Customer Reviews

Orange Blossom Special

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Besides the excellent Dylan covers, the cool thing about this CD is that, without being self-conscious about it, it includes an example of just about everything Cash was famous for. You got your old-timey country (Orange Blossom Special and Wildwood Flower), your contemporary country (Long Black Veil, which sounds old-timey but was written in 1959, and I'm Proud the Baby is Mine, which is very contemporary), a prison song (The Wall, a classic), a train song (Engine 143--actually, Orange Blossom Special is kind of a train song too), a protest song (All God's Children Ain't Free), one of those funny country songs that ends in a kind of punch line based on the catchphrase in the chorus (When It's Springtime in Alaska), a gospel song (Amen, that song from the Sidney Portier movie Lilies of the Field), an unusual choice for a cover song (the old Irish chestnut Danny Boy, which he sings with so much soul you forget how many times you've heard it before), and, foreshadowing the American Recordings that revived his career in the 80s, You Wild Colorado, just Cash and his guitar (actually there are two like that- Engine 143 is also Cash and his guitar, in that case a 12-string). There are two duets with June Carter (It Ain't Me Babe and When It's Springtime in Alaska) and even some spoken word (Danny Boy has a two minute intro where Cash talks about his dad being in the First World War, coming back to Arkansas to be a sharecropper, courting him mom, and the Irish immigrant he worked with who sang the song). It's true what the Amazon guy says, the female choruses are a little dated, and the occasional bit of mariachi horns don't always seem entirely appropriate, but generally the arrangements are tasteful and, at times, beautiful. And once Cash starts singing you can't really hear anything else. What a presence.

I've said it before... and I'll have to say it again... Johnny Cash is bigger than country music. He is the type of artist who transcends his genre. He's really a musical icon. A living icon that represents what American Music is all about!
I had the great fortune of growing up in a home where country music was appreciated. I know this would have been a curse to many of you, and believe me at times I felt like it was... but I say it was fortunate now because of the fact that I was exposed to the work of Johnny Cash early. From that early exposure onward I have always felt a connection to his music, even when I didn't really care for country I still felt like I was a Johnny Cash fan. The one album I remember listening to over and over was Orange Blossom Special. My Mom and Dad had the big scratchy record album which I played over and over. I loved it!
Johnny Cash defies being labled, he is a category buster! This 1965 recording, Orange Blossom Special does just that. This particular recording has a distinct folk feel to it.
As a kid I loved the songs, "It Ain't Me Babe" and "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" it wasn't until I had grown up to be a teenager that I heard the Bob Dylan versions of these songs. I really like the fact that Johnny was open to all types of music and was so impacted by the work of Dylan that he chose to record some of his tunes.
Johnny has never been afraid to push the edge of the envelope! I bet there were a few country radio stations afraid to play some of these songs back in the '60's. Just like today... I hear most country stations won't play songs from his latest album.
It's a shame that they won't... Johnny Cash is brilliant and it's too bad the closed minded radio industry won't play his work. But as fans of the Man in Black we keep his music going. And I hope Johnny has the strength and years to keep on going a little longer. We love you Johnny Cash!

I stumbled into the world of Johnny Cash partly on accident. I purchased the God CD (from Love, God, Murder box set) because I wanted to get some good gospel music and chanced Cash's readings. I was pretty happy, but this was a niche and didn't know if I'd enjoy everything Cash. I then got "The Man Comes Around" and have begun avidly collecting all things Cash! In the span of about a month, I have gone out and gotten 12 other Cash albums including this one. Some of them I just got and haven't been able to really get into yet, but this one I am now familiar with. Summary: this is an amazing album. I am extremely impressed with the American series, biasing me towards the sound there, but this album really stands up well compared to the most recent work. First off, the Columbia remastering series is done well, with original liner notes on all the albums, plus further insight from todays' prominent music critics. These provide great reading and the liner notes here are superb, setting the stage of the different ideological backgrounds between country and folk music and the breakthrough that Cash provides on merging the two on this album by playing Dylan, the icon of left-wing politic type music. The storytelling of Ervin Rouse's and "Orange Blossom Special's" introduction to Cash is also pretty fascinating, and gives a great intro to the first song, which is among Cash's best songs that I am now familiar with.

