Ring Of Fire: The Legend Of Johnny Cash (Audio CD)

fine stuff By sean paul mccann "mccanns23" (ireland) - See all my reviews Johnny cash is a music icon,not just a country music icon but a fully fledged music icon,his fame is hard to measure but he wouldnt be that far behind elvis ,after all they are from the same era,and while elvis passed away early,cash racked up nearly 50 years of success before he gave way to death in 2003,and this is a testament of his work,21 tracks spanning his career and all i may ever need of the mans work,that isnt meant to be a sign of disrespect,i just accept that this is the best of his work, and as i am not a c ountry fan ,i will leave it at this more than likely but what a collection. Cash was a songwriter that loved telling a story,along with his barritone voice,it is all very simple,yet effective,he had a nact of drawing you in with the simplicity of it all,the backing band kept it simple yet distinctive,shuffling along with the sound of a train is what springs to mind. All the classics are here,'ring of fire' opens proceedings,probably his most famous of songs,hard to beat indeed.The classics keep coming,its hard to skip a track,the songs are short and sweet,'thing called love' is simply magical,maybe one of my fave tracks. Cash gained new fans with his american recordings releases which were produced by rick rubin,of slayer and now metallica fame,these included cover versions of bands that cash had little in common with such as soundgarden and nine inch nails and to a lesser extent u2,and this makes up the final quarter of the album and what a bunch of songs these are,lease of all being the haunting 'hurt',possibly the most real sounding song i have ever heard,you can feel the pain and the realisation that his time on earth was up,chilling and no wonder that trent who wrote the song for his band nine inch nails reported on hearing this that the song was no longer his,a great album to own and cherish.

Listen to a legend I watched `Walk the Line' the movie and thought Joaquin Phoenix gave a 5 Start performance in what was a dramatical insight into the troubled life of this legend. Johnny Cash's deep tones and narrative lyrics make this an album that I can't put down; truly brilliant!

Faultless. This album could serve very easily as an introduction to Johnny Cash, far better than the same year's cringe-inducing (and cringe-inducingly titled) The Legend Lives On or the myriad repackaged Sun recordings. Gathering songs from Sun, Columbia, American and Mercury on one compilation, this disc covers all bases. However, the only real problem - which to be fair is a bit of a big one - with this disc is its length. At just over an hour, this single-disc collection is a woeful under-representation of the fifty-year career of this legendary country star. Luckily, this serves as an advantage in that there is not a single ounce of fat on this record; every song is utterly brilliant, despite the odd omission of anything from the first American album (1994). You get a sample of all stages of his career; the peerless title track's mariachi horns indicate his relationship with June Carter; 'Folsom Prison Blues,' one of his defining songs, resplendent in its classic Sun-records production, laden with echo; 'Highwayman,' his supergroup with Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson; the curio 'The Wanderer' (amusingly, one of two U2-penned songs on this Cash compilation) from that band's Zooropa album; and, of course, some fantastic songs from the American recordings. While by no means the definitive Johnny Cash, this is a perfect way in for any budding Johnny Cash fan.

Brilliant This is a great place to start if you're new to Cash. You have all his early hits, as well as his later output, including some great covers (U2's One and soundgardens rusty cage). If you like this you can then move on to the prison albums and wherever else takes your fancy. You get a short essay in the booklet and you are told where each song came from so you can find specific albums to go deeper into this great music. well worth a try.

Worth Buying This album really gives Johnny Cash the credit he would have deserved. Some of the lyrics are touching, emotional and very moving, such as those in 'Hurt'. Others are mcuh more upbeat such as 'Ring of fire'. Overall the mix contributes to an excellent CD