BACK IN BLACK

This month marks the release of no less than three thematically compiled Johnny Cash collections entitled God, Murder and Love. As the titles suggest, the trilogy marries the three dominant subjects not just in country music, but also rock, folk and hip-hop. That said, the American/Legacy/Columbia labels could ve easily managed a fourth edition, perhaps entitled Myth, incorporating the supernatural cowpokery of (Ghost) Riders In The Sky or the self mythologising of Man In Black .

As it stands, the records feature liner notes by June Carter Cash, Bono and Quentin Tarantino, and as the latter points out in his essay on Murder: I ve often wondered if gangsta rappers know how little separates their tales of ghetto thug life from Johnny Cash s tales of backwoods thug life. I don t know, but what I do know is Johnny Cash knows.
Sure enough, halfway between Charles Giteau and Murder Ballads, between Machine Gun Kelly and Dr. Dre, we get a picture of the pills n booze fuelled Cash who chronicled the exploits of robbers, liars and murderers , often consulting with folklorists and historians on the lives of these desperados, sometimes stumbling around the desert wearing antique cowboy clothes and attempting to method-write his way back into the old west. We also get the hulking great balladeer who cradled the tiny body of Kate Moss in the clip for Delia s Gone , not to mention inhabiting the minds of convicts doing hard time in San Quentin and Folsom and Orleans Parish Prison, crying, Jailer, oh Jailer/Jailer I can t sleep/ Cos all around the bedside/I hear the patter of Delia s feet or I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die/When I hear that whistle blowin /I hang my head and cry .
Cash s voice is unlike any other in country music, as deep and thick as the shit in which some of his protagonists find themselves mired, be they tormented men who need no provocation to kill other than the mocking laughter of young girls ( The Sound Of Laughter ), fall guys who get set-up over love ( When It s Springtime In Alaska , Long Black Veil ) or innocents out of their depth ( Going To Memphis , Don t Take Your Guns To Town ).
There s also the bitterest of black humour, such as when a murderer receives birthday wishes from the governor in place of a stay of execution ( Joe Bean ). On these narrative ballads, Cash exudes the moral authority of a man who has gone to the bad and come out the other side.
But if the singer was once a wild man, these days, according to Bono in the liner notes to God, he doesn t sing to the damned, he sings with the damned, and sometimes you feel he might prefer their company.
All three collections are intertwined through their opposites: murder becomes an act of love as much as hate, God is as brutal as he is merciful, sweethearts are mean, killers are tender. In his 1975 autobiography Man In Black, Cash recalled the fear he felt as a young boy watching a preacher shouting Repent! at an altar full of women on their knees, writhing and moaning and trembling like something out of Robert Duvall s The Apostle, experiencing the hysterical impulses that characterise both rock n roll and old time religion. Soon after that experience, Cash s brother Jack died in an accident involving a chainsaw. Both events undoubtedly inform the mortal dread of songs like Redemption and Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord) .
But even on Love, there are unsavoury truths to be digested. Six foot six he stood on the ground/He weighed two hundred and thirty five pounds/ but I saw him crying like a little whipped pup because of love, Cash sang on JR Hubbard s A Thing Called Love sadly omitted from these collections but the sub-text still runs through tunes like I Tremble For You and the bruised but beautiful I Still Miss Someone . Indeed, the sleevenotes penned by the latter song s author, June Carter Cash, are pretty special themselves, recalling how she first heard of her husband through Elvis, who was trying to emulate his vocal style. But the greatest tribute June gave Johnny was Ring Of Fire , as aching a paean to love s dualities as Night And Day or If You Go Away .
There are an awful lot of classic performances missing from God, Murder and Love ( San Quentin for one, plus classic covers of Dylan s Wanted Man and Jagger and Richards No Expectations ) but the Cash saga is a lengthy one, and requires the full box set treatment. However, as primers go, these albums are as weighty as their titles suggest.

God, Murder and Love are available on Columbia/American/Legacy, distributed by Sony, retailing at #9.99 each or as a limited edition box set at #26.99.