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Rating: With this album, recorded and released a few months before his death, Johnny Cash concludes the series of American Recordings, strongly desired and produced by Rick Rubin. Surely what makes this work unique and very intense are the Cashian versions of Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode) and Hurt (Nine Inch Nails), where one feels respect and a hint of tenderness, considering that our man “omits” the harshest words, being the deep believer he was, to then duet with Nick Cave, whom many have defined as his most worthy heir.
There is the heart-wrenching version of Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridges Over Troubled Water, which, at the moment of saying "I'm on your side", with that voice broken by age, seems to show the Man in Black beside your bed, guitar slung over his shoulder.
The song that starts it all, "When The Man Comes Around", is a ballad that illustrates the day of judgment with resurrecting dead and the Man walking among them, calling them by name... "hear the trumpets and the bells... a million angels are singing" invokes the splendid chorus, giving breath to imaginary cohorts of angels to breach the walls of Jericho.
But it’s the listening, especially the watching of the stunning video of Hurt that measures the sense of loss and the closeness of the end that the man must have felt in those days... The strength of Reznor's song here is rendered tired and creaky, accompanied by just a few piano notes; the memory of his beloved wife June Carter, who died shortly before, must have haunted the recording of the track, because the quality of the sound is truly that of a march for the ghosts or, more realistically, the lament of a sick man at the end of his journey.
Truly, truly moving; even the splendid "I'm So Lonely I Could Cry" by Hank Williams gives the whole an aura of distance and melancholy, of acceptance of the inevitable, as if you saw your father walk away into a forest, waving his hand and bidding you farewell; for the last time.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Hurt (03:40)
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liars chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
03 Give My Love to Rose (03:30)
i found him by the railroad track this mornin'
i could see that he was nearly dead
i nelt down beside him, and i listened
just to hear the words the dyin' fella said
he said they let me outa prison, out in frisco
for ten long years i paid for what i done
i was tryin to get back to lousiana
to see my rose, and get to know my son
give my love to rose, please wont ya mister?
take her all my money, tell her buy some pretty clothes
tell my boy that daddy's so proud of him
and dont forget to give my love to rose
wont ya tell um, i said thanks for waitin' for me
tell my boy to help his ma at home
tell my rose to try to find another
cause it aint right that she should live alone
mister here's the bag with all my money
it wont last them long, though it goes
god bless you for finding me this morning
now dont forget to give my love to rose
give my love to rose, please wont ya mister?
take her all my money, tell her buy some pretty clothes
tell my boy that daddy's so proud of him
and dont forget to give my love to rose
07 Personal Jesus (03:22)
Your own, personal, Jesus
someone to hear your prayers,
someone who cares
Your own, personal, Jesus
someone to hear your prayers,
someone who's there
Feeling unknown
and you're all alone,
flesh and bone,
by the telephone,
lift up the receiver,
i'll make you a believer
Take second best,
put me to the test,
things on your chest,
you need to confess,
i will deliver,
you know i'm a forgiver
Reach out and touch faith
Reach out and touch faith
Your own, personal, Jesus
someone to hear your prayers,
someone who cares
Your own, personal, Jesus
someone to hear your prayers,
someone to care
Feeling unknown
and you're all alone,
flesh and bone,
by the telephone,
lift up the receiver,
i'll make you a believer
i will deliver,
you know i'm a forgiver
Reach out and touch faith
Reach out and touch faith
Reach out and touch faith
Reach out and touch faith
11 Desperado (03:15)
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now.
Oh, you're a hard one,
But I know that you've got your reasons.
These things that are pleasin' you,
Can hurt you somehow.
Don't you draw the queen of diamonds, boy,
She'll beat you if she's able.
Know the queen of hearts is always your best bet.
Now it seems to me, some fine things,
Have been laid upon your table.
But you only want the things that you can't get.
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger:
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home.
And freedom, oh freedom,
Well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking,
Through this world all alone.
And don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow, the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're loosin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling,
Goes away?
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, and open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you,
You better let somebody love you,
You better let somebody love you,
You better let somebody love you,
Before it's too late.
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Other reviews
By cece65
Johnny’s sick and suffering voice gives chills in every nuance.
One of Johnny’s abilities was to make exceptional songs that were perhaps not particularly brilliant at their origin and give everything a touch of greatness.
By fede
"Johnny’s voice, hoarse, warm, deep, and rich like aged whiskey, is enhanced by collaborations with well-known artists."
"‘Hurt’ is a confession, an act of impotence and love, touched with an almost spiritual and mystical intensity."
