Who was/is Johnny Cash ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more

Johnny Cash

Over the years Johnny Cash's Sun recordings have been released on countless compilations and there is no doubt that the releases on Bear Family have been the definite record of his short career with the label. 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 1954 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.

In 1954 Cash's brother Roy was working at Automotive Sales Garage on Union Avenue 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.

Luther Perkins was born in Memphis and Marshall Grant in Flatts, North Carolina. The first time they worked with Cash was at Luther's home on Nathan Street in Memphis. One of the songs they would try was Hank Snow's I'm Moving On. 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. W. 'Red' Kernodle, who would record just once with Cash but was so nervous that he would leave the studio, never to return! 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 were sponsored by Cash's boss to play a 15 minute spot on country station KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas on Saturdays. They had played together for many hours and were progressing well and the next logical step was to make a record. In Memphis at that time there was only one place to go, Sun Records and producer Sam Phillips.

In late-1954 Cash went to the Sun Studios on his own to audition for Sam. Three songs from this audition appear here. Wide Open Road, You're My Baby and My Treasure, all Cash originals, impressed Sam enough to invite him back with his band. 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. At the audition Cash sang I Was There When It Happened, Belshazzar and I Don't Hurt Anymore, mainly gospel material. 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 1980 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 version included here is an early take and is noticeable when Luther falters during the second instrumental break.


This session also produced an early version of Folsom Prison Blues, another attempt at Wide Open Road and Two Timin' Woman. 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. W. 'Red' Kernodle and gives us a clue to how they would have sounded had he remained a member of the group. 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 1980 interview. "We had a steel guitar player working with us, but he was afraid to go in the recording studio and I guess maybe it was lucky for us that he didn't because The Tennessee Two came up with a sound that was kinda unique. I think a steel guitar would've taken us more toward Nashville than what was happening up there." Despite being vocally sound Two Timin' Woman suffers from an out of tune acoustic guitar and one of Luther's more forgettable solos.

Cash suggested a gospel song for the other side of their first single, most likely I Was There When It Happened. 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."  He adapted the lyrics to "You're gonna bawl, bawl, bawl"  but reconsidered and came up with "You're gonna cry, cry, cry."

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.

Rock And Roll Ruby is the only track featured that was not taped at Sun Studios. 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. Back in 1954 they had appeared on KWEM on a programme entitled 'Mid-South Country Frolics' and performed Wide Open Road, One More Ride, Luther's Boogie and Belshazzar, all tracks that he would go on to record for Sun.

Johnny Cash and The Tennessee Two spent the rest of 1955 on the road and in January 1956 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 1956 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 1956, 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. The song needed no other embellishments as Sam Phillips pointed out years later, "Can you hear 'I Walk The Line' with a steel guitar!" The alternate version is very close to the master with just a slight lyrical change. There were rumours that alternate takes existed of the song performed at differing tempos.

A study of the remaining tapes reveals that this was not the case. 

Cash recalled how the song came about in a 1980 interview. "While I was in the Air Force I had a Wilcox-Gay tape recorder. 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.' It drove me crazy for about a year.

I asked everybody I knew if they had fooled around with my tape recorder.

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." During a tour with Carl Perkins he was fooling around with the chords and Perkins asked him what he was doing and said that Sam was always looking for something different and suggested he write a song using that chord progression. "We got to talking about our wives and guys running around on the road and so forth. I had a brand new baby and I said, 'Not me, buddy. I walk the line.' Carl said, 'There's your song title.'" Apparently Cash wrote the song that night in about fifteen to twenty minutes.

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." The Tennessee Two are barely audible on the next take with just Cash and his acoustic guitar up front on the recording. 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. Of the two alternates featured here, the first is similar to the released take but it is the second that stands out. Taken at a slightly faster tempo there are noticeable differences in Luther's playing. He opens and closes the song with a totally different guitar figure and it leaves you wondering whose decision it was to abandon this style for the simpler work that featured on the released version.

With their popularity spreading most of their time was spent out on the road and it was hard to find time to go back to Memphis and record any new material. Between June 1956 and April 1957 they only managed two sessions and these only produced a couple of tracks.

One More Ride, like Brakeman's Blues, is another incomplete take that falls apart. It is a mystery as to why they gave up on what would have been another song suited to Cash's style. It was the only song recorded at this session in October 1956. Fortunately Cash did return to the song during his early sessions for Columbia.

