FA5794

THE INDISPENSABLE
1954-1961

JOHNNY
CASH

I Walk the Line
Folsom Prison Blues
There You Go
Home of the Blues
Ballad of a Teenage Queen
Guess Things Happen That Way
Don’t Take Your Guns To Town
Luther Played the Boogie
I Got Stripes
Going to Memphis
Les disques qui ont établi Johnny Cash comme l’un des plus grands auteurs et compositeurs interprètes américains sont ses premiers pour Sun et Columbia, dont l’essentiel est réuni ici. Du Southern gospel à la country, du blues au rockabilly, il fut le premier géant du rock à puiser principalement dans la tradition euro-américaine, et non dans le répertoire afro-américain comme ses amis et contemporains Elvis Presley ou Jerry Lee Lewis. Bruno Blum évoque le parcours de ce très prolifique conteur-né, incarnation musicale du mythe du far-west.
Patrick FRÉMEAUX

The records that established Johnny Cash as one of the greatest American singer songwriters are his first for Sun and Columbia Records, the best part of which is included here. From Southern gospel and country music, all the way through to blues and rockabilly, he was the first rock giant to draw mainly from the European-American tradition — unlike his contemporaries and friends Elvis Presley or Jerry Lee Lewis who drew mainly from the African-American repertoire. Bruno Blum comments on the course of this prolific, born storyteller, a musical incarnation of the Wild West myth.    

Patrick FRÉMEAUX

The Indispensable 1954-1961
Johnny Cash
Par Bruno Blum

Johnny Cash (26 février 1932, King­sland, Arkansas, 12 septembre 2003, Nashville, Tennessee) est le premier chanteur de rock à avoir construit son style sur un héritage Southern gospel et country. Au contraire de ses contemporains et amis Elvis Presley et Jerry Lee Lewis qui ont basé leur répertoire sur des reprises d’autres compositeurs souvent afro-américains, il fut un compositeur très prolifique, enregistrant entre 1955 et 1962 pas moins d’une douzaine d’albums dans un style original, qui n’appartient qu’à lui, entre rockabilly et country rock. Considéré par beaucoup et à juste titre comme un chanteur de country, il a néanmoins gravé un grand nombre de morceaux qui appartiennent à l’histoire du rock.
Southern Gospel
La famille de Johnny Cash descend de la reine Ada, sœur de Malcolm IV, souverain d’Écosse au XIIe siècle1. Quelques pierres de son château subsistent dans la tour de l’église du village de Strathmiglo près d’Édimbourg. La devise Better Times Will Come2 figurait sur les armoiries de sa famille, les Caesche, orthographiée Cash quand William Caesche, un marin, émigra aux États-Unis en 1667. Ses descendants partirent pour le Westmoreland en Virginie peu après 1700. La Virginie produisait de grandes quantités de tabac exportées dans un contexte d’esclavage intensif. Johnny Cash évoque cette époque dans Boss Jack, situé en 1855 : un des vieux esclaves n’est pas rentré la nuit tombée, ce qui est interdit. Une fois retrouvé, le vieil homme lui dit « Boss, j’ai entendu une chanson dans ma tête », puis lui chante le gospel Swing Low, Sweet Chariot et échappe ainsi à la punition. « La plupart de mes esclaves sont restés avec moi après la guerre parce que je les traitais bien », suggérant que les Sudistes n’étaient pas tous des salauds.
La famille émigra ensuite en Georgie. L’arrière grand-père du chanteur, Reuben Cash, combattit dans les rangs des Confédérés pendant la Guerre de Sécession. Les Nordistes ont pillé et brûlé la maison de Reuben Cash, qui s’est installé dans l’Arkansas près du Mississippi. William, le grand-père de Johnny Cash, grandit à Toledo (Ohio) et devint un pasteur itinérant. Il circulait armé et à cheval. Son fils Ray, le père de Johnny, s’engagea dans l’armée et combattit les révolutionnaires mexicains menés par Pancho Villa au Nouveau-Mexique. Très pauvres, Ray et ses enfants devinrent ensuite cultivateurs de coton, un métier très dur, et furent ruinés par la Grande Dépression de 1929. La famille survécut grâce à la chasse et Ray, qui vivait armé et visait juste, devint homme à tout faire : scierie, pose de rails, petits boulots… Ainsi Johnny Cash est né en pleine crise économique majeure, dans une famille de militaires très pieuse. Il fut toute sa vie un fervent Protestant à la Southern Baptist Church et grava de nombreux Southern gospels (gospel blanc du sud) de sa composition arrangés dans son style country/rockabilly unique dont I Was There When It Happened, Snow in His Hair, It Was Jesus, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, I Call Him, The Old Account, He’ll Be a Friend en 1958-59, God Must Have My Fortune Laid Away et I Got Shoes (1961). La SBC avait une longue tradition de collusion avec les ultra conservateurs et le racisme systémique du sud. Son clergé a cherché à changer cette réalité à partir des années 1970, jusqu’à placer un Afro-américain à sa tête en 2020. La mentalité raciste était très répandue dans les années 1950 et la plupart des citoyens américains ne faisaient que commencer à prendre leurs distances avec l’esprit Jim Crow. Bien qu’il soit venu du sud, Johnny Cash a bien mieux que d’autres échappé, semble-t-il, au racisme de sa région, et s’intéressait au blues noir. Il a bientôt montré du respect pour les Afro-Américains, donnant notamment un spectacle avec Ray Charles dans sa propre émission de télévision des années 1960.