The first track, Orange Blossom Special, includes some rare instrumental work for Cash's normally minimalist sound, including prominent harmonica and saxophone solos! The drumming is also quite exceptional on this song- and of course Cash's voice. Cash even does some fun train noise sounds that add a great touch to the song. I saw somewhere on the internet that Pops Staples' voice is on this track, but I don't know that for sure. "Long Black Veil" follows and is a slower song that showcases Cash's vocal ability and the way he can captivate you with a song. "It Ain't Me, Babe" is the first Dylan cover, and is truly a great reading of the song, with the deep voice punching home the point. "The Wall" is also a great song about the choices in life, going down the roads to self-destruction or finding a way back no matter how far down you go (juxtapose the narrator of the song verses the suicidal inmate he reflects upon.) "Don't Think Twice it's Alright," the second Dylan cover, is also superb. The Dylan songs might well be anyone's penmanship, as they fit perfectly into the album and become Cash's own with his handling (you'll notice subtle lyric changes that are pretty cool and put Cash's stamp on it.) "You Wild Colorado" is gentle and reflective, captivating with just Cash and a guitar. "Mama You've Been on My Mind" is the best Dylan cover here, great harmonica and saxophone accompaniment and great lyrics with perfect delivery yielding an awesome song. Cash reveals his vulnerability to a woman friend, yet at the same time shows strength and vigor as he says "I Am Not Pleading" as he yearns for a woman he misses! This is classic man in black imagery, strong and stoic despite his weakness and uncertainty. This is one reason why Bono calls him the most male voice in Christendom. "Springtime in Alaska" is a great song just Cash, guitar and June Carter's backup. "All of God's Children.." is a very rousing song and carries quite a punch. Again great harmonica, makes you want to belt out the chorus with the backup vocals. "Danny Boy" is a mix of storytelling and song, and is very gentle and longing in tone. "Wildwood flower" follows and is a little more uptempo, about love and love lost. "Amen" is definitely a great song, probably among Cash's top three Gospel song recordings in my opinion. Similar to "It Was Jesus" it contains anecdotal biblical stories that share facts of the faith while conveying the deep joy of knowing the Christian faith. All of the Columbia remasters I have include bonus tracks, and the best here is Engine 143. Proud the Baby is mine is fun, and the redundant alternate take, Mama you've been on my mind is also included. All in all, a great album. Don't miss it!!

This one will bring a smile. Pure country, and progressive stuff (this is 1965!), featuring two of Bob Dylan's classics. The title track, "The Wall" and "Long Black Veil" belong to Johnny. You may find that his trademark vocals, and very competent studio accompaniment, stamps all offerings on this album, with a raw Cash seal.

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 had waxed over a dozen albums for Columbia by the time of 1965's "Orange Blossom Special." Though the stirring train rhythm of the title track recalls the singer's first Sun single ("Hey Porter," included on the "Essential" compilation release), new compositions and a trio of Dylan titles show his continuing evolution. The song list is a microcosm of Cash's eclecticism, including Carter Family classics ("Wildwood Flowers"), spirituals ("Amen"), narratives ("Long Black Veil"), and standards ("Danny Boy"). Cash's introductory notes include a poignant memory of "Orange Blossom Special" writer, Ervin Rouse, and the three bonus tracks feature an additional Carter Family tune, "Engine 143."

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.

....when I was growing up and my mom bought the album in '65. Through too many moves to count, and newer tapes & CDs to collect, it was lost but never forgotten in 40+ years, so I was extremely happy to be able to download it here and listen to it again. I'm not the biggest fan of older country music, but this will always be in the top 10 of Johnny Cash's contributions as far as I'm concerned.

