With this new collection we can listen to those outtakes along with a wealth of previously unreleased alternate takes, undubbed masters, false starts and studio chat that give the listener an insight into the creative process behind those legendary recordings. Unfortunately many of the original session tapes have been lost or recorded over and there are many songs for which we were unable to locate any outtakes, but a handful have survived the passage of time and it is from those tapes that this set has been put together.
During the compilation of this set we have tried to offer the material in chronological order. However, Sam Phillips did not keep records of take numbers and dates so we have used the excellent research undertaken by Colin Escott and Martin Hawkins along with our own additional research.
As you sit and listen to these CDs you can imagine that you are there in the studio with Johnny Cash, Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant as they recorded these classic tracks over fifty years ago. Following his discharge from the Air Force in July Johnny Cash married, moved to Memphis and found a job selling electrical appliances. He was not the greatest salesman and with their first child on the way there was a need to find another job with a better income.
He tried to get a job as a radio announcer but was turned down due to his lack of experience. Cash finally enrolled at Keegan School of Broadcasting in Memphis.
There were two mechanics also working at the garage - Luther Perkins and Marshall Grant. In their spare time and during quiet spells at the garage they would play music together. Knowing his brother's love of music and desire to make it in the music business, Roy introduced them to him.
They all played acoustic guitars and hit it off resulting in more informal sessions, although at this point neither Luther nor Marshall were interested in pursuing a musical career.
Unhappy with his job as an appliance salesman and determined to make it in the music business, Cash suggested they try different instruments. Luther borrowed an electric guitar and Marshall a stand-up bass, although nobody was sure how to tune it. They were all self-taught musicians and started to play more seriously.
There was a fourth member, steel guitar player A. He has been quoted as saying, "There was no money in it and there was too much staying up late at night and running around. They had played together for many hours and were progressing well and the next logical step was to make a record.
In late Cash went to the Sun Studios on his own to audition for Sam. Three songs from this audition appear here.
There was another song recorded, Show Me The Green , but regrettably this tape has never been located. Cash returned with Luther and Marshall for a formal audition. Sam, was impressed with Cash's voice and also the limited guitar style of Luther Perkins. Unfortunately he had no interest in recording religious material and told Cash that he would be unable to market him as a religious artist and to go away and write something different. Cash went away and reworked a poem he had written during his time in the Air Force and went back to Sun Records with Hey Porter.
With its train rhythm, simple melody and strong lyrics it was an impressive debut. During a radio special Cash spoke about the recording: "I did a song I wrote called 'Hey Porter' that I had written on the way home from Germany when I was discharged from the Air Force. And it was kind of a daydreamin' kind of thing. I used a train as a vehicle in my mind to take me back home and counting off the miles and the hours and minutes till I would get back home.
It wasn't to Tennessee though, it was to Dyess, Arkansas where my parents were still living at the time. The four takes of Folsom Prison Blues included on this set are completely different to the released version. Here Cash uses a high-pitched vocal style completely different to anything else he ever recorded.
Whilst Cash may not have perfected his style on the song Luther most definitely had and his guitar solo changed little over the years to come. It is interesting to note that these versions do not feature the famous guitar introduction or closing notes that became the songs trademark.
Cash would go on to re-record the song a few weeks later. Wide Open Road is the only known take to feature the steel guitar playing of A. It has to be said that he was not the greatest steel guitar player and his decision to leave was ultimately a benefit to the Cash sound as he recalled in a interview.
I think a steel guitar would've taken us more toward Nashville than what was happening up there. Sam liked the song but wanted something different for the b-side of their first single and suggested that Cash should go away and come up with something more suitable.
A few days later he came up with Cry Cry Cry which he wrote after hearing DJ Eddie Hill announce "stay tuned, we're gonna bawl, squall and run up the wall. A few weeks later, an exact date is unknown but May is the most likely date, they returned with their new composition which, along with Hey Porter , became the first single to be credited to Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two and a top twenty country hit. The master of Cry Cry Cry featured an instrumental break after the second and fourth verse but here we present the rare 'extended' version with Luther playing a break after every verse.
It was only issued, probably by mistake, on a budget album simply titled Johnny Cash. Recorded at KWEM Radio it was preserved on an acetate and demonstrates that Cash was not really suited to rock 'n' roll although it is far more confident performance than You're My Baby. Johnny Cash and The Tennessee Two spent the rest of on the road and in January they landed a regular spot on the Louisiana Hayride.
With both Hey Porter and Folsom Prison Blues achieving respectable chart positions they were a hot property on the concert circuit and were booked for dates across the southern states. In late Cash scored his first pop hit with a track that would become the closing number at most of his concerts in the eighties and nineties.
I Walk The Line , recorded in April , was a beautiful adult 'pledge of love' and there is no doubt that it has become Cash's most famous song. To create the snare drum effect Cash put some paper between the strings of his guitar which, along with Luther's runs up and down the bass string, gave the song an hypnotic beat. There were rumours that alternate takes existed of the song performed at differing tempos.
Cash recalled how the song came about in a interview. I was working the five-to-eleven shift one night, and I came in right after eleven and saw that someone had been fooling with my recorder, so I rewound it and punched the play button.
Here was one of the strangest sounds I'd ever heard. At the beginning it sounded like someone saying 'Father. I finally found out who did it. He put the tape on upside down and backward. All he was doing was strumming chords on the guitar, and at the end he said, 'Turn it off,' which sounds like 'Father' when it's backward.
I never got that chord progression out of my mind. I had a brand new baby and I said, 'Not me, buddy. I walk the line. Recorded at the same session was Jimmie Rodgers' Brakeman's Blues. It is an ideal song well suited to Cash's style but for some reason, following this short false start and incomplete take where it breaks down on the instrumental break, they did not continue to work on the track. It has often been said that Cash wrote Get Rhythm with Elvis Presley in mind and although Elvis would have made a good job of the song it would have been a shame if Cash hadn't recorded his own version, as it is one of his greatest performances.
It is one of the few songs where Cash starts a song vocally rather than Luther playing a lead-in. We hear four versions with the first two sounding very similar although there are subtle differences, mainly in the backing and there is a slight lyrical change with Cash singing "He stopped just once to wipe the sweat away" instead of "He stopped once to wipe the sweat away. This is more than likely a microphone test and was never intended for release.
The final take has a very energetic performance from Cash but is let down by Luther's guitar solo on which he appears to hesitate on some notes.
On Train Of Love we find him following the theme first explored on Hey Porter and one that he would cover many times on singles and albums throughout his career.
I've had a copy of these outtakes since about and have never gotten around to doing anything with them You're welcome. There wasn't much for me to do here except removing the officially released songs. Many thanks, I always liked JC. Any chance of posting this on something else, I can't get it through zippyshare. Since you asked, I just added it to my shared folders through the Soulseek app.
Thanks for doing what you do on the liberation front. Gonna dog more into your work. As far as this album goes, it is such a great companion to AR1, of what I consider a top 10 album of the nineties. Never been a huge fan of the rest of the series, but putting these together is really all you need. I think the rest of the series has a lot going for it, especially "Unchained. This is a great collection. Nicely done. Question: Is there a list of everything that Johnny Cash recorded in Rick Rubin's living room with just him and a guitar?
I love this stuff so much more than the later stuff he recorded with the Heartbreakers, as good as that stuff is
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