Country
La chasse, la vie rude et le passé sudiste des Cash ont contribué à ancrer le chanteur dans une tradition du far west qu’il mettait en scène dans ses chansons (Don’t Take Your Guns to Town, Hank and Joe and Me). Il grandit dans la pauvreté, quatrième d’une famille de sept enfants. Tous ont travaillé dur dans les champs de coton (évoqué dans Pickin’ Time). Leur bicoque sans vitres à Kingsland était au bord d’une voie de chemin de fer et tremblait à chaque train, ce qui lui inspira sans doute l’album conceptuel Ride This Train (1960, titres 8-12, disque 3), peut-être le premier du genre. Il fut nourri au son des chansons traditionnelles et compositions gravées dès 1927 dans le Tennessee, à la frontière de la Virginie, par la légendaire Carter Family. Johnny Cash a toujours revendiqué ses origines rurales et la légitimité du terme country (campagne) pour désigner sa musique. À partir de 1962 il a d’ailleurs collaboré sur scène avec Anita Carter et la Carter Family (et s’est marié en 1968 avec la chanteuse June Carter, membre de la famille et cousine du futur président Democrat Jimmy Carter). Ce coffret contient plusieurs titres de pure country : My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, I Will Miss You When You Go, Why Do You Punish Me et deux de bluegrass, I Feel Better All Over et Time Changes Everything.
Néanmoins ses influences rock, musique considérée noire dans le sud, notamment au début de sa carrière avec le rockabilly, ont causé une contestation de certains conservateurs qui ne voyaient pas toujours en lui un authentique chanteur de country. En fait Cash a, comme Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis ou Ray Charles, enregistré de la country, du gospel et de la variété en plus du rock et du blues. Comme il le décrit lui-même dans Luther Played the Boogie, il « jouait des chansons qui n’ont jamais rendu personne dingue ». Néanmoins son style rockabilly des débuts appartient à l’histoire du rock. Il était avant tout un conteur qui de sa belle voix grave aimait raconter des histoires, mettre en scène des personnages dans Ballad of a Teenage Queen, Come In Stranger, Thanks a Lot, Clementine, Smilin’ Bill McCall, son père dans Snow in His Hair - ou même Jésus Christ dans It Was Jesus. Johnny avait deux ans quand son père a obtenu du gouvernement une maison à rembourser et du terrain à exploiter. Cash mentionne cet épisode : « j’ai grandi sous un régime socialiste en quelque sorte […] ou communaliste » qui augurait d’une conscience de gauche. Le dur travail aux champs a commencé, sans parler des inondations (Five Feet High and Rising). Son frère Jack est décédé, déchiré par une scie circulaire à l’âge de quatorze ans. La famille a chanté plusieurs chansons à ses obsèques. Jack voulait être pasteur.
Johnny a appris ses premiers accords de guitare de Pete Barnhill, un gamin de treize ans atteint de polio. Les deux enfants étaient passionnés par la musique qu’ils entendaient à la radio. La première chanson qu’a entendue Cash était « Hobo Bill’s Last Ride » de Jimmie Rodgers. Il écoutait les émissions de country de la région : Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold et Hank Williams, dont il reprit un album entier en 1960. Il écoutait aussi la variété de Bing Crosby, les Andrews Sisters, du Southern gospel et même du blues. Son grand-père maternel était musicien ; sa mère jouait du violon, de la guitare et chantait avec lui des cantiques et du country gospel comme « Beautiful Life » depuis son enfance. Ils entonnaient aussi du hillbilly, du bluegrass et des chansons à la mode (comme « Don’t Telephone, Don’t Telegraph, Tell a Woman » de Roy Hogsed ou « I’m my Own Grandpa » de Lonzo & Oscar). Sa mère a pris un boulot de lavandière auprès des instituteurs locaux afin de lui offrir des cours de chant. Après avoir commencé à travailler des ballades irlandaises, au bout de trois leçons l’enseignante lui a demandé de chanter sans piano et le jeune homme lui a interprété « Long Gone Lonesome Blues » de Hank Williams. Son professeur lui a aussitôt fait promettre de ne plus jamais prendre de cours de chant et de ne jamais changer sa façon de chanter. Sa voix avait mué et il était capable d’atteindre des notes très graves. Il continua à chanter le gospel au temple jusqu’à son appel au service militaire en 1951. Il a fait ses classes à la base de Lackland à San Antonio (Texas) et participé à la composition d’une marche militaire avec les conscrits. Il a passé trois ans à la caserne de Landsberg en Allemagne, où il forma un groupe avec deux copains, les Landsberg Barbarians. Cash a acheté un magnétophone (alors un appareil dernier cri) pour enregistrer leurs répétitions et c’est en écoutant une bande à l’envers par hasard que lui vint bizarrement la mélodie de I Walk The Line, son premier gros succès. En pleine Guerre Froide, doué d’une oreille fine il devint un élément d’élite interceptant les communications soviétiques dans les services secrets de l’armée. Il fut le premier à transcrire l’annonce de la mort de Staline et à la révéler le 5 mars 1953. Il voyagea en Europe avec l’armée et s’offrit sa première guitare à Landsberg.
Memphis
Une fois rentré en Arkansas le 4 juillet 1954, le chanteur s’est installé à Memphis, capitale du Tennessee et centre nerveux de la musique dans tout le sud (avec San Antonio, Nashville et la Nouvelle Orléans). Armé de son CV dans les services secrets il chercha du travail dans les communications de la police puis devint un lamentable vendeur d’appareils électriques. Il créa sa première petite émission de radio, parrainée par son bienveillant patron. Il se passionnait pour la radio, notamment WHBQ, où l’on pouvait écouter tous les styles - hillbilly, pop, blues, gospel - dans l’émission de Dewey Phillips « Red Hot and Blue ». De plus en plus de Blancs écoutaient des « race records » en secret. Cash, par exemple, fréquentait le quartier noir Orange Mound de Memphis. Il y écouta Gus Cannon chanter le blues devant chez lui.
Il forma un trio avec Luther Perkins à la guitare électrique et Marshall Grant à la contrebasse. Grant travaillait comme mécanicien avec son frère, Roy Cash. Roy avait eu une brève carrière de musicien pendant la guerre, mais il fut le seul survivant de son groupe et abandonna la musique. Luther s’occupait d’installer les autoradios dans le même garage et partageait donc cette passion radiophonique avec Johnny. Cash s’est aussi marié le 7 août 1954 avec Vivian Liberto, une fervente chrétienne rencontrée au Texas avec qui il avait eu des échanges épistolaires en Allemagne.
Le 5 juillet 1954, le premier 45 tours d’Elvis Presley, « That’s All Right »/ »Blue Moon of Kentucky » est sorti à Memphis. Ce son nouveau attirait les jeunes et Cash se présenta le 9 septembre 1954 à l’ouverture du Drugstore Katz sur Lamar Avenue, où Elvis était venu chanter à l’arrière d’un camion. Cash admira son charisme et son jeu de rythmique sur une guitare Martin.
Le nouveau trio répétait sous l’auvent de leurs maisons, attirant les voisins. Ils interprétaient surtout du gospel comme « Peace in the Valley », « He’ll Understand and Say Well Done », toujours I Was There When It Happened et même un gospel noir en forme de blues, « I’ve Got Jesus and That’s Enough ». Et une de ses premières compositions, « Belshazzar », sur le roi de Babylone - encore une chanson gospel. Ainsi, il fut initialement autant marqué par le gospel que la musique country.
Sun Records
Cash appela les disques Sun à Memphis et proposa son Southern gospel au producteur Sam Phillips, qui n’était pas intéressé. Idem avec la country. Il se présenta alors à l’ouverture du studio un matin, sans effet. Ce n’est que quand il chanta Hey Porter, au tempo plus rapide, que Phillips lui proposa d’enregistrer. La version de l’audition est aussitôt sortie cet été-là sur 45 tours avec au verso une nouvelle composition, Cry! Cry! Cry!. Un succès local instantané. Il donna son premier concert important à l’Overton Park Band Shell le 5 août 1955 et fut invité à chanter au légendaire Radio Louisiana Hayride de Shereveport à la fin de l’été. Il a décidé de s’habiller en noir et a tenu le pari jusqu’à la fin de sa vie, devenant « The Man in Black ».
Il expliqua que son propre style était ancré dans un mélange du sud-ouest de l’Arkansas et du nord-est de l’Arkansas. Cash refusa presque toute sa vie les chansons difficiles à jouer, aux accords nouveaux, et se cantonna à des compositions d’une grande simplicité, basées sur le blues et la country la plus primaire. La simplicité ternaire « boom chicka boom » de la partie de guitare électrique devint la signature, le style Cash. Elle évoque à certains le galop d’un cheval. Son guitariste Luther Perkins était tout aussi limité techniquement. Cash n’en devint pas moins un grand conteur, aux mélodies bien trouvées, faisant vivre des personnages imaginaires auxquels il attribuait un destin souvent tragique, comme la prison. Dans son célèbre Folsom Prison Blues de 1955, il ne put rien trouver de pire comme criminel que d’imaginer qu’il avait « tué un homme à Reno juste pour le voir mourir ». Excepté quelques nuits au poste, Cash n’a pourtant jamais fait de prison mais ce thème est récurrent dans son œuvre, comme ici avec Doin’ my Time, I Got Stripes, Going to Memphis, et Transfusion Blues qui comme Don’t Take Your Guns to Town évoque un meurtre dans la tradition du far west. Il mettait en scène la solitude (So Doggone Lonesome, son deuxième 45 tours très country), le chagrin d’amour, la nostalgie, le désespoir et la rédemption, souvent trouvée dans la religion, la fidélité ou le mariage comme il l’évoque dans I Walk The Line, son premier numéro un national, paru le 2 avril 1956. Johnny Cash ne tarit plus d’éloges pour le producteur visionnaire que fut Sam Phillips. D’autres titres marquants furent gravés, dont le traditionnel Rock Island Line.
En 1957 Johnny Cash commença à consommer régulièrement des amphétamines, qui lui permettaient de rester éveillé pendant les nuits entières de route en tournée, et de tenir le coup concert après concert. En pleine escalade de sa toxicomanie, alternant crises de manque, de démence et adultères, il supportait mal sa femme jalouse de ses admiratrices de plus en plus nombreuses. Sa vie était devenue un enfer mais malgré plusieurs accidents de voiture il était plus productif que jamais, passant ses nuits d’insomnies à écrire des chansons, seul dans sa caravane. L’alcoolisme (évoqué dans Just One More, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry et I’d Just Be Fool Enough), les amphétamines et les barbituriques ont détruit son mariage et la vie de ses quatre filles. À partir de 1962 il a commencé une relation avec la chanteuse de country June Carter.
