Johnny Cash - Complete Live at San Quentin
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.75 You Save: $3.24 (41%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Complete Live at San Quentin
Free Music Review: An Early Masterpiece by an American Roots Music Master
Hit: 5 Stars
I'll give this 7 stars for content and performance and 3 for sound quality, which averages out to 5.People have always lumped Johnny into the "country" category, but that's extremely misleading. Like other great artists, Johnny isn't so easily stereotyped and this live recording from San quentin in 1969 proves that this claim has been true for decades. If one must pigeonhole this legend, then how about tossing him into the "American Music" bin? It's true that Johnny was well versed in all forms of American music, from folk through blues, country, gospel and rock. He even had an appreciation of jazz, but one can only find subtle hints in the music he played. But rest assured - he went well beyond the confines of country.
Hot on the heels of his Live at Folsom Prison album in '68, San Quentin has quite a different song list and better performances. I like the Folsom set, but Johnny was not in his best form for that date, suffering from a sore, dry throat. The San Quentin show was even more confident and more aggressive. The CD format, which allowed producers to include all of the original concert, is a blessing.
Fortunately, the explicative from "A Boy Named Sue" was passed through this version unbleeped and although I don't need to hear SOB, it does fit the mood and makes the song flow better. Not only that, but the attitude behind the cursing makes the whole set more real. One can only imagine that the tension prior to and during these prison shows was different than the typical concert. The band/crowd interaction certainly has a personality all its own.
Johnny was a very down-to-earth person and that fact was reflected in his music. But he also was well traveled and was a very intellegent thinker. It's easy to listen to his latest offerings and see him as the sage icon, but if one goes back and listens to his old recordings, like San quentin, you'll see that he was well down the path decades ago.
Free Music Review: Look no further, you've found the essential Johnny Cash...
Hit: 5 Stars
Even without the bonus material, this album stands as one of those artist-defining albums that sets the standard for everything that comes after and makes myth of whatever came before. This is Johnny Cash at some strange peak, one of several that he'd hit throughout his endless career.This is not just Johnny Cash playing music for prisoners, this is Johnny Cash as the very voice and conscience of the prisoners. He sings songs about prisons, murder, redemption and his conversation in between is not so much artist to audience, but the talk of friends. The best moment of this album, however, is Cash's performance of "San Quentin" not once, but twice. The song is a condemnation of San Quentin and prisons, of the the ineffectiveness of the system. The prisoners are captive, and they explode with every new line that summarizes all the hatred and rage they've felt trapped behind the walls of San Quentin. Cash connects in such a way that there is no longer any line between him and the prisoners, they're all in it together, and they all want justice.
Maybe I'm making too much out of an ordinary album? Maybe it's not as important as I'm making it out to be. True, it's MORE important.
And thankfully, San Quentin has received the same treatment as the recent re-release of 'Live at Folsom Prison' and is now restored to its original grandeur, complete with swearing and all the songs cut out to fit on an LP. The more you get of this, the better it gets....they've made a 30 year old album seem completely brand new and they've made a fan happy.
If you're one of those who answers the question of what you listen to with "Everything but country," this album will make you rethink that stance. If you like rock and roll, if you like the blues, if you just like attitude, pick it up. I swear, you won't be disappointed.
Free Music Review: Johnny is the Greatest!
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is simply amazing! I grew up on Johnny Cash, I must have worn out my parents Orange Blossom special record playing over and over. I am rediscovering this awesome musical legend. The Man in Black is simply the best. He is much bigger than country music itself. He is an institution and can not be duplicated!This particular album, Live at San Quentin is striking... it is a brisk trip back to the sixties with a 37 year old performer who let's it all hang out. What a great thing Johnny did for these prisoners at San Quentin, when he decided to give a concert for them.
Johnny Cash has never been afraid to dip deep into the fallen nature of man and take on the darkest parts of our nature. Many of his best songs explore these areas of our lives. He is also a compassionate man who cares deeply about the downtrodden. That is seen so well in this live concert.
Johnny is at his best on the classic tracks, "I walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues". But also takes on some tough tasks. He wrote a song especially for the prisoners entitled, "San Quentin" and it literally brought the house down! They made him sing it twice!
Johnny also shares a song he wrote with Bob Dylan, " Wanted Man" and covers a John Sebastion song, "Darling Companion". Both are excellent songs.
One of my favorites is his first live performance of the now classic song, "A Boy Named Sue." It is hilarious. I can't believe Shel Silverstein wrote it :-)
The guests he brought with him: June Carter Cash, The Carter Family Singers, Carl Perkins and the Statler Brothers really add to the depth of quality in this concert. They all are unique artists and have a real opportunity to shine with Johnny!
I highly recommend this worthy album. It is an excellent recording!
Free Music Review: A little bit of everything from Cash
Hit: 5 Stars
It's one of those oddities in music history that Johnny Cash's most famous albums are his live concerts at two maximum security prisons, Folsom Prison and San Quentin.
Folsom Prison is quite a different album from San Quentin. Johnny Cash's voice is better in San Quentin, but Folsom was a tightly constructed concert with most of the songs being about prison life. There were a few light moments, but the overall tone of the album was melancholy and serious. One example from the Folsom album is "The Wall," with lyrics like "The newspapers called it a jailbreak plan/ but I know it was suicide."
San Quentin, OTOH, has a little bit for everybody. There are Cash's famous commercial hits, like "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," and "Folsom Prison Blues." There's a rather sentimental duet with June Carter Cash called "Darlin' Companion." There's some gospel-themed songs, like "Peace in the Valley" and "He Turned the Water Into Wine." There's a rather funny "A Boy Named Sue."
And then of course there are the prison songs. San Quentin, with lines like "San Quentin, I hate every inch of you," gets roars of approval, and has to be encored. "Starkville City Jail" and "Wanted Man" are more prison songs.
One great bonus about this cd is that it contains the complete concert because of the longer cd format. You get Johnny Cash speaking to his audience, and also songs not in the original album: "I still miss someone," "Folsom Prison Blues," "Ring of Fire," "Daddy Sang Bass," and "The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago."
If forced to choose between the Folsom Prison album and the San Quentin album, I'd choose Folsom Prison, simply because I like how the entire album is built around a concept. San Quentin is more of a mish-mash.
Still, I would not be without either album.
Free Music Review: IS JOHNNY CASH THE COOLEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED?
Hit: 5 Stars
This record might say "YES!"
One of the most unique recordings I know of. Recorded in 1969 (or 8) for a TV broadcast, riding on the success of his FOLSOM PRISON release a year earlier (also PISSAH) Johnny Cash assures his crowd at SAN QUINTEN that he's gonna do what he wants to do, and what they want to do. Sorry SAN, tonight these boys are gonna feel free (The best comes later when Johnny flips the bird right into the eye of the TV camera, the picture is in the CD booklet.)
This opened the door for me on Johnny Cash. In my opinion Cash has a lot of hits and misses throughout his career. He's a country western singer, not really my type of stuff. Johnny CAsh though, at times, is EVERYONES type, and is no doubt responsible for some pretty F'in great songs. The best of which are on this disc. His band The TENNESEE THREE, really cooks up these numbers and they are all a little louder and a little faster than the original studio cuts. Some intense guitar twang makes these rockabilly classics like no others.
The first twelve tracks are what make up the real album. These are all excellent. The two takes of San Quinten are very necessary because the crowd gets way more rowdy the second time around. BIG RIVER and WANTED MAN take the most rockin' award and STILL MISS SOMEONE is a surprising favorite of mine. Like I say though, they are all very good.
The last tracks are bonus batter and are not entirely necessary, a lot of gospel type stuff, but what the hell. If you like 'em you'll be glad that they're there.
I almost wish I was an inmate in 1969, man. That must have been a son of a show.
DONT MISS THIS CD