Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 12/12/05
Label: Universal/SonyBMG

When Johnny Cash shuffled off this mortal coil in 2003 to join his beloved wife June Carter Cash, who'd departed four months earlier, he left behind an enormous musical legacy that spanned 50 years. Right from the start of his career, Cash personified the multi-faceted nature of American society as he highlighted both its positive and negative aspects and his earliest recordings for Sam Phillips' legendary Sun label found Cash straddling both the country and rockabilly idioms with a humanity and honesty that drew him ever closer to his audience.

A born-again Christian and one-time drug addict, Cash's support for the disenfranchised and dispossessed led him to adopt his trademark persona as The Man In Black when, in 1970, he declared that he'd wear no other colour until poverty, prejudice and injustice had been eradicated. Sadly, Cash wore black right till the very end. Truly, he walked the line.

Of course, a discography as bewilderingly vast as Cash's presents the casual observer with the unenviable dilemma of where to start sampling the great man's work, but this is where "Ring Of Fire: The Legend Of Johnny Cash" comes in. This is the first compilation to span his entire career from his output at Sun in the mid-'50s through to his successful artistic rehabilitation with the American Recordings series made in partnership with producer Rick Rubin. Secondly - and as importantly - it's the first time that the hysterically funny "Boy Named Sue" appears in its full, uncensored glory.

What's immediately striking is how fresh the songs still sound. Despite seeing the light of day 50 years ago, "Big River", "Get Rhythm" and "Cry! Cry! Cry!" are all infused with irresistible rockabilly rhythms and Cash's trademark baritone. Meanwhile "Folsom Prison Blues"' protagonist's claim that he "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" still possesses the ability to chill the blood. "San Quentin" - recorded live before an audience of hardened criminals - brims with an indignation and anger that's utterly palpable and its ire is matched by the seething righteousness of "Man In Black".

Like Elvis or Sinatra, Cash was also a master of reinterpreting other people's material. Hooking up with Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin in the mid '90s, Cash gained himself a new audience with innovative renditions of contemporary material from the unlikeliest of sources. Soundgarden's "Rusty Nail" takes on a new life while Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" became his epitaph.

Though the world become a poorer place in the wake of his passing, your record collection is about to get richer with the addition of this superlative compilation.

    by James Marshall