The Complete Mercury Recordings 1986-1991
Mercury/UMe
Jul 22, 2020 Johnny Cash
The Complete Mercury Recordings is exactly what it’s title states, compiling the six albums (with one bonus inclusion here) that Johnny Cash recorded for Mercury Records after his being dropped by Columbia after 26 years and almost innumerable albums. Cash’s stint with Mercury was not his most successful, beginning at the height of hair metal and ending at the onset of grunge, but with The Complete Mercury Recordings it is no longer overlooked.
The first of this collection, Class of ‘55, is a compilation album of sorts, featuring Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Roy Orbison. It’s something of an inauspicious beginning. Cash doesn’t show up on the album until track four, and even then as only a contributing voice. These legendary artists together again is an interesting concept, but Class of ‘55 sounds very 1980s, and overall the album is something of a curio and doesn’t stand up to the test of time.
His true Mercury debut, Johnny Cash Is Coming to Town, released in 1987, opens with the glorious, rollicking, horn-filled “The Big Light.” “Let Him Roll,” written by Guy Clark, is a laid-back traditional country story song of the kind only Johnny Cash can speak/sing, despite the slightly unsavory topic of the death of a wino whoremonger. “The Night Hank Williams Came to Town” is a fairly corny song about the good old days, and other highlights are the hilariously titled “Heavy Metal (Don’t Mean Rock and Roll To Me)” and the gospel “My Ship Will Sail.”
Water from the Wells of Home is a collaboration album, finding Cash singing songs alongside artists such as Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, The Everly Brothers, June Carter and the Carter Family, Hank Williams Jr, Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, and even Paul McCartney. Every song has Cash sharing the spotlight with these peers and luminaries, and the result is an extremely satisfying country album that, unlike some of the albums from his Mercury tenure, rarely sounds dated. One particular highlight is J.J. Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze,” made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd and rendered here a jaunty country duet with John Carter Cash, augmented with saxophone.
Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series sees Cash rerecording his old classics. And 32 years later, the album seems a curious decision. Of course, there was no besting of early Cash staples such as “Get Rhythm,” “Cry, Cry, Cry,” “Ring of Fire,” and the 17 others on this album. Perhaps in 1988 listeners needed to be reminded of Cash’s greatness, but the album as it was released featured a produced sheen that hasn’t aged well. An additional disc of Early Mixes of these songs sounds more authentic but still doesn’t prove much merit over the originals.
Cash moves into the ‘90s with Boom Chicka Boom. “A Backstage Pass” is a lighthearted tale of the backstage scene at a Willie Nelson concert. A cover of Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle” is unnecessary. “Don’t Go Near the Water” is interesting as a cautionary environmental tale about the dangers of pollution. Cash’s version of Elvis Costello’s “Hidden Shame” is a bit of an outlier, lyrically more complex than the rest of the album but interesting for its inclusion. (Interestingly, Costello did not officially release this song himself until 2009’s Secret, Profane and Sugarcane.) Boom Chicka Boom also includes seven additional tracks, two B-sides, the previously unreleased track “I Draw the Line,” and four early version tracks, all of which are essential to augment the album proper. All in all, Boom Chicka Boom is the most interesting album in this 7-disc set. Four albums into his Mercury run, Cash no longer was the iconic artist needing to prove himself. He was simply playing and singing music that inspired him. The album didn’t light up the charts, but it’s the album in this set that has aged the best.
The last of this collection is 1991’s Mysteries of Life. Like the rest of the albums here, it didn’t do much commercially. Cash remains confident and in control of his country on the album, but aside from a revisiting of his early hit “Hey Porter” and “Wanted Man,” a song co-written with Bob Dylan, there’s not much new here. Perhaps the most interesting track on Mysteries of Life was a harbinger of things to come, included on the album only as a bonus track upon its previous, 2003 reissue. It is “The Wanderer,” Cash’s 1993 collaboration with Bono that was also included as the final track on U2’s Zooropa. Of course, that same year Cash began his multi-album collaboration with Rick Rubin, which launched him back into the general public’s consciousness. The Complete Mercury Recordings is everything leading up to it. (www.johnnycash.com)
Author rating: 6.5/10
Average reader rating: 6/10
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