Review Summary: Cash returns from the wilderness to create a seminal work.
Prior to this, the first release in the American Recordings series, Cash had suffered an ostrich-related abdominal injury, kicked drugs, had double bypass surgery on his failing heart and was dropped by Columbia Records. His last long player, that wasn’t a compilation, was released in ‘91, ‘The Mystery Of Life’. It peaked at #70 in the Country charts and, according to Cash, received an initial pressing of only 500 copies by Mercury. It seems fair to say that his stock was at an all time low, until an unlikely investor appeared in Rick Rubin, who is perhaps best known for starting the rap record label Def Jam from his dorm room while in college, or for working with hard rock bands like Metallica and System of a Down.
Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded the album in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. They put together a sparsely arranged collection of original compositions by Cash, traditional songs, and covers. Two of the songs, "Tennessee Stud" (Jimmy Driftwood) and "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" (Loudon Wainwright), were recorded live at Johnny Depp’s then nightclub, The Viper Room in Los Angeles. Cash also included versions of songs by more modern artists, such as Tom Waits (“Down There by the Train”) and Glenn Danzig ("Thirteen" written specifically for Cash) which contributed to the albums critical success and the receipt of a 1994 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album of the Year.
Cash composition ‘Drive On’ spoke from experience. He was not a supporter of the Vietnam conflict, and the Country Music establishment were somewhat upset by his outspoken view, however, it was Johnny and June Carter Cash who paid for their own trip and lived in a trailer on an American Base, entertaining the troops on their way to the front and visiting them in hospital when they returned. ‘Drive On’, with its almost spoken verses and sung chorus, repeats the soldier's mantra, "It don't mean nothin'”, and speaks, with a sadness, of the ambivalence felt towards many of the returning soldiers that still exists to this day, with many Veterans still suffering, “It was a real slow walk in a real sad rain/ And nobody tried to be John Wayne/ I came home, but Tex did not/ And I can't talk about the hit he got/ I got a little limp now when I walk/ Got a little tremolo when I talk”.
‘Redemption’ is ostensibly a creation story, but also reads as a rumination by Cash on his finding of God once more, the old testament God rather than the gentler version presented by the New Testament, and coming to terms with his past and looking forward, with a clean slate, to the future. “And the blood was the price/ That set the captives free/ And the numbers that came/ Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree/ And were redeemed by the blood.”
At 62, Cash was once again creating simple music. No orchestras, no barbershop quartets, no gimmicks, just his careworn voice and the honesty he is able to convey. ‘American Recordings’ was the beginning of a turn in fortunes for Cash, with the video of the first single "Delia's Gone" (directed by Anton Corbijn and featuring Kate Moss), being put into rotation on MTV for a new audience whose interest was peaked and who began to delve into his back catalogue, and it was a reminder for many long time followers, whose interest in Cash was re-ignited.
Prior to 1994 all I really knew of Cash was ‘A Boy Named Sue’ and ‘Ring of Fire’ so this release opened me up to a whole new area of music. I had previously dismissed Country as a genre, but with Cash seemingly performing as though he had nothing to lose, with nobody listening, there was in ‘American Recordings’ a purity that led me to explore a vast plain of unheard music, but for me, little will ever match the simple beauty of this album.
