Five songs i wish Johnny Cash had recorded...

Got to thinking about one thing and another - often a dangerous occupation, to be sure - and i remembered i've been meaning to write this post for a while and just haven't got 'round to it.

Well, here it is.

To begin with, let's wander off on a sideroad. I promise this actually means something...

I own one Elvis Costello album. Which is not to say that i haven't bought more than one over the years - beginning in the LP era - i have.

But i've never replaced ones lost or stolen, and i've given away others. Which is not to say that i don't enjoy his music - i do; though some parts more than other parts.

But, ever since i bought King of America when it first came out, i've had it and loved it. It was one of several CDs stolen out of my car years ago - and one of the first i replaced when i had the money to do so. It's one of the CDs i pull out to listen to when i'm in a mood to listen to music that actually means something. (Shoot Out the Lights, Workingman's Dead, Full House and Will the Circle be Unbroken are some others.)

It'a almost a country album - it has that flavour; not too surprising with T-Bone Burnett producing and playing guitar, i guess.

And one track, in particular - The Big Light - is a pure rockabilly raver about The Morning After The Night Before.

And i've always said to myself - and since i married Kate, i've always said to her - "Gee, that would be a great song for Johnny Cash."

Relatively recently, i discovered that Cash had, in fact, recorded it (though not on any album i've got, but it's on the Cash at Montreux DVD...) And then i discovered that a guy somewhere out west, who was working for a radio station that sponsored a Cash concert in their town, had the pleasure of picking JC up at the airport, and had said, "By the way, Mr. Cash, here's a song I think you'd like," and handed Cash a tape.

Well, i sometimes thought of mailing Cash (or his manager, anyway) a CD with that song (and maybe a couple others) on it, but i never did.

Wish i had.

Because a couple of the songs i thought would be good for Cash are by people i know - John Thomas Griffith (Cowboy Mouth) and Paul Sanchez (formerly of Cowboy Mouth).

So, herewith, short (less than a minute) clips from five songs i wish i could have heard Johnny Cash sing.

(For a compilation of the five songs in a single file you can click here; after i uploaded it, i thought people might want to listen to just one at a time as they went through this post - if anyone gets this far - so they're individually available too, and i'll include links to each at the appropriate place...)

First, we have a track by The Flatlanders - Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and friends - from their first album, 1972's All-American Music, only released on 8-track tape, and re-released in 1991 under the title More a Legend than a Band. Written by Butch (i think - it's sometimes kinda hard to tell Butch and Jimmie Dale apart, musically ), with vocals by Jimmie Dale, One Road More is a sort of gospel-country song along the lines of This Ole House. I think Cash might take it a little slower, but i can just imagine what his version would be like...

Next, another Flatlanders track - this one definitely written by Jimmie Dale - Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown. Slower, more wistful and introspective than One Road More, this would have been perfect for Cash in the American Recordings period, i think.

Moving right along, the next one is by Michelle Shocked (who contributed a version of One Piece at a Time to 'Til Things are Brighter, a 1988 British Cash tribute album), from her Arkansas Traveler album. The songs on Arkansas Traveller were mostly new, but based on traditional and minstrel show tunes; this one, Prodigal Daughter, is based on Cotton Eyed Joe. With its themes of rejection and redemption, i think Cash could have delivered the goods on this one. It would have been different - but it would have been good.



Fourth on the list is a Cowboy Mouth track - written by and with vocal by founding (now, sadly, departed) rhythm guitarist Paul Sanchez, and from the album It Means Escape. Hey Bartender is the kind of song Cash did so well - it might almost be the Saturday night befor that Sunday mornin' comin' down that he and Kris have told us about.

And, last but not least - in fact, it's the song that long ago sort of planted the seed that has finally led to this post - from the same CM album is guitarist John Thomas Griffith's Here I Sit in Prison (Yippee-i-yay), the story of a bad man in prison for life (and a jolly good thing, too, says i); unlike Cash's character who shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die, this boy figures he had a good reason: "..yes, he was a friend of mine, came into my home - made off with my woman, and left me all alone...". He is not, shall we say, repentant, as this clip (the last verse of the song) makes lucidly clear...