Search - Johnny Cash :: Murder (Dig)

The brilliance of a dark vision

Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 07/25/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If Johnny Cash is a country singer, as most people insist he is, he is certainly an odd one, as this CD -- which owes everything to the ballad tradition and nothing to honkytonk music -- attests. In fact, Cash has always been a folk singer in a Nashville context. Listening to a collection like this, you wonder how this guy could have survived, much less prospered, in an industry that has marketed some of the most soul-deadening dreck to which the human ear has ever been subjected, and that seems grimly determined to do even worse. Cash, on the other hand, just keeps sounding better. I first heard "Folsom Prison Blues" in the late 1950s, and hearing it again now, I am more convinced than ever that it is one of those rare perfect songs. I don't think I'll ever cease my sense of wonderment at that brilliant couplet about the rich folks drinking coffee and smoking big cigars -- what an utterly original, precise image -- and then: "Those people keep a-movin'/And that's what tortures me." Cash has never been sentimental about his outlaws, either; the characters in these songs are truly bad guys, most of them outright psychopaths -- in other words, no Robin Hoods, no sensitive, misunderstood rebels and social outcasts. He rewrote, but did not invent, "Delia's Gone" (a century-old Georgia murder ballad); yet it's hard to imagine a more cold-blooded version, one that burrows deep into the angry soul of a man who, in a fit of jealous rage, commits an act of hideous violence and forfeits his humanity. "Cocaine Blues," fusing two traditional songs (one sharing the title, the other usually called "Little Sadie"), is sung in the voice of a man who, if he ever had a conscience, lost it long ago in an orgy of substance abuse. Brilliant, terrifying stuff. Still, esthetically speaking, the news isn't all good. There's nothing wrong with his "Long Black Veil," except that the song has been done to death and deserves a rest. Though well meaning, "Jacob Green" is more sermon than song, the one genuinely boring cut here. And why aren't Bruce Springsteen's "Johnny 99" and Eric von Schmidt's "Joshua Gone Barbados" -- both from Cash's inexplicably underappreciated album (now CD) Johnny 99, released originally in 1983 -- not here? But nearly everything else on this CD is testament to the enduring work of a great American artist, a man whose dark vision soared above Nashville's hollow pieties and inane cliches. It's only now, perhaps, that we are finally starting to grasp just how good Johnny Cash, now in the twilight of a great career, was."

Don't try this at home, kids...

Andrew T. Olson | La Crose, WI | 06/13/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You can't go wrong with a bunch of Johnny Cash songs about getting drunk and killing people. The Man in Black personally selected the cuts on this comp, and there are a few surprises among the expected homicidal classics-witness the cajun-inspired romp "Orleans Parish Prison" and Cash's nuanced cover(beautifully producd by Billy Sherill) of Bruce Springsteen's "Highway Patrolman." Other semi-obscurities include the chain gang shuffle/honky tonk boogie "Goin' to Memphis" and a delightfully twisted comic version of the traditional death house lament "Joe Beam." Though "Murder"'s concept may seem restricting, this compiltion contains enough variety and great music to please casual music fans and Johnny Cash freaks alike."

It doesn't get much better than this!

DanD | 02/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Here is my personal selection of my recordings of songs of robbers, liars and murderers. These songs are just for listening and singing. Don't go out and do it." So end the liner notes of Johnny Cash's MURDER--an album filled with songs that will haunt you just as much as they entertain you.



How haunting, how entertaining, are they? Let's take a look. "Delia's Gone" is about as dark as a country song can get. The Sun Records version of "Folsom Prison Blues" (recorded prior to the mold-breaking live album) shows a feistiness missing from a lot of fifties country (but would be much more prevalent once Johnny Cash became a legend). "Cocaine Blues" is as raucousy as ever. His rendition of "When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below)", featuring June Carter, is even better than Johnny Horton's hit version. He even gives Bruce Springteen's "Highway Patrolman" a vitality the Boss's acoustic version lacked.



The songwriting on this album, as always, is above-par. Cash himself wrote several of these songs, proving that he has always been one of country's premier songwriters. But he also relies on material from other well-established songwriters, namely: Bruce Springsteen, Marijohn Wilkins, and the incomparable Harlan Howard. But it doesn't really matter who wrote the song--because if Johnny Cash sang it, then Johnny Cash OWNED it.



MURDER is one of the best records out there for two major reasons: one, it explores the darker side of country music that is mostly overlooked today; and two, it's THE MAN IN BLACK!!!!! 'Nuff said."