Be Cool (The Modern Dolphin Sessions 1952-1954) - Moore, Johnny & Three Blazers

Advantages: Sombre, poignant, affecting
Disadvantages: Couple of right royal stinkers

...-advised covers on this album, but this one manages to err on the side of cool as opposed to "bad idea!" It's the Simon and Garfunkel classic of course, and no lyric has ever suited Johnny Cash than the opening "when you're weary": he sounds it too. Superb, inspired version using just a guitar and a cello. 5. I Hung My Head This track was originally included with a free CD on the front of Q magazine last year and hence served as my introduction to Cash. And what an intro! It's another "story-song" about Cash out on the plains taking shooting practice with his rifle when it accidentally goes off and kills a lone rider in the distance. He tried and found guilty and hung and the song is sung from the perspective of both the pre-trial Cash and the dead, post-hung Cash. It's OK, though, because Cash and the guy he killed become mates in Heaven... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Genius
Disadvantages: None

...brooding classics such as Heaven knows I’m miserable now and Please Please Please let me get what I want. The real gem of this album though, and reason alone to buy it is How soon is now? The song displays Morrisey at his sometimes depressing and always inspired best but the real hero of this piece is Johnny Marr. I swear he must have given his guitar a good beating before he recorded this song because you know it is in pain. The rumbling base line that prevails throughout provides a dark background to the inspired overtones and helps make this song among the best ever recorded. The qualities of the singles on this album are exceptional so although it may not have the passion and soul of 'The Smiths' it is still an essential album to own. Hatful.of.hollow.(with.BBC.sessions)Released.November.84 Chart7... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: 104 songs means great value for money, plus, a book!
Disadvantages: Not a chance of getting this on your CD shelf, it is a tall book too!

...American musician, and songwriter. Cash was known for his deep, distinctive, bass-baritone voice, the "boom-chicka-boom" country sound that his band, The Tennessee Three produced, and his dark clothing, demeanor, and somber tone, which earned him the nickname from his fans as, "The Man in Black". He was also extremely well known for simply starting all of his concerts with the words, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash". Cash was born and raised in Arkansas, America, and by the age of five he was working in the cotton fields with his family. The family farm was flooded on at least one occasion, which later inspired him to write the song "Five Feet High And Rising", which is on disc 2 of this box set. Cash began drinking heavily in the 1960's, as he became more famous, and became addicted to amphetamines and barbiturates. In 1965, he was arrested... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful