming Down" that I have ever heard. "Walk the Line" is a little too fast and hyper, compared to the original classic, but Johnny pushes his voice more, and it is a very decent version.

Because of the influence of his TV show, where he always had guest artists, Johnny then lets Carl Perkins come out of the backing band to sing lead on two of his own classic songs, "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Matchbox." Actually, Johnny and Carl go way back to the 1950s together, and Johnny suggested the song title to "Blue Suede Shoes" which Carl then wrote alone, and then Carl did likewise, suggesting the title "Walk the Line," which Johnny then wrote! Carl is like a cross between Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry, in his appearance here, playing lead electric guitar and dancing around like Chuck Berry, but looking like Johnny Cash in a 1950s style stage outfit.

Johnny sings three Kris Kristofferson songs on this DVD. "Me and Bobby McGee" has the melody tinkered with, so it does not beat the Janis Joplin version, but it is still a good song here. Later, "Help Me Make It Throught the Night" is very good, as a duet with Johnny and June.

"I Guess Things Happen That Way" is a good song, but it only gets one verse/chorus, so it has been cut in half for this performance. That's too bad.

The Statler Brothers sound great, doing two of their songs, including their biggest hit, "Flowers on the Wall!"

Johnny comes back for "Folsom Prison Blues," which is too fast compared to the classic hit single version, but it is still good on this DVD.

June joins the show now for a few duets as the amount of artists on stage continues to grow, now.

The Carter Family do an instrumental with Mother Maybelle, but the sound man doesn't mic her autoharp, so you can barely hear the melody, which is unfortunate. The Carter girls and Johnny then do a tribute song to Mother Maybelle, which is a little syrupy, and not a great song, but somehow very sweet to see Mother Maybelle waving off a tear, at the end of the song. This is probably one of my favorite moments on the DVD.

The last few songs are some great gospel tunes, using everybody. The singing sounds amazing, especially when combining the Carter ladies with the Statler Brothers!

This DVD is 20 years before Johnny Cash's LIVE AT MONTREUX DVD, and DENMARK 1971 is way better than the Montreux concert of two decades later. This DENMARK 1971 is also better than JOHNNY CASH -- A CONCERT BEHIND PRISON WALLS also on DVD, which would be recorded about 5 years after this DENMARK show.

On this LIVE IN DENMARK 1971, everybody is singing and playing well, and in a very good mood, making this a very enjoyable TV concert! The only thing that could have made this DVD any better would have been to have a longer concert with more songs, (compare it to Johnny's newly released live CD, AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, where they do play longer, not restricted to a TV schedule), but what is here is primo stuff, very enjoyable! I can highly recommend LIVE IN DENMARK 1971 to any Johnny Cash fan, it is well worth buying and watching!

If you are a fan of Johnny Cash you will no doubt read fans debating which Cash DVD is the definitive one to get. Well, if you already have one of the Live in Texas or Montreux titles you will still get a lot from this.

For a start it covers an earlier period and so gives a new perspective. Secondly, it has great variety - including some great material from the supporting artists. Lastly, it has great sound and good visuals.

I was only disappointed in its length...and that is simply because I enjoy it so much I wish there was MORE!!

Worth every dollar and penny! The best of all concerts recorded of the unforgetable singer Johnny Cash (and I purchased and watched recently many of them). Johnny Cash is at the top of his vocal abilities, relaxed and clearly happy. His attention for his small audience is so moving! Incredible performance, and June Carter is great too! I watch this DVD frequently, especially at the end of a hard day, and it really helps me put my troubles in perspective and relax. I never saw Johnny Cash live in concert. When he was still alive, I was not familiar with his music (I did not grow up in this country), only some tunes and lyrics were familiar, but I did not even know they were his! And then I bought his 16 Greatest Hits CD and this live concert in Denmark DVD and it truly blew off my mind and made my life happier. Thank you Johnny Cash!

For Cash's fans and experts it may well be that this Cash's appearence is not that good at all. But for all Cash's lovers (as I am) this is a full hour of pure delight. Taped in a danish tv studio back in 1971 (man, it was the year I was born...), at Cash's peak of Evangelist inspiration (note the recurrent mentioning of evangelism, in danish!) this concert gives us all we could ask for. In stage you get to see Cash and the Tennessee Three, Carl Perkins, The Statler Brothers and The Carter Family! Two special notes must be made: a) the tribute Cash and the Carter Sisters make to Mama Carter (the particular moment when the danish producers overlap Mama Carter's image over Cash's singing is outstanding; kitchy and touching) and b) the last gospel they all sing -- "Children, Go Where I Send Thee" -- a great moment of musical expression, a great finale. A must have, no doubt. A must see, for sure!

if your thinking of buying a Johnny Cash dvd but dont really know wich one.....THIS IS YOUR LUCKY DAY!!! because i have ALL OF THEM! and they all mean NOTHING to me exept for this one!!! JUST BUY IT!!! in the other ones hes either to old, to young (bad quallity) or he doesent sound good, THIS ONE IS NOT ONLY PERFECT, BUT, it has the tennesse breeze, it has THE STATLER BROTHERS doing there best songs!!! it has CARL PERKINS!!! IT HAS THE WHOLE CARTER FAMILY!!! dont know about you but i CAN and HAVE and WILL watch this a million times..... IM GONNA SEND THEE TWO BY TWO!!!! THATS MY FAVORITE ONE!!!! BUT THEY'RE ALLLLL GOOD!!! DRINK SOME BEER, TOKE UP, AND WATCH.

Considering this DVD was taped in 1971 in Denmark, I was Taken Back by the Quality, the Sound is just AWESOME, and none of all that small talk...you know. I like the Carter Family specially the Instrumental number they do together. Packed with Great Music from beginning to End. Great Sound,
I love it! D.D. Thank You

This CD is an entire watch the first time! It is simply awesome. The worst part of it in my opinion is the first song, "A Boy named Sue" and it gets better all the way through. It includes the Carter family, a tribute to Mabele Carter, Anita (what a fox), the Statler Brothers, and also the rockin and jammin Carl Perkins. If you have never seen Carl Perkins before, you must see this. Also note the respect between Cash and Carl when Carl does his two songs. This is the way concerts should be.. no egos just great performances by an all-star crew with awesome integration. There are so many great performances on here that you just don't here from Cash, but my favorite is the final song. I have never seen such an integration of the all these singers into a single song. The final song is blended to include the entire group, Statlers, Carters, Carl, and Cash all singing "Two by Two". You'll smile and watch this video again and again. It is my 3 year old daughter's favorite. She watches it 1-2 times a week. Newbees to Cash: start here. Also get the audio CD Cash live at San Quenten and you'll understand.