Au printemps 1958 Sam Phillips refusa d’enregistrer les compositions de gospel de Cash, invoquant une impasse commerciale. Et encore moins l’album conceptuel qui allait devenir Ride This Train en 1960. En 1958 Cash signa une option avec les disques Columbia qui acceptaient ces nouvelles idées. Sam Phillips, furieux, a demandé à Charlie Rich d’écrire pour lui quelques titres, que Cash, admiratif de Rich, grava peu après (Thanks a Lot, It’s Just About Time, I Thought You’d Like to Know et I Forgot to Remember to Forget, déjà gravé par Elvis en 1955). Jack Clement, l’assistant de Sam Phillips, écrit lui aussi quelques chansons et les fit enregistrer à Cash en l’absence de Phillips (Ballad of a Teenage Queen, Guess Things Happen That Way).
Columbia
Les enregistrements suivants ont été réalisés pour Columbia et son légendaire producteur Don Law, qui avait enregistré Robert Johnson et des vétérans de la country. Dès la première séance de studio pour Columbia le 24 juillet 1958 on voit une diversification des styles : country pure (Suppertime), chansons traditionnelles (Frankie’s Man, Johnny), gospel (It Was Jesus) et son « rockabilly » sautillant dans son style dépouillé habituel (That’s All Over, One More Ride). Comme son ami Elvis au même moment, à sa manière Johnny Cash a visé le grand public et l’éclectisme. Sa personnalité de conteur s’est encore affirmée avec la séance d’août qui a suivi (I’d Rather Die Young). Suractivé par les amphétamines, Johnny Cash vécut une frénésie créatrice inouïe entre 1958 et 1962. La qualité de ses enregistrements à la charnière des années 50 et 60 est remarquable. Gospel, rock ou country, Johnny Cash était déjà un géant de la musique américaine avant de connaître la célébrité en tant qu’acteur (Five Minutes to Live, Bill Karn, 1961) et son plus grand succès écrit par June Carter « Ring of Fire » en 1963.
Bruno Blum, décembre 2020.
© Frémeaux & Associés 2021
1 Johnny Cash et Patrick Carr, Cash, l’autobiographie (1997. Paris, Le Castor Astral, 2005).
2 Des jours meilleurs viendront.

The Indispensable Johnny Cash 1954-1961
by Bruno Blum

Johnny Cash (Born - February 26th, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas; Died - September 12th, 2003, Nashville, Tennessee) was the first rock singer to build his style upon a Southern gospel and country music legacy. Unlike his contemporaries, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, who based their repertoire on covering songs often composed by African-Americans, he was a very prolific songwriter. He recorded no less than a dozen albums between 1955 and 1962, in an original style entirely his own, a cross between rockabilly and country rock. Although many consider him to be a country singer, he has also cut a substantial body of work that belongs to rock history.
Southern Gospel
Johnny Cash’s family was descended from Queen Ada, the sister of Malcolm IV, a Scottish king of the XIIth century1. A few stones from Malcolm’s castle remain in the Strathmiglo village church tower near Edinburgh.
The “Better Times Will Come” motto was featured on the Caesche family’s coat of arms. William Caesche, a sailor, migrated to America in 1667 and thereafter spelt his family name as Cash.
His descendants left for Westmoreland in Virginia soon after 1700. Virginia at that time was producing huge amounts of tobacco, exported within a context of intensified slavery. Cash alludes to this in Boss Jack, a song set in 1855: one of the old slaves has not returned to the plantation until after sunset, which was forbidden. Once found, the old man says: “Boss, I heard a song in my head,” and proceeds to sing the gospel song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, thus avoiding punishment. “Most of my slaves stayed with me after the war because I treated them right,” the boss man stated, suggesting that some Southerners, at least, were not bastards.
The family then moved to Georgia. The singer’s great-grandfather, Reuben Cash, fought in the Civil War, in the Confederate ranks. The Yankees burned down Reuben Cash’s house and he moved to Arkansas, near the Mississippi river. Johnny Cash’s grandfather, William, grew up in Toledo (Ohio) and became an itinerant minister. He rode his horse, armed. Cash’s father joined the army and fought the Mexican revolutionaries led by Pancho Villa in New Mexico. He and his family were very poor and became cotton farmers, a very hard occupation.
They lost everything after the ‘Great Depression’ of 1929. The family survived by hunting; his father lived armed and fired straight. He became a handy man, worked in a sawmill, laid down railroad tracks, took odd jobs, etc. So Johnny Cash was born into a very religious family, right in the middle of a major ongoing economic crisis.
He remained a Southern Baptist Church devotee all his life and recorded many of his self-composed Southern gospel songs (Southern, White gospel). He arranged them in his unique country/rockabilly style including I Was There When It Happened, Snow in His Hair, It Was Jesus, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, I Call Him, The Old Account and He’ll Be a Friend in 1958-59, followed by God Must Have My Fortune Laid Away and I Got Shoes (1961).
The Southern Baptist Church has a long tradition of collusion with hardline conservatives and the systemic racism of the Deep South. But, beginning in the 1970s, its clergy sought to change the status quo, even placing an Afro-American at its head in 2020. However, the racist mentality was widespread back in the 1950s, and most US citizens were only just beginning to grow out of the “ Jim Crow ” spirit. Although he was from the South, Johnny Cash, much better than many others, avoided local racism, and got deeply into Black blues music. He soon began to show respect for African-Americans, performing with Ray Charles, among others, on his own TV show.