The Leon Payne composition I Love You Because had been recorded by Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis and it seemed inevitable that Cash would also turn his attention to the song. Like the previous session this only resulted in one song being recorded. On its release it was subjected to an overdubbed chorus that added nothing to the track and is possibly the worst overdub of any of Cash's recordings from this period. On this undubbed master you can hear more clearly the piano work which is credited to Jerry Lee Lewis although this cannot be confirmed.

There are not many tapes left intact that contained every take of a particular song but this is the case with Don't Make Me Go, recorded in April 1957 and issued as a single later that month. It is interesting to note that none of these eleven outtakes are like the released version, which featured some simple acoustic guitar work and a second guitar playing single note runs. Jimmy Van Eaton was also on hand and appears on some of these outtakes although they were destined to remain in the vaults. There are a number of false starts and incomplete versions which seem to prove that this was not an easy song for them to put down on tape.

On July 1, 1957 Cash was back in the studio and recorded two songs that would make up the next single. Home Of The Blues was inspired by Cash's favourite Memphis record store and it was the first time he wasn't the sole writer of his material. Luther opens the song with a guitar intro that goes from one end of the scale to the other. There is a short false start where Perkins misses a note and is followed by the undubbed master. 

Johnny Cash The Outtakes (3-CD)
Read more at: https://www.bear-family.com/cash-johnny-the-outtakes-3-cd.html
Copyright © Bear Family Records

Copyright © Bear Family Records®. Copying, also of extracts, or any other form of reproduction, including the adaptation into electronic data bases and copying onto any data mediums, in English or in any other language is permissible only and exclusively with the written consent of Bear Family Records® GmbH.

More information about Johnny Cash on Wikipedia.org

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Man In Black 1954-58 Vol.1 (5-CD Deluxe Box Set)
Johnny Cash: Man In Black 1954-58 Vol.1 (5-CD Deluxe Box Set) Art-Nr.: BCD15517

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5-CD boxed set (LP-size) with 36-page book, 138 tracks. Playing time approx. 330 mns. It has been the most remarkable career in modern country music. 'Nobody But Nobody More Original Than Johnny Cash ' was the slogan they coined in the...
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Man In Black 1963-69 Vol.3 (6-CD Deluxe Box Set)
Johnny Cash: Man In Black 1963-69 Vol.3 (6-CD Deluxe Box Set) Art-Nr.: BCD15588

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6-CD boxed set (LP-size) with 48-page book, 152 tracks. Playing time approx. 414 mns. The third volume in our chronological documentation of Johnny Cash 's epic career covers the period before Cash became a superstar following the San...
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Man In Black 1959-62 Vol.2 (5-CD Deluxe Box Set)
Johnny Cash: Man In Black 1959-62 Vol.2 (5-CD Deluxe Box Set) Art-Nr.: BCD15562

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5-CD boxed set (LP-size) with 40-page book, 134 tracks. Playing time approx. 317 mns. ...picks up where the first volume leaves off. Johnny Cash was stretching the boundaries of country music. Here are his first religious albums, his LP...
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Five Minutes To Live - Movie - Spielfilm (DVD)
Johnny Cash: Five Minutes To Live - Movie - Spielfilm (DVD) Art-Nr.: AVD30001

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NTSC, Code 0, Time: 75:18, Movie, USA 1962, black/white, english with german subtitles. Starring: Johnny Cash, Donald Woods, Cay Forrester, Pamela Mason, Merle Travis. Cash's cult movie in best possible quality. On DVD for the first...
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Come Along And Ride This Train (4-CD Deluxe Box Set)
Johnny Cash: Come Along And Ride This Train (4-CD Deluxe Box... Art-Nr.: BCD15563

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4-CD boxed set (LP-size) with 32-page book, 105 tracks. Playing time approx. 291 mns. Johnny Cash was one of the first to explore the idea of the concept album in country music. The songs in this exclusive collection were recorded...
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The Night Rider - TV Western (DVD)
Johnny Cash: The Night Rider - TV Western (DVD) Art-Nr.: AVD30002

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(And More Bears) NTSC, Code 0, English, Time 101:38 TV-Western, USA 1960 - Mit: Johnny Cash, Eddie Dean, Gordon Terry, Merle Travis, Johnny Western, Wesley Tuttle, Karen Downes, Whitey Hughes, Jimmy Wilson. TV pilot in color and best...
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Travelling Cash - An Imaginary Journey (CD)
Johnny Cash: Travelling Cash - An Imaginary Journey (CD) Art-Nr.: BCD16820

