Guess Things Happen That Way - Johnny Cash, Clement, Jack
Rock Island Line - Johnny Cash, Leadbelly
Home of the Blues
Luther Played the Boogie [*]
Mean Eyed Cat [*]
Big River
Next in Line [*]
Come in Stranger
Train of Love
There You Go
Ballad of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash, Clement, Jack
So Doggone Lonesome
The Ways of a Woman in Love - Johnny Cash, Justis, Bill
Give My Love to Rose [*]
82 tracks including all of his master recordings released by Sun, as well as a number of fascinating alternate takes, demos and fragments from studio rehearsals. The set's deluxe, fully-illustrated booklet includes detaile... more »d track-by-track analysis, an int« less
82 tracks including all of his master recordings released by Sun, as well as a number of fascinating alternate takes, demos and fragments from studio rehearsals. The set's deluxe, fully-illustrated booklet includes detailed track-by-track analysis, an int
"Three definitions of essential: "necessary...basic(nature of the man)...defining(characteristic of something that makes it what it is)" are the reasons for having this CD. Johnny Cash, throughout his career, never pulled any punches. He said what he said, and if you liked it fine, but he wasn't doing it for you. He was doing it because that's what he believed. Always thought of as the rebel/outlaw(Folsom Prison Blues), these tracks reveal the devoted(I Walk The Line, Give My Love to Rose), fatalistic(Guess Things Happen That Way, Train of Love, There You Go) JR Cash. And oh yeah, listen to his first song for Sam Phillips at Sun records(Hey Porter), and you can feel the boundless joy of a man finally returning home.People who don't like Johnny Cash will point out the Tennessee Two backing as stark and simple, but the strength of these songs is the singer. It is why the new American recordings have been so popular. Don't listen to Johnny Cash for flashy arrangements and production tricks. Listen to Johnny Cash for Johnny Cash.The two Essential CDs of Johnny Cash are excellent. At Folsom and At San Quentin Prison CDs among the best live recordings I know of, but if you don't have this you'll be missing an essential piece of a complete music collection."
Get Rhythm
David Bradley | Sterling, VA USA | 05/31/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"If you, like me, have spent years perplexed by Johnny Cash's reputation, when compared to his best-known latter day stuff ("A Boy Named Sue"), this album THE SUN YEARS will straighten you out quick.His 1950's output--"Folsom Prison Blues," "Get Rhythm," "Hey Porter" and others--were so different from anything else going on at the time. Luther Perkins guitar work was imaculate. And "I Walk The Line" a downright apocolyptic look at love and guilt and shame and obsession, is one of the all-time great American records."
The early years of Johnny Cash recording for Sun Records in
Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 01/17/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I am not absolutely sure but I have every reason to believe that the first Johnny Cash song I heard was "A Boy Named Sue." So when I first encountered the Cash persona it was as the guy who was performing to convicts on the classic "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison" and "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" albums. What I did not not know was that "Folsom Prison Blues" was one of the first songs that Cash ever wrote back in 1954 when he was in the Air Force and it was not recorded until two years later when he signed with the legendary Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis. These are some of the things that I learned from the Cash bio-pic "Walk the Line," and I suspect I am not alone in being interested in checking out Cash's early work after watching the film. That is what led me to track down this 18-track collection of Johnny Cash during "The Sun Years."
"Folsom Prison Blues" was set up in the film as Cash's first hit for Sun, but in fact when Cash came back to show Phillips that he could do more than gospel what he really played was "Hey Porter," which was released with "Cry, Cry, Cry" on the flip side and made #14 on the Country Singles chart in in 1955. The following year "Folsom Prison Blues" hit #4 and Cash had his first pair of #1 country hits with "Get Rhythm" and "Walk the Line." There are three more top Country singles with "Guess Things Happen That Way," "There You Go," and his biggest hit, "Ballad Of A Teenage Queen," which topped the charts for ten weeks. In 1958 Cash signed with Columbia and wrote fini to his days at Sun. Virtually every song here was a top ten single on the Country charts, "Give My Love to Rose" being the exception because it only made it to #13. You look at the chart success of these songs and you can see why Cash became a major figure in Country music in the 1950s: "Home Of The Blues: (#3), "Big River" (#4), "Next In Line" (#9), "Come in Stranger" (#6), "Train of Love" (#7), "So Doggone Lonesome" (#4), and "The Ways of a Woman in Love." Backing up Cash on all of these songs are the Tennessee Two, which originally consisted of guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant.
There are only 18 tracks here so this is not a comprehensive collection (there is a five-disc version that has a better claim to that distinction). A few hits like "Don't Make Me Go" (#9), "All Over Again" (#4), and "What Do I Care" (#7), so there is room to quibble, but they are minor all things considered (remember, this is a Rhino album and they are the masters of reissuing blasts from the past). Besides, the three songs that are included that are not "hits"--"Rock Island Line," "Luther Played the Boogie," and "Mean Eyed Cat"--certainly represent the early Johnny Cash, which is ultimately what this album is all about. Just do not be surprised if this collection only whets your appetite for going back to the early years and hearing more from that period."
Johnny Cash -- Super Fly.
David Bradley | 04/20/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I love Johnny Cash like I love my father. That said, these Sun Recordings show that Johnny Cash and his original band's resolutely indiosyncratic style transcended the country genre and represent Music in it's purest form. The band's technical proficency and originality (Luther's bass, Johnny's deep semi-talking voice) started out risky and are now legendary. These qualities are joined with courageous expressions of the deepest emotions: joy (Hey Porter, Get Rhythm); sorrow (Home of the Blues, Give My Love to Rose--ok, it's pathos, but it grabs you every time), resignation and hopelessness (Johnny's raw lament in "Big River" is one of the all time greatest songs ever recorded. Bob Dylan's LP Blood on the Tracks is just an extended addendum to "Big River"). The Sun Recording's range takes you through acceptance and hope in love with "Guess Things Happen that Way" and "Next in Line," which is also one of his most comic. Experience obsession ("Folsum Prison Blues," "I Walk the Line,") and the awesome, frightening power of love (June Carter's "Ring of Fire"). You get love lost ("There You Go," and "Train of Love," with it's shamesly ironic lament for love lost). Finally, the Man in Black is doggone funny! "Luther Played the Boggie Woogie," "Next in Line," "So Doggone Lonesome," "Train of Love," (yes, again) "Ballad of a Teenaged Queen," and "Mean Eyed Cat." are at once comic and also sometmes tragic.With the masterful "Mean Eyed Cat", Johnny's hay seed, comically misguided protagonist showcases Johnny's somewhat under-appreciated songwriting: ironic, funny, tragic, and multi-layered. That great song deserves thoughtful, repeated and close listening, as well as recitation of the lyrics, word for word, to all of your friends... . Whatever your genre of choice, this recording will grab you by the throat, but you won't want to let it go. Forget the excellent "Essential" 3 vol. for the moment--first get the remastered Live at Folsum Prison. You will never be the same."
This is the quintessential Johnny Cash single disc Sun C.D.
Fart-O(The Gasly Super hero) | fartsoland of retrovilel paris france | 05/14/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you only buy 1 Johnny Cash cd, make it this one(though your 2nd purchase should be his life stuff from Louisisana Hayride Shows). This cd has the majority of hsi Sun hit songs, and his finest and most rockabilly oriented material from Fulson Prison Blues to Get Rhyth, as well as novelty hillbilly bop numbers like Luther Played the Boogie Woogie and ballads like I Walk the Line. A great cd, and a perfect into to the Sun recordings of johnny cash."