Country
Hunting, which is a rough life, and the Southern States past of the Cash family no doubt helped to anchor the singer in the Western tradition he was staging, with songs like Don’t Take Your Guns to Town and Hank and Joe and Me. He grew up in poverty, the fourth sibling of a family of seven children. All of them worked hard in the cotton fields (as sung in Pickin’ Time) and their windowless shack in Kingsland stood right by a railroad track, which no doubt inspired his 1960 Ride This Train concept album (tracks 8-12, Disc 3) – which was perhaps the first ever concept album.
He was fed the sound of traditional and original songs, cut as early as 1927 in Tennessee, near the Virginia border, by the legendary Carter Family. Johnny Cash always acknowledged his country origins and the legitimacy of the term “country” to describe his music. In fact, by 1962, he had started appearing onstage with Anita Carter and The Carter Family, and by 1968 had married singer June Carter, a member of the family and a cousin of Democrat President-to-be Jimmy Carter. This set contains a few tracks in plain country style: My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, I Will Miss You When You Go, Why Do You Punish Me, plus two bluegrass ones: I Feel Better All Over and Time Changes Everything.
However, his rock influences and a style understood to be “Black music” in the South, caused protest from some conservative country music fans, who did not see in Cash a genuine country music singer, particularly because he first started out singing rockabilly. In fact (not unlike Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles), in addition to rock and blues Cash recorded country, gospel and even popular music. As he sang it himself, in Luther Played the Boogie, he “played songs that drove nobody wild.” Nevertheless, his early rockabilly style belongs to rock ‘n’ roll history.
But, above all, he was first and foremost a storyteller, using his deep voice to depict strong characters in his repertoire of songs. One can hear this in Ballad of a Teenage Queen, Come In Stranger, Thanks a Lot, Clementine and Smilin’ Bill McCall. His father features in Snow in His Hair - and even Jesus Christ makes an appearance in It Was Jesus.
Johnny was two years old when the government loaned his father a house on mortage and some land to cultivate. Cash alludes to this time: “As I said, in a way I grew up under a socialist regime. Or, for lack of a better word, ‘communalist’.” Hard work in the fields had started early, not to mention the floods they often had to deal with (Five Feet High and Rising). His brother Jack died at the age of fourteen, ripped apart by a circular saw. Jack had wanted to be a minister and his family sang several songs at his funeral.
Johnny learnt his first guitar chords from Pete Barnhill, a thirteen year old boy who had polio. Both kids were crazy about the music they heard on the radio. The first song Cash heard over the air was Jimmie Rodgers’ “Hobo Bill’s Last Ride.” He listened to the country music broadcast in his area: Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Eddy Arnold and Hank Williams (of whom he covered an entire album’s worth of songs in 1960).
He would also listen to Bing Crosby’s crooning, the Andrews Sisters, much Southern gospel and even some blues. On his mother’s side, his grandfather was a musician and his mother played the violin as well as the guitar. They had sung hymns and country gospel together, such as “Beautiful Life” ever since childhood. They would also sing some hillbilly, bluegrass and the popular tunes of the day (such as Roy Hogsed’s “Don’t Telephone, Don’t Telegraph, Tell a Woman” and Lonzo & Oscar’s “I’m my Own Grandpa”).
His mother got a job as a washer-woman for the local school teachers to pay for Johnny’s singing lessons. After working on some Irish ballads for three lessons, his teacher told him to sing without the piano.
The young man sang her Hank Williams’ “Long Gone Lonesome Blues.” The teacher made him promise, on the spot, never to take singing lessons again and to never change his way of singing. His voice had broken and he could now reach very low notes.
Johnny kept singing gospel at the local church until his army call up in 1951. He did his basic training at the Lackland base in San Antonio (Texas), where he helped compose a military march with his fellow conscripts. Then he spent no less than three years in the Landsberg military barracks in Germany, where he formed a band, The Landsberg Barbarians, with two friends. (Landsberg Prison, in Bavaria, southern Germany, was where Adolf Hitler served his five year prison sentence for his abortive Government coup, in 1923). Johnny Cash bought his first guitar in Landsberg.
He also bought a tape recorder (a state-of-the-art machine at the time) to record his band’s rehearsals, and it was while listening to a tape backwards that the melody for I Walk The Line, his first big hit, came to him, in a rather bizarre way. This was during the cold war; he had a sharp ear and became an elite soldier in the US Army Intelligence Service, intercepting Russian communications. It was he who first transcribed the announcement of Josef Stalin’s death and announced it on March 3, 1953. He traveled around Europe with the US Army and witnessed Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation the same year, in London.
Memphis
Johnny Cash returned to Arkansas on July 4, 1954. The singer moved to Memphis, Tennessee’s capital city and part of the spinal cord of music in the South (along with New Orleans, Nashville and San Antonio). Based on his experiences in the Intelligence Service, he tried to get a job in the Communications Department of the local Police force, failed at that and instead became a lousy electrical appliances salesman.
He was able to create his first radio show due to being sponsored by his benevolent boss. Cash had a passion for the radio, especially station WHBQ, where one could hear all styles - hillbilly, pop, blues, gospel - in Dewey Phillips’ “Red Hot and Blue” show. At this time more and more White people were secretly listening to “race records”. Cash, himself, for instance, hung out in Memphis’ Orange Mound Black neighbourhood, where one night he heard Gus Cannon singing the blues on his porch.
He soon formed a trio with Luther Perkins on electric guitar and Marshall Grant on acoustic bass. Grant worked as a mechanic with Johnny’s brother, Roy Cash. Roy had had a short career as a musician during World War II, but he turned out to be the only survivor of the band’s personnel and gave up music. Luther used to set up car radios in the same garage, so he shared this passion for radios with Johnny. Cash married Vivian Liberto, a staunch Christian, on August 7, 1954. He’d met her previously in Texas and had had a long epistolary relationship with her, all the way from Germany, prior to returning home.
On July 5, 1954, Elvis Presley’s first single “That’s All Right”/”Blue Moon of Kentucky” was issued in Memphis. This brand new sound attracted mainly young Southern kids, their elder siblings and friends, and on September 9, 1954, Cash attended the Katz Drugstore Grand Opening on Lamar Avenue, where Elvis had come to sing on the back of a lorry. Cash admired his charisma and his rhythm playing on a Martin guitar.
The new trio often rehearsed out on the front porch of their houses, sometimes attracting the neighbours. They sang mainly gospel tunes like “Peace in the Valley,” “He’ll Understand and Say Well Done,” ‘I Was There When It Happened’ and even a black gospel song in blues form, “I’ve Got Jesus and That’s Enough.” They also played one of Cash’s early compositions, “Belshazzar” about the King of Babylon - another gospel song, which shows that he was initially influenced by gospel music at least as much as he was by country music.
Sun Records
Johnny Cash called Sun Records in Memphis and offered Sam Phillips the opportunity to record his Southern Gospel, but the producer was not interested at that time. It was the same with Cash’s country music. He then introduced himself at the studio’s opening one morning, again without any luck.
It was only when he sang Hey Porter, which had a faster tempo, that Phillips agreed to record him. The audition’s version was soon released that summer, on a 45 RPM single with a new song, Cry! Cry! Cry!, on the B-side. The record was an instant local hit. Cash gave his first important live performance at Overton Park Band Shell’s on August 5, 1955 and was invited to play Shreveport’s legendary ‘Radio Louisiana Hayride’ later that summer. He decided to dress in black for this appearance and liked it so much that he stuck with that style to the very end of his career, becoming, for all time, “The Man in Black.”
He explained that his own style was anchored in a mix of South West Arkansas and North East Arkansas music styles. For most of his life Cash refused to record hard-to-play songs, with new chords or complex arrangements, and stuck to compositions crafted with great simplicity, based on the most basic country and blues music. The electric guitar “boom chicka boom” swing simplicity became his signature, the Cash style. To some, it brings to mind a horse’s gallop. His guitar player Luther Perkins was technically limited, too.
Cash nevertheless became a great storyteller, with well-chosen melodies that made his imaginary characters come to life, and for whom he made up often tragic fates, such as prison. In his famous 1955 Folsom Prison Blues, he could not think of any worse a criminal than one who “killed a man in Reno just to watch him die”. However, apart from a few nights in police stations, Cash was never sentenced to any prison time himself. But this prison setting is a recurrent theme in his works, as heard here in Doin’ my Time, I Got Stripes, and Going to Memphis.  
Transfusion Blues and Don’t Take Your Guns to Town tell the story of a murder in the old ‘wild west’ tradition. His songs featured solitude (So Doggone Lonesome, his country-styled second single), heartbreak, nostalgia, despair and a redemption often found in religion, faithfulness or marriage, as sung in I Walk The Line - his first national Number One, issued on April 2, 1956.
Johnny Cash never had enough kind words to say about his visionary producer, Sam Phillips. More strong material followed, including the traditional song Rock Island Line.
In 1957, Cash started using amphetamine regularly. This enabled him to stay up for nights on end, and to bear the pressure of never-ending tours. As his addiction grew, he went through constant withdrawal symptoms, occasionally displayed dramatic, insane behaviour, and committed adultery. Also, he could not stand his jealous wife resenting his increasingly numerous female fans.
His life had, in fact, become a hell, but in spite of several car accidents, he was more prolific than ever, writing song after song in his sleepless nights, alone in his mobile home. Alcoholism (alluded to in Just One More, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry and I’d Just Be Fool Enough), amphetamines and barbiturates destroyed his marriage and greatly affected the lives of his four daughters. In 1962 he started a relationship with country singer June Carter.
In the Spring of 1958 Sam Phillips had refused to record Cash’s gospel compositions, saying they wouldn’t sell. He also said no to his concept album idea, which would become Ride This Train in 1960. As a result, in 1958, Cash signed an option with Columbia Records, where his new ideas were accepted. A furious Sam Phillips asked Charlie Rich to write a few songs for him, and Johnny Cash, who admired Rich, agreed to record them shortly thereafter (Thanks a Lot, It’s Just About Time, I Thought You’d Like to Know and I Forgot to Remember to Forget, which had already been cut by Elvis in 1955).
Sam Phillips’ assistant Jack Clement also wrote a few songs and had Cash record them in Philips’ absence (Ballad of a Teenage Queen, Guess Things Happen That Way).
Columbia
The ensuing recordings were made for Columbia by legendary producer Don Law, who had recorded Robert Johnson and many country music veterans. As early as the first session for Columbia on July 24, 1958, the musical styles varied greatly: pure country (Suppertime), traditional tunes (Frankie’s Man, Johnny), gospel (It Was Jesus) and his jumpy ‘rockabilly’, in his own, usual, one of a kind, pared-down style (That’s All Over, One More Ride).
His storyteller personality was further asserted in the follow-up session in August that year (I’d Rather Die Young). Stimulated by amphetamine, in the years 1958-1962 Johnny Cash went through a creative frenzy and the quality of his recordings in those pivotal years is remarkable. Whether it was gospel, rock or country, Johnny Cash was already an American music giant when he achieved further fame as an actor (Five Minutes to Live, Bill Karn, 1961) and then scored with his biggest hit record - written by June Carter - “Ring of Fire,” in 1963.
Bruno Blum, December, 2020.
With thanks to Chris Carter for proofreading.
© Frémeaux & Associés 2021
1 Johnny Cash and Patrick Carr, Cash, the Autobiography (1997).

JOHNNY CASH 1954-1961 - Discography
 DISC 1
Tracks 1-24, disc 1 and 1-7, disc 2 produced by Sam Phillips except where indicated, recorded at Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue, Memphis Tennessee.
1. You’re My Baby
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 122
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Unknown-el b. September 18, 1954.
2. Hey Porter
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 221
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-acoustic b. March 22, 1955.
3. Cry, Cry, Cry
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 221
4. Port of Lonely Hearts
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 347
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. May, 1955.
5. Folsom Prison Blues
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 232
6. So Doggone Lonesome
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 232
7. Luther Played the Boogie
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 316
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. July 30, 1955.
8. I Walk the Line
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 241
9. Get Rhythm
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 241
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. April 2, 1956.
10. Train of Love
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 258
11. There You Go
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 258
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue, Memphis Tennessee. May 8, 1956.
12. Don’t Make Me Go
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 266
13. Next in Line
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 266
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. April 4, 1957.
14. Home of the Blues
(Douglas Glenn Tubb aka Glenn Tubb, John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash, Lillie McAlpine) SLP 1235
15. Give my Love to Rose
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 279
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. July 1, 1957.
16. Rock Island Line
(unknown, first recorded by Clarence Wilson, modified by Kelly Pace, attributed to Hudson William Ledbetter aka Lead Belly; two verses added by John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun LP 1220
17. The Wreck of the Old ‘97
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun LP 1220
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two: Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. Circa summer 1957.
18. Doin’ my Time
(James Skinner aka Jimmie Skinner) Sun LP 1220
19. Country Boy
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun LP 1220
20. If The Good Lord’s Willing
(Jerry Reed Hubbard as Jerry Reed) Sun LP 1220
21. I Was There When It Happened
(Fern Jones, James Houston Davis aka Jimmie Davis) SEP 117
22. Remember Me (I’m the One That Loves You)
(Carl Stuart Hamblen aka Stuart Hamblen) Sun SEP 117
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two: Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. August 4, 1957.
23. Big River
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 283
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two: Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b. Produced by Jack Henderson Clement aka Jack Clement. November 12, 1957.
24. Ballad of a Teenage Queen
(Jack Henderson Clement aka Jack Clement) Sun LP 1235
Same as above, add Gene Lowery Singers-backing vocals, added November 22, 1957.
 DISC 2
Tracks 1-7 produced by Sam Phillips and/or Jack Clement, recorded at Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue, Memphis Tennessee.
1. Guess Things Happen That Way
(Jack Henderson Clement aka Jack Clement) Sun 295
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two: Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b; James Van Eaton-d; Jimmy Wilson-p; April 9, 1958. Gene Lowery Singers-backing vocals, added in May, 1958.
2. Come in Stranger
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Sun 295
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Jimmy Wilson-p; Marshall Grant-b; James Van Eaton-d. May, 1958.
3. Katy Too
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash, Jack Henderson Clement aka Jack Clement) Sun 321
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Jimmy Wilson-p; Marshall Grant-b; James Van Eaton-d. May 28, 1958.
4. Thanks a Lot
(Charles Allan Rich aka Charlie Rich) Sun 316
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Jimmy Wilson-p; Marshall Grant-b; James Van Eaton-d. July 10, 1958. The Confederates-backing vocals added.
5. It’s Just About Time
(Charles Allan Rich aka Charlie Rich) Sun 309
6. I Just Thought You’d Like to Know
(Charles Allan Rich aka Charlie Rich) Sun 309
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-el g; Billy Lee Riley-g; Jimmy Wilson-p; Marshall Grant-b; James Van Eaton-d. July 17, 1958. Backing vocals added.
7. I Forgot to Remember to Forget
(Stanley Augustus Kessler, Charles Allan Rich aka Charlie Rich) Sun 321
Same as above, Charles Allan Rich as Charlie Rich replaces Wilson.
8. Suppertime
(Ira Forest Stanphill aka Ira Stanphill) Columbia CS-8122
9. It Was Jesus (Who Was It?)
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8125
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-el g; possibly Don Helms-st g; Billy Lee Riley-g; Marvin Hughes-p; Marshall Grant-b; Morris Palmer-d. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, July 24, 1958. Backing vocals added on 9.
10. The Troubadour
(Cindy Walker) CS-8122
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b; Morris Palmer-d; Marvin Hughes-p; unknown vocal chorus added at unknown date. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, August 8, 1958.
11. That’s All Over
(Richard Eugene Glasser aka Dick Glasser) CS-8122
12. Frankie’s Man, Johnny
(Unknown, arranged and adapted by John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Columbia 4-41371
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b; Morris Palmer-d; Marvin Hughes-p. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, August 8, 1958 (18:30-22:30).
13. One More Ride
(Clarence Robert Nobles aka Bob Nolan) Columbia CS 8122
14. Pickin’ Time
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Columbia CS 8122
Same as above, August 13, 1958.
15. Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Columbia CS 8122
16. I’d Rather Die Young
(John Beasley Smith aka Beasley Smith, Richard Vaughn aka Billy Vaughn, Randolph Clay Wood aka Randy Wood) Columbia CS 8122
17. Shepherd of my Heart
(Virginia Lucille Overstake aka Jenny Lou Carson) Columbia CS 8122
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Don Helms-steel g; Marshall Grant-b; Morris Palmer-d; Marvin Hughes-p. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, August 13, 1958, 14:00-20:00. Backing vocals added on 13.
18. Snow in His Hair
(Marshall Pack) CS 8125
19. Sweet Low, Sweet Chariot
(Wallace Willis) CS 8125
20. I Call Him
(Roy Bradsher Cash, Sr. aka Roy Cash, John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8125
21. The Old Account
(Unknown arranged by John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Columbia CS-8125
22. He’ll Be a Friend
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8125
23. It Could Be You (Instead of Him)
(Vernice Johnson McAlpin aka Vic McAlpin) CS 8148
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b; Morris Palmer-d; Marvin Hughes-p; Murray Mizell Harman, Jr. as Buddy Harman-d; Marvin; unknown vocal chorus added at unknown date. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, January 23, 1959.
24. You Dreamer You
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) Columbia 4-41371
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b; Murray Mizell Harman, Jr. as Buddy Harman-d; Marvin Hughes-p; unknown vocal chorus added at an unknown date. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, March 12, 1959 (15:00-23:00).
 DISC 3
1. I Got Stripes
(Charles Antwon Williams aka Charlie Williams) Columbia 4-41427
2. Five Feet High and Rising
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash)
3. Hank and Joe and Me
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8148
4. The Caretaker
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8148
5. Clementine
(William Robert Mize aka Billy Mize, Buddy R. Mize) CS 8148
6. I Want to Go Home
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8148
7. Don’t Step on Mother’s Roses
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8148
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-g; Marshall Grant-b; Murray Mizell Harman, Jr. as Buddy Harman-d; Marvin Hughes-p; unknown vocal chorus added at an unknown date. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, March 12, 1959 (15:00-23:00).
8. Going to Memphis
(unknown, added lyrics by John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 4-41618
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-el. g; Marshall Grant-b; Murray Mizell Harman, Jr. as Buddy Harman-d; Floyd Cramer-p; unknown vocal chorus. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, December 14, 1959.
9. When Papa Played the Dobro
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 4-41618
10. Boss Jack
(Maurice Woodward Ritter aka Tex Ritter) CS 4-41618
11. Loading Coal
(Merle Robert Travis aka Merle Travis) CS 4-41618
Johnny Cash-v, g; Luther Monroe Perkins-el. g; Johnny Westerlund as Johnny Western-g; Don Helms-steel g; Gordon Terry-v; Marshall Grant-b; Morris Palmer-d; Floyd Cramer-p; Murray Mizell Harman, Jr. as Buddy Harman-d. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, February 15, 1960.
12. Smiling Bill McCall
(John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 4-41618
Same as above, February 16, 1960.
13. My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You
(James Robert Wills aka Bob Wills) CS 8254
14. I Will Miss You When You Go
(Baby Stewart, Ernest Dale Tubb) 8254
15. I Feel Better All Over
(Kenneth Ray Donald Rogers, Leon Smith) CS 8254
16. Why Do You Punish Me?
(Erwin King) CS 8254
17. Just One More
(George Glenn Jones as George Jones) CS 8254
18. Honky Tonk Girl
(Charles Harding aka Chuck Harding, William Henry Thompson aka Hank Thompson) CS 8254
19. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
(Hiram King Williams aka Hank Williams) CS 8254
20. Time Changes Everything
(Thomas Elmer Duncan aka Tommy Duncan) CS 8254
21. I’d Just Be Fool Enough (To Fall)
(Melvin Endsley) CS 8254
22. Transfusion Blues CS 8254
(Troy Junius Arnall aka T.J. Arnall)
Same as above, February 17, 1960.
23. God Must Have my Fortune Laid Away
(Ted Harris) CS 8522
Johnny Cash-v [overdub session: March 23, 1961]; Johnny Westerlund as Johnny Western-v, g; William Liebert [leader], Luther Monroe Perkins-el. g- Marshall Grant-b; W.S. Holland-d; Jimmy Wilson-p; Randolph Hansell-vibes; B. J. Baker Group-vocal chorus. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law and Frank Jones. Radio Recorders, 7000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, California, February 27, 1961 [21:00-03:00].
24. I Got Shoes
(unknown, arranged & adapted by John R. Cash aka Johnny Cash) CS 8522
Johnny Cash-v; Luther Monroe Perkins-el. g-Ray Edenton-g; Marvin Hughes-vibes; Floyd Cramer-p; Marshall Grant-b; W.S. Holland-d; vocal chorus. Produced by Donald Firth Law as Don Law and Frank Jones. Bradley Film and Recording Studio, 804 16th Ave. South, Nashville, Tennessee, April 26, 1961.