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1-CD with 15-page booklet, 20 tracks. Playing time approx. 46 mns. Johnny Cash was a traveling man. He was a songwriter and troubador who turned his personal adventures into stories and songs. On this album, we bring together many of...
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Out Among The Stars (CD)
Johnny Cash: Out Among The Stars (CD) Art-Nr.: CDSNY18192

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(2014/Sony) 13 tracks, original Columbia recordings from 1981 and 1984 which remained unreleased before, made with the cream of Nashville's great Country musicians, incl. a duet with Waylon Jennings and a bonus track produced by Elvis...
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Unseen Cash From William Speer's Studio
Johnny Cash: Unseen Cash From William Speer's Studio Art-Nr.: BCD17308

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In 1955, at the dawn of his long career, Sun Records president Sam Phillips sent Johnny Cash to a nearby photographer, William Speer. Cash was fortunate because Speer was an innovative craftsman, influenced by vintage Hollywood...
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Rockabilly Blues (CD)
Johnny Cash: Rockabilly Blues (CD) Art-Nr.: CDKO7979

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(Sony Music Special Product/Koch International) 10 tracks 1980, produced by Earl Poole Ball. Guest Producers: Jack Clement and Nick Lowe. Liner Notes by Grant Alden (No Depression Magazine). US Pressing - deleted now!***** Rockabilly...
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A Concert: Behind Prison Walls (CD)
Johnny Cash & Friends: A Concert: Behind Prison Walls (CD) Art-Nr.: CDER20027

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(Eagle Records) 16 tracks (47.54) recorded in 1976 at Nashville's Tennessee State Penitentiary for a television special and is a bit differet. This show also features Cash's '70s road band (Carl Perkins, Bob Wootton and others), but most...
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I Walk The Line - Little Fauss & Big Halsy (CD)
Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins: I Walk The Line - Little Fauss & Big Halsy (CD) Art-Nr.: BCD16130

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1-CD with 24-page booklet, 26 tracks. Playing time approx. 65 mns. Johnny Cash's two soundtrack albums have become collectors' items over the years. In 1970, he and Carl Perkins wrote the themesong and incidental music for the cult...
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The Music - Forever Words (CD)
Various Artists: The Music - Forever Words (CD) Art-Nr.: CDSNY544153

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(Sony Legacy) 16 tracks - digisleeve with 16 page booklet. Europe Pressing Remaining stock cancelled afterwards! For almost 60 years, Johnny Cash's lyrics have inspired beyond all cultural, religious and political boundaries. He not only...
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Up Through The Years, 1955-57
Johnny Cash: Up Through The Years, 1955-57 Art-Nr.: BCD15247

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1-CD Album with 8-page booklet, 24 tracks. Playing time approx. 58 mns. In 1954 Johnny Cash moved to Memphis, where he took a radio announcing course. During the evenings, he played country music in a trio that also consisted of...
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The Outtakes (3-CD Deluxe Box Set)
Johnny Cash: The Outtakes (3-CD Deluxe Box Set) Art-Nr.: BCD16325

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3- CD Cap-Box with 100-page booklet, 111 tracks. Playing time approx. 223 mns. Bear Family Records is proud to present the most eagerly awaited entry in its series of Studio 'Outtakes' releases that includes the Everly Brothers and Janis...
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The Sons Of Katie Elder - Soundtrack (LP)
Elmar Bernstein /Johnny Cash/John Wayne: The Sons Of Katie Elder - Soundtrack (LP) Art-Nr.: LPLAA001

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(CBS Australia) 1980s re-issue of this very rare 1965 album - 12 tracks by Elmar Bernstein, featuring John Wayne and Johnny Cash. This album, containing music from the score of The Sons Of Katie Elder, brilliantly conveys all of the...
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Unseen Cash From William Speer's Studio (LP, 180g Vinyl. Etched, Ltd.)
Johnny Cash: Unseen Cash From William Speer's Studio (LP,... Art-Nr.: BAFX18009

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1-LP (one-sided, Cash portrait engraved on reverse side, 180-gram pressing) with a 16-page hardcover book. Think you've seen it all by Johnny Cash? Think you've heard it all by Johnny Cash? Think again! An innovative artist like Johnny...
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Canta En Espagnol (7inch, 45rpm, SC, Picture Disc, RSD, Ltd.)
Johnny Cash: Canta En Espagnol (7inch, 45rpm, SC, Picture... Art-Nr.: 45SR168

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(Sleazy) 2 tracks, limited, numbered (550) Record Store Day Edