Johnny Cash – Cash: The Legend

Cash: The Legend

Johnny CashCash: The Legend Legacy C4K 92802 (2005)


A very nice though still imperfect set covering many sides of the Man in Black’s career.  There are plenty of opportunities to take in that inimitable voice.  This would make a very good introduction for a newcomer.  But let me comment on a few of the benefits and drawbacks of this particular collection.  On the plus side, there is a lot of fantastic material here, including just about all of Cash’s most essential cuts.  This boxed set is long enough to accomplish that feat.  The last disc features only collaborations and selections of other artists’ recordings where Cash guested, which is nice in bringing you to things like a selection from Bob Dylan‘s Nashville Skyline album and other things that might not otherwise come to your attention, even though it is the weakest of the four discs here.  There are some curious choices and glaring omissions — notably, nothing with Cash’s daughter Rosanne (their duet of “September When It Comes” would have been a better choice than the version with The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band).  Scattered here and there, especially on disc three, there are also a select few recordings that originally went unreleased, like the gem “Goodnight Irene”.  As for the drawbacks, on the other hand, I could quibble about a few song choices and exclusions, which tend toward rather conservative picks.   There aren’t too many epiphanies here for those familiar with Johnny Cash’s catalog, so there is nothing like “Happiness Is You,” “Orphan of the Road,” “The Folk Singer,” “Sugartime” or “Blistered” thrown in to surprise you.  Aside from a few minor gospel albums, Cash recorded for just four record labels: Sun, Columbia, Mercury and American.  The Sun, Columbia and Mercury recordings are the ones represented here. His Mercury recordings aren’t well liked critically or commercially, so their sparse representation here is probably appropriate, though again there are no surprise inclusions of great tunes like “The Hobo Song” from the Mercury years.  There is nothing at all included from Cash’s American Recordings comeback.  While the American Recordings material is sometimes overvalued by listeners who weren’t alive during the early part of Cash’s career, there is important material contained in it.  So, the lack of any American Recordings material is a big drawback, if for no other reason than it leaves the uninitiated wondering what Cash’s comeback was all about.  It probably also bears mentioning that some posthumously-discovered recordings from Personal File are some of the best things he ever recorded (!), and, while as a practical matter those weren’t available in time for inclusion on this set, in retrospect they can been seen as something necessary for that elusive “perfect” Cash collection that as of yet does not exist. The same might go for other posthumous archival releases like Out Among the Stars.  Lastly, the “thematic” arrangement of material across the discs is kind of a drawback, with a few commercially popular but artistically mediocre songs sprinkled ineffectively across the set.  In spite of all that, this still may be the best Johnny Cash boxed set available.  (See also Traveling These Roads Between Heaven & Hell: Johnny Cash, Singer of Songs).

Albert Ayler – Live in Greenwich Village

Live in Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings

Albert AylerLive in Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings Impulse! IMPD-2-273 (1998)


A compilation of Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village and The Village Concerts plus one track from the comp The New Wave in Jazz and one previously unreleased track, all of which were recorded in the same timeframe of 1965-67.  I guess this set is pretty uneven.  It gained a sort of inflated reputation because it came along when practically none of Ayler’s recordings were available on CD — something that has since changed considerably.  When I say uneven, I’m talking primarily of Ayler’s band.  Ayler himself is in quite good form throughout.  However his brother Donald is lagging most of the time, the violin (Michel Samson) is out of place as well.  Sunny Murray and Beaver Harris can’t be heard all that well on drums amongst so many other players.  But despite all that, this still manages to be a pretty good set when everything clicks.  “Omega is the Alpha” is probably my favorite Ayler recording.

Megan Erickson – Edutopia

Link to an article by Megan Erickson:

“Edutopia”

Bonus links: David F. Noble, “Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education,” Michael Margolis, “Brave New Universities,” Robert Abele, “The Capitalist Takeover of Higher Education,” John Dewey, Democracy and Education, Thorstein Veblen, The Higher Learning in America

Bob Dylan – Street-Legal

Street-Legal

Bob DylanStreet-Legal Columbia JC 35453  (1978)


I’ve mentioned that Planet Waves was a bad omen.  I think, at the time, it could be passed off as just lazy, a fluke misfire on some fundamentally good songwriting material.  Street-Legal was something else.  Here, Dylan was confirming that he was a brat, someone just unwilling to look outside himself.  It’s clear what he was going for here.  The backing singers, saxophone.  This was a show band.  After struggling and failing to make The Rolling Thunder Revue a commercial success, he seemed to be aiming for an Elvis-style Vegas act (see also At Budokan).  Or maybe even some kind of second-hand Van Morrison approach, by way of Bruce Springsteen‘s E-Street Band.  But Dylan really wasn’t that kind of a performer.  He insisted on a “raw” sound recorded in some old warehouse dubbed “Rundown Studio” with temporary recording equipment set up with wires running out the window (similar to what was done on Elvis’ recent From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee).  In principle, that kind of an approach might work, but not with this material and this band.   It’s as if Dylan just can’t commit himself to the commercial aspects of what his band proposes.  This is one of those albums where he struggles to come to terms with the expectations laid upon him, and so he self-sabotages the product.  A shame, too, because there are definitely some good new songs here, like “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power),” one of Dylan’s now rare attempts to do the kind of social and political commentary that he managed so adeptly back in his early folk days (“With God on Our Side,” etc.).  So, Street-Legal was probably one intervention away from being a success.  The committed will find things to like if they focus hard, but, at the same time, there is no excuse for the amount of effort necessary to appreciate this one.

Little Feat – Waiting for Columbus

Waiting for Columbus

Little FeatWaiting for Columbus Warner Bros. 2BS 3140 (1978)


Perhaps the most overrated album in Little Feat’s discography is Waiting for Columbus.  It is a decent live set, with most of their best songs accounted for.  Still, this came at a time when Lowell George‘s influence was waning and things were drifting towards bland, shallow blues knock offs and limp groove rock.  In all, not bad, but hardly anything that special.  Then again, if all along you thought the problem with Little Feat was that they didn’t sound enough like The Doobie Brothers, well, this might be exactly what you were waiting for.

Little Feat – Sailin’ Shoes

Sailin' Shoes

Little FeatSailin’ Shoes Warner Bros. BS 2600 (1972)


Sailin’ Shoes may be the best Little Feat album.  I like the eclecticism of their debut, and this one tones that down a bit.  But the focus and polish here works for the band rather than against them.  The songwriting is again superb, thanks to Lowell George.  It embraces rather than fears the weirdness out there in the world.  I wish all southern/classic rock held up this well.

Hozier – Hozier

Hozier

HozierHozier Island 3792808 (2014)


Basically a white person singing in an African-American style, much like Adele et al.  There is some catchy guitar on “Jackie and Wilson,” for example, but mostly this album seeks to simply appropriate riffs, vocal tones, and other musical elements that have been built up by others rather than forge anything new or unique.  Pass.