I first came across Johnny Cash as part of a very old joke concerning the change from a condom machine, when I was a kid. Country Music and Johnny Cash himself were also a joke then, as my only experience of the genre was thanks to Terry Wogan as I went to school with my dad; such gems as “Stand by your man”, “The coward of the county” etc, etc. Ersatz stuff all of it. I knew no better as I knew no other.
Then, last year, I had the chance to reconsider my position. Having got a CD from the cover of “Q” (I know, I’m sorry!) I noticed that among the dross purporting to be the cream of 2000 was the track “One” sung by the Man in Black himself. This is of course a U2 song, but sung the way it was meant to be; by someone with age, bitter experience and a whole lot of honesty. It showed that maybe U2 can write good songs, but they should consider never recording them! This was a song by a man who had been there, done that and all before T shirts were invented. I felt I could trust this man, and so I checked out the album it came from.
This classic contains 40 minutes of stripped down versions of some of his own standards, as well as several inspired covers including a suitably lugubrious version of Nick Cave’s “The Mercy Seat” as well as the title track, originally recorded by none other than Neil Diamond.
So Drudes, if like me you have previously scorned this particular JC (cool initials don’t you think) then I ask you to think again and give yourselves up to the full rock’n’roll majesty of the REAL country.
Peace and love, Curly