Folsom Prison Blues – This is the one where he shot a man in Reno just to watch him die and the version I am listening to is the one Cash actually played at Folsom Prison -all steel pedal and agression. It is an edgily, class structured, blue collar wail of desperation. If you have ever seen the concert (in the prison mess hall to a literally captive audience), it has a sort of failsafe integrity to his performance. It isn’t for anything but these men who are paying their debt to society and, let’s be honest, working class white male thieves are the very bottom of the compassion food chain. Merle Haggard was in the audience.
I Still Miss Someone – I heard Cash sing this with his daughter Rosanne many, many years ago, at Carnegie Hall as the encore to a stunning set by the great man. It is an autumnal farewell that climbs under your skin and especially the piano solo, so precise and yet to flowing, and is that strings far in the background?
The Long Black Veil – Has anybody ever sung as many death songs as this great country boy? This song, made famous by Lefty Frizzel, is a ramblin’ country chug-a-chug off one of Cash’s greatest album Orange Blossom Special dating from 1965. Cash performed three Dylan songs on the album: “Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind”, “It Ain’t Me, Babe” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” thereby leading directly to Dylan’s Nashville Skyline.
If I Were A Carpenter – With wife June Carter, this is a deadly serious take on what has morphed into a sentimental MOR clap trap of a song: the steel guitar clinks behind them as they trade off lines till the chorus where they sing in harmony then Cash takes the last two lines: “I gave you my onlyness, give me your tomorrow”.
I Walk The Line (feat Snoop Dogg) – “Hey Johnny, talk to them for a minute”. Wow, this really couldn’t be worse though the beat woulda been not awful on a different song.