The final recordings by Johnny Cash have found the light of day. American VI: Ain’t No Grave (American) is 10 songs recorded a mere three months before his death on September 12, 2003. This is the sixth and final album recorded and produced by Rick Rubin.Rubin once again used his magic musical touch to bring Cash’s music to a new generation. From his earliest recordings at Sun Studios until his death, Cash’s music has always spoke the truth.
Rubin’s track record is untouchable, having worked with the likes of Run DMC, Metallica, Jay-Z, Tom Petty and The Beastie Boys. His decision to record Cash with minimal musical accompaniment was brilliant.
Just Cash and his guitar interpreting the song at hand is as powerful a musical statement as one can have.
The songs have been somber, and the selections here sound as if he knew the end was coming. Especially on stuff like Tom Paxton’s “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound” or Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times” with its “Don’t look so sad, I know it’s over” opening line and even his last composition “I Corinthians 15:15.”
Other standouts include “I Don’t Hurt Anymore,” “Redemption Day,” “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” and the traditional Hawaiian ballad “Aloha Oe.”
I never appreciated Cash’s previous run of success with his material like “Boy Named Sue” and “Folsom Prison Blues” but “Ain’t No Grave,” made at the end of his life is as raw and emotional as anything ever recorded.
Nowadays, when I look at Peter Gabriel I think to myself, “Why is Peter Gabriel’s Dad on the album cover?” We all get old one way or another; some show their age physically, some emotionally and others professionally.
His latest should make for an interesting collection of music. Scratch My Back (Real World) is Gabriel’s contribution to a project whose end result should be fantastic. Here, Gabriel is simply interpreting other songwriters’ material in his own way.
Co-produced with Bob Ezrin (Lou Reed, Pink Floyd), they have decided to make this an orchestral album and forgo using any guitars or drums. First listen makes this a pretty vanilla-sounding record. Second listen takes away some of the shock of the record’s demeanor, but Gabriel’s vocals are still strong enough to hold the listener’s interest.
Let’s be honest here. What would you expect from a Peter Gabriel album? His band, Genesis, changed music and was the forefront in the progressive rock movement. After he left that band, his solo work scoring movies like Last Temptation of Christ and founding Real World has demonstrated his musical diversity.
Here though for me, it’s take it or leave it. But if someone was twisting my arm, after David Bowie’s “Heroes” I’d leave it, though I’d leave it with a huge dose of respect.
The second half of this project will be entitled I’ll Scratch Yours. And that record will have various artists return the favor and interpret Gabriel’s songs any way they feel motivated to do so.
Other material covered by Gabriel on Scratch My Back includes Radiohead’s “Street Spirit,” Lou Reed’s “The Power of My Heart,” Paul Simon’s “Boy in the Bubble” and “Listening Wind” by Talking Heads.
A band that really defies categorization is Detroit’s Was (Not Was). What were these guys? They started by doing disco like stuff, then R&B soul music, spoken-word jazz and then dabbled in hip-hop. They are always across the board doing anything and everything.
Pick of the Litter 1980-2010 (Micro Werks) is a 19-track CD that attempts to offer a sampling of what this innovative band has done. While it looks like the band has been cranking out music for 30 years, that’s hardly the case, with only five albums under their belt.
One of the reasons for their inactivity is that the band members have spun off to do other projects. Singers Sweet Pea Atkinson and Harry Bowens became highly sought after session vocalists, while band founder Don Was became THE Don Was, producer of million selling albums by Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan to name a few.
On this single disc you have some of their more eclectic tracks, and thankfully they’ve decided to make the most of the hard-to-find single mixes. Besides the usual hits like “Walk the Dinosaur,” “Spy in the House of Love,” and their first single “Wheel Me Out” which started it all, they’ve also made sure the stuff that gave them their stones is here.
“Zaz Turned Blue” with Mel Torme guesting, Leonard Cohen joining in on “Elvis’ Rolls Royce” and Oscar winner Kim Basinger with Ozzy Osbourne on “Shake Your Head” show the band’s odd-ball flavorings. More conventional standouts include “Somewhere in America,” “Tell Me I’m Dreaming,” “I Blew Up the United States,” “Semi-Interesting Week” and the now classic “Dad, I’m in Jail.”
The only new track here is the energetic, R&B horn-driven “I Can’t Even Remember Who I Am,” though with all the material included, that’s all right. While Was (Not Was) might not be on everyone’s daily playlist, their imaginative, creative work is original, trendsetting and much revered.
