July 18, 2003
The Man Comes Around
Posted by Larry Karnowski at July 18, 2003 5:48 PMAfter a conversation yesterday on #trilug, I've been craving some new Johnny Cash stuff. So today over lunch I went and bought two of the latest Man in Black recordings: Unchained (from 1996) and The Man Comes Around (from 2002). Let me tell you -- they frickin' kick my ass. I liked his old stuff alot, well most of it, but some just never spoke to me. This new stuff, however, is just brilliant!
His covers seem rather odd at first glance, but they really work. He does covers of Beck, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, and Depeche Mode (among many others), but they all work. Instead of soundling like an old man trying to be cool playing a young man's music, the songs get cooler because he did them. They're that good.
The best song so far, though, has to be the title track on The Man Comes Around.
One sad note though, is reading the liner notes, and seeing how much he loves and relied on his wife, June Carter Cash. Unfortunately, she just passed away a month or so ago. It's pretty well-known that Johnny's health has been bad for years, so it was strange to hear of June going first. Poor old Johnny probably won't be too far long after, God bless him.
"Man Comes Around" is super-good! Glad you discovered it, and good point about the songs becoming cooler because Johnny covers 'em, not a sad attempt for him to get cred with the kids. You think the liner notes are depressing -- try catching the video for "Hurt" sometime (maybe it's available online somewhere?). June Carter Cash is in it, and it's like this big flashback to when they were young. Ahhg. Errrph. It's very excellent, but very sad -- especially now.
Posted by: Stacy at July 19, 2003 3:45 PMHeard the tile track on a movie I watched called The Hunted. I just quit what I was doing as the credits rolled and listened. It really got to me. I bought the whole CD today, what an awesome song!
Posted by: Amy at August 28, 2003 6:41 PM
