Johnny Cash: Ultimate Gospel Transcript

UMC.org Music Review

Johnny Cash: Ultimate Gospel
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Sound/Style: Inspirational songs in proto-rock ‘n’ roll and country styles

By Steve Morley

UMC.org—Religious themes are commonplace in country music, but what distinguishes the work of Johnny Cash is his seamless integration of country and gospel, which he accomplished with originality and integrity. Cash’s rebel persona might seem incongruous with his heart for inspirational music, but his refusal to compromise his artistic freedom led to his first all-gospel release. Cash had wanted to cut such an album while on Sun Records in the mid-1950s but was denied the opportunity, a fact that strongly influenced his move to Columbia Records in 1958. Hymns By Johnny Cash featured standards as well as Cash originals, delivered in the stark, straightforward style that would forever define the Man in Black as an artist who defied musical boundaries.

The Cash compilation Ultimate Gospel covers the first half of his 50-year career, confirming the singer’s ongoing affection for sacred music. In addition to three previously unheard tracks, the disc includes two from Cash’s Sun Records period, featuring one of his earliest compositions, “Belshazzar.” The track displays the young singer’s familiarity with Old Testament scripture, which he uses to score a sermon-worthy point: “Well the people feasted and drank their wine/ And praised the false gods of his time/ All holy things they scorned and mocked/ But suddenly their mocking stopped/ For on the wall there appeared a hand—nothing else, there was no man/ In blood, the hand began to write/ And Belshazzar couldn’t hide his fright/ For he was weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

The vitality and inventiveness of Cash’s ‘50s and ‘60s recordings makes these the most immediately appealing (and ironically, the least dated-sounding) on the wide-ranging collection. The authority and vulnerability of Cash’s voice provides continuity on everything from hymnbook chestnuts to recitations and a collaboration with Reverend Billy Graham that boldly puts the pulpit inside a country tune. However, not all the tracks here have aged gracefully. Cuts from 1975's Precious Memories suffer from sweetened and generic arrangements that, despite vocal enhancement by the Carter Family, lack the gravity of recordings that stick closer to the classic Cash template.

“Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)” is a chilling performance by Cash and the Carter Family, noteworthy for its original appearance not on a gospel album but on the general market release Ring of Fire.

The previously unreleased “How Great Thou Art” is a loose but inspired run-through featuring a reverent and unselfconscious Cash vocal that outweighs the recording’s slightly flawed rhythm.

The disc’s best-known song, “Daddy Sang Bass,” perfectly illustrates how Cash blurred sacred and secular lines:“Now, I remember after work, mama would call in all of us/ You could hear us singin’ for a country mile/ Now little brother has done gone on, but I’ll rejoin him in a song/ We’ll be together again up yonder in a little while/ Daddy sang bass/ Mama sang tenor…”

Both country classic and modern gospel standard, “Daddy Sang Bass” embraces traditional family values, faith-filled fellowship and the longing for a heavenly reunion. Throughout Ultimate Gospel, the American icon’s common-man Christianity runs as deep as the booming voice that is unmistakably his.