In the sixties, when this album was recorded, Johnny was at his most commercially successful. Fans will always argue over which period was his best, but he certainly recorded some great albums back then, of which this was one.
The set opens with Orange blossom special, a song about a train journey, utilising harmonica to produce a sort of train whistle effect - it works really well, even if doesn't sound much like an old steam train whistle.

Among the other songs are three Dylan covers - It ain't me babe, Don't think twice it's all right and Mama, you've been on my mind. It was around this time that Bob Dylan began gaining widespread recognition and maybe these covers helped. It ain't me babe was a huge American pop hit for Johnny.

There are many other wonderful songs, too numerous to go into detail, on this classic album, which is essential for all of Johnny's fans.

In this, one of the most deservedly revered of his recordings, Johnny Cash employed a Nashville band in an adventurous excursion into the mid-1960s folk revival. Among the results is a rollicking, made-for-jukebox version of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe," much superior to Dylan's own, which comes across as an uninspired revisiting of the earlier "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." That song's here, too, with "All Right" morphed into the spelling monstrosity "Alright." Cash's reading of the latter is decent enough, though it's hard to beat either Dylan's furious original or, best of all, Ramblin' Jack Elliott's magnificently lived-in reading. Still, at the time it must have been shocking for a performer generally known as a country singer -- even one of Cash's maverick instincts -- to tackle Dylan material, albeit not of the political or surreal variety. Unfortunately, this otherwise admirable venture ends up being too much of a good thing. The album's third Dylan composition, "Mama, You've Been on My Mind," returns to precisely the same theme as the other two, with predictably diminishing returns -- and, worse, it's here twice.

There is, on the other hand, the wacky, unforgettable reworking of the title song, the only version of "Orange Blossom Special" I can still hear with pleasure (any longtime bluegrass fan will know what I mean). "You Wild Colorado," a minimalist, acoustic-guitar treatment of a lovely Cash original, sounds as if it could be at least a hundred years old. The black-humored saga-song "When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)," by the ubiquitous Tillman Franks (whose composer credits include "Honky Tonk Man" and "North to Alaska"), was a minor hit for Johnny Horton long ago. Cash's appropriately chilling version proves once again -- in the unlikely event that a doubter remains out there somewhere -- that he is a master of the narrative ballad. In another spirit, Cash's civil-rights-era anthem "All of God's Children Ain't Free" feels stirring and true four decades later. His take on the African-American spiritual "Amen" underscores his command of black as well as white gospel.

Anyone who loves early country music -- when it was literally a rural music -- will be gratified at the inclusion of "Engine 143" (aka "The F.F.V."), previously unreleased in the United States, from the repertoire of the Carter Family. This venerable train-wreck ballad, an authentic American folk song, documents the remarkable depth and breadth of Cash's music, which manages to contain the original Southern tradition and its children in both folk revival and modern country in one unbroken family circle.

Not everything here is great, but the best stuff is good enough to elevate Orange Blossom Special into the top ranks of Cash recordings. In the process, it reminds us why Johnny Cash is somebody special.

As the album notes point out, this 1965 LP was significant historically, marking the crossing of the line between hippie folk music and conservative country. Three Bob Dylan songs were included along with a variety of other folk songs, two songs by Cash (there's one more as a bonus track on this CD), and some old-time country. I appear to be in the minority in not really liking the Dylan crossovers much, and in feeling that much of this album wasn't ideal material for Cash, at least not at the time. (I think he handled this kind of material better in later years, with better arrangements too.) Most of the album is enjoyable, but not much if any is close to Cash's best, and there are parts that stick out as more strange than good. I'll try to describe both the good and questionable so you can make your own judgment.

