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Rating: The debut of Johnny Cash for Rick Rubin's American, this album represents the first of the six chapters belonging to the successful series that marked his artistic rebirth but at the same time his legacy (the last three works were released posthumously).
In the early nineties, he seemed to be considered prehistoric, and he apparently wasn't on good terms with Mercury.
In 1993, Rubin, in search of new recording challenges, contacted Cash and gave him carte blanche: the artist, armed with only his guitar, recorded a remarkable number of songs in just a few months: mostly interpreting old songs by other artists, he also revisited his own songs but ultimately recorded many unreleased tracks as well.
The album in question is intimate, collected, steeped in melancholy and pessimism, the theme of death ("Delia's Gone") and resurrection ("Redemption") hovers in the grooves in a hardly concealed manner.
Surprising on Leonard Cohen's early work ("Bird on the Wire"), rising to the gifts offered by Tom Waits and Glenn Danzig, who each gave him a piece but then took them back ("Down There by the Train," "13"), heartrending in "The Beast in Me" by Nick Low, reassuring in "Why Me Lord" by Kris Kristofferson.
The voice is still the same, perhaps a little aged but still intact. It is a Cash who has finally found his dimension, and you can feel it. Unsurprisingly, the reception from both the public and critics is triumphant, even among new generations.
Captured live in "Tennesse Stud" but above all in the (perhaps) most important page of this chapter: the fall, the resistance, the cry, the rebirth. Rebirth.
“Well, he went up to heaven, located his dog,
Not only that, but he rejoined his arm
Down below, all the critics, they loot it all back,
Cancer robbed the whore of her charm”
The Man Who Couldn't Cry.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 The Beast in Me (02:45)
The beast in me Is caged by frail and fragile bars
Restless by day And by night rants and rages at the stars
God help the beast in me
The beast in me Has had to learn to live with pain
And how to shelter from the rain
And in the twinkling of an eye Might have to be restrained
God help the beast in me
Sometimes it tries to kid me That it's just a teddy bear
And even somehow manage to vanish in the air
And that is when I must beware Of the beast in me that everybody knows
They've seen him out dressed in my clothes
Patently unclear If it's New York or New Year
God help the beast in me
The beast in me
06 Thirteen (02:29)
Bad luck wind been blowing at my back
I was born to bring trouble to wherever
I'm at got the number thirteen tattooed on my neck
When the ink starts to itch, then the black will turn to red
I was born in the soul of misery
Never had me a name
They just gave me the number when I was young
Got a long line of heartache
I carry it well
The list of lives
I've broken reach from here to hell
Bad luck been blowing at my back
I pray you don't look at me, I pray I don't look back
I was born in the soul of misery
Never had me a name
They just gave me the number when I was young
I was born in the soul of misery
Never had me a name
They just gave me the number when I was young
They just gave me the number when I was young
11 Redemption (03:03)
From the hands it came down
From the side it came down
From the feet it came down
And ran to the ground
Between heaven and hell
A teardrop fell In the deep crimson dew
The tree of life grew
And the blood gave life
To the branches of the tree
And the blood was the price
That set the captives free
And the numbers that came
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree
And were redeemed by the blood
From the tree streamed a light
That started the fight 'Round the tree grew a vine
On whose fruit I could dine
My old friend Lucifer came
Fought to keep me in chains
But I saw through the tricks
Of six-sixty-six
And the blood gave life
To the branches of the tree
And the blood was the price
That set the captives free
And the numbers that came
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree
And were redeemed by the blood
From his hands it came down
From his side it came down
From his feet it came down
And ran to the ground
And a small inner voice Said "You do have a choice."
The vine engrafted me
And I clung to the tree
12 Like a Soldier (02:50)
With the twilight colors falling
And the evening laying shadows
Hidden memories come stealing from my mind
As I feel my own heart beating out
The simple joy of living
I wonder how I ever was that kind
But the wild road I was rambling
Was always out there calling
You said a hundred times I should have died
Then you came down and touched me
And lifted me up with you
So I believe that it was a road I was meant to ride
I'm like a soldier getting over the war
Like a young man getting over his crazy days
Like a bandit getting over his lawless ways
I don't have to do that anymore
I'm like a soldier getting over the war
Nights and days that arn't remembered
And there's pain that's been forgotten
And other things I choose not to recall
There are faces that come to me
That I thought were long forgotten
Faces that I wish would not come back at all
But in my dreams parade of lovers
From the other times and places
There's not one that matters now, no matter who
I'm just thankful for the journey
And that I've survived the battles
And that my reward for victory is you
I'm like a soldier getting over the war
Like a young man getting over his crazy days
Like a bandit getting over his lawless ways
I don't have to do that anymore
I'm like a soldier getting over the war
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