The Legend Of Johnny Cash: Volume II

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About The Legend Of Johnny Cash: Volume II

Product Description Johnny Cash's death at age 71 on September 12, 2003, nearly four months after the passing of his beloved wife and musical partner June Carter Cash, closed a career spanning nearly half a century. It launched a worldwide groundswell of grief and media attention comparable to that for a deceased head of state. Cash was far more than one of country music's greatest stars. While his lonesome baritone defied fad or fashion, his charismatic presence and flinty integrity made him an American cultural icon, a regular presence on TV, radio and in dramatic films, admired by the Greatest Generation through Gen-X and beyond. Far from fading from memory, the Cash legend continues to grow: the recent critical and box office success of the Oscar winning 2004 biopic Walk The Line, based on Cash's early years and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, this years #1 debut of American V: A Hundred Highways on the Billboard Top 200, and the now multiplatinum The Legend Of Johnny Cash CD, which has remained on the Billboard Top 200 for over 100 straight weeks have only added to the growing legend of The Man In Black. Includes the orchestral version of the Leonard Cohen classic 'Bird On A Wire,' Featuring performances with June Carter, Bob Dylan,Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr. Amazon.com The legend of Johnny Cash has loomed even larger since his death, though this 20-cut anthology appears designed more to capitalize on that legend than enhance it. While it chronologically spans nearly half a century, the scattershot selection seems almost arbitrary: a few hits (though none of the biggest), a few lesser-known album cuts (though not necessarily his best), and a better sampling of the career-reviving recordings he made with producer Rick Rubin that reestablished him as an alt-rock icon. Among the highlights are the irresistibly cheesy "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" from his early Sun Records days, the socially conscious "Ballad of Ira Hayes" (the Marine whose story is told so movingly in Flags of Our Fathers), and a live, fully orchestrated rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire." This might fill a gap for those who want to go deeper into the Cash legacy than a greatest-hits collection but aren't ready to splurge on a definitive box set. --Don McLeese