Book Review: The Resurrection of Johnny Cash by Graeme Thomson

I'm a Johnny Cash fan. I would be surprised if that was news to anyone. I've managed to amass a mini-library of sorts concerning Cash's career, homelife, spirituality, etc. Some come from the man himself, others from biographers and former bandmates. All give varying accounts on the life of Cash as well as the impact his music had throughout his 50 year recording career.

With the ability to glean snippets of information from each of these books, my interest was peaked with the release of Graeme Thomson's book, The Resurrection of Johnny Cash which, according to it's description, deals primarily with the later-phase career of Cash with Rick Rubin for the American Recordings series of albums in the 90s and 2000s.

Once the book got in my hand, I began devouring the pages like a starving castway at the Sizzler...only to realize that I wasn't very hungry for the dried out, un-inspired, and overtly critical writing of Thomson. Contrary to the book's title and published description, Thomson spends much of his time backtracking into Cash's dismal recording career in the 1980's and early 1990's...a period of time which any Cash fan would just as soon forget ever happened. Of course this period of time needs to be discussed, but Thomson spends more time overall in his book on the failings of Cash's musical career than he does on the acclaim that he received with his recordings with Rubin.

Even when he does deal with the American Recordings series, Thomson fails to provide any new insight or information regarding the recordings. Any information found in his book could be located in countless other books or online articles. Perhaps one of the other major failings of this book would be the heavy emphasis on quotes from other musicians and technicians who worked with Cash at one time or another. Some individuals like Rodney Crowell, Roseanne Cash and Lou Robin have a rightful place in this book but, because he is British, he lends too much creedence and space to individuals like Nick Cave, Will Oldham and Nick Lowe (though Lowe was at one time Cash's son-in-law) and thus dilutes any wisdom that might be gleaned from the overall interviewees.

In short, Thomson fails to deliver the goods that he promises in his book's title and published description. This book neither satisfies the most rabid of Cash fans, like myself, or the novice who picks this book up with no prior knowledge of the man in black. Still, this remains a critically important period of time for Cash's life and recordings and a thorough, broad-scope view still needs to be written on the subject.

Cash'd Out

Earlier this week, I was excited to receive an update from the official Johnny Cash website about the release of a collection of Cash’s albums from the 1970’s. For any avid Cash fan, this is great news…at first. Now, don’t take me wrong and think that this music is bad, as I have not listened to a large amount of it. But, what I do know is that Cash was definitely out of his element, musically speaking, from the late 70’s into the early 90’s and I fear that much of this collection would echo such material.

By the early 70’s, Cash was at the top of his game. He had kicked drugs, married June Carter, begun a successful TV show on ABC and was expanding his musical creativity in a variety of forms. However, with such success, Cash let his creativity flounder. Instead, he sought to continue doing those things that had made him successful in the first place. It can even be argued that his renewed spirituality attributed to his lack of creativity in the recording studio, seeing as his passion and focus had been directed instead towards his faith and family. However, when he began to realize that the times were changing, he began to play music and write songs that were not true to the essence of who he was, and the fans refused to listen to this man claiming to be Johnny Cash.

It stands in contrast that these recordings are being reissued and released just 2 months after the last collection of Cash’s work with Rick Rubin on the American Recording series, ”American VI: Ain’t No Grave” was released. If there is one line to be drawn between the Cash of the 70’s and 80’s, and the Cash of the early 2000’s, it is that Cash was still writing a wealth of songs 30 years ago, as opposed to the numerous cover songs that dominated his last collection of albums.

But no matter what song he has ever touched, Cash has made them all his own. From gospel standards to Nine Inch Nails covers, Cash turned all the music that passed before his eyes a darker shade of black after he was done with them.