The title song that leads off the album is a good example of an oddity. Written as a showpiece for fiddle, here the fiddle parts for "Orange Blossom Special" are done on harmonica and, for one solo, a saxophone. While the harmonica may sound more like a train whistle (the Special being a train), it doesn't have the bite or, as played here by Charlie McCoy, the traditional vigor that makes the song a showstopper. Boots Randolph's sax doesn't burn the house down either. It's a pleasant, moderately fun rendition, and different from others, to be sure, but no more, nothing like what you might expect from the liner notes, which include a narrative by Cash titled "'Orange Blossom Special' ... tore the house down." That turns out to be about the fiddle version. (Incidentally, that narrative may be a little mixed up fact-wise. I'll include below some notes about it and the mystery voice who does the spoken part with Cash.)

The Dylan covers form a trilogy on parting with women he doesn't love, either because she's too square or cloying or because he's "free-wheelin'," or both. They all include ironic lyrics, and at least a couple appear to be rather sour parodies of traditional folk songs. "It Ain't Me Babe" is done up with close harmony vocals from June Carter (before she was June Carter Cash), harmonica, and mariachi horns. Cash seems to play up the satirical side of the song when he half-shouts the choruses and ends each by practically spitting the final "babe." Or maybe he's just trying to bring it to life. This one makes me cringe, but others find it delightful.

The other two Dylan covers, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Mama You Been on My Mind," are less oddly arranged and sung, though we do get a sax and some odd vocal phrasing in the latter. The last bonus track is an earlier recording of "Mama You Been on My Mind" with Mexican horns and what sounds like occasional straining to get the words into the line, an issue in a few other cuts as well.

About half the songs are relaxed, quiet folk songs, mostly with some of the standard Cash rhythm section, dialed back a little. These are, overall, the most successful cuts, in my view. Like the album as a whole, they have the feel of songs quickly assembled and performed without much rehearsal. That's how Cash preferred to work, and it had its good points, in not smothering spontaneity, and its bad points, including some sloppiness in phrasing and not always getting the most out of a song.

It's fun to hear Cash sing the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower." Like most of the quieter songs, it mainly sounds laid back, with a loping rhythm section.

June Carter duets with Cash on "When It's Springtime in Alaska," with only an acoustic guitar accompanying. I like that one best.

One of the folky songs, "Danny Boy," has a 2-minute spoken introduction in which Cash talks about family history that he ties into the song. It's a pleasure to hear Cash talk about anything, especially something close to him, though if you listen to the album frequently you may not want to hear it each time (no convenient way to skip it). The song itself will affect different people differently. The arrangement is simple, mainly just Cash singing with an acoustic guitar, with occasional women's chorus and a flute. I enjoy the doleful, rough quality Cash brings to it, and at the same time am slightly put off by what seems to be a struggle to hit some of the notes, which some will find all the more affecting, some hard to listen to.

"All of God's Children Ain't Free" is a protest song Cash wrote that must have stood out at the time, when country music wasn't doing protest songs. It sounds like what you might expect a Johnny Cash version of a Pete Seeger song to sound like, with the usual rhythm section and women backing him on each occurrence of the title line. The sentiment of the lyric is similar to that of "Man in Black" (which suits him better, I think).

The spiritual "Amen" that ended the LP is more rousing than the other cuts, with a good driving beat, lively piano, choir and banjo (!?). It isn't one of the most rousing versions I've heard of what can be a roof-raiser, but it's got some spirit.

All in all, the CD is a mixed bag, good for fans who are just happy hearing Cash sing, and especially for seekers of musical history and curiosities.

A few notes about the original liner notes. Cash tells a story of Ervin T. Rouse, one of the writers of the "Special," as some called it, finding Cash backstage at a show. According to another account by Cash and an account given by Randy Noles based on eyewitness testimony (in his book on the song), Cash had spoken to Rouse on the phone and had invited him to meet him there, Rouse was driven there in a car, and he had already made reacquaintance with Mother Maybelle Carter outside the hall, all contrary to what the liner notes appear to imply. Rouse was actually 48 when Cash says he was probably over 60. Noles also settles, apparently on good authority (he spoke with at least one person who was there), who did the spoken dialogue with Cash on this song. It wasn't Pop Staples but a custodian and courier named Ed Grizzard, whom he had similarly employed on "The Legend of John Henry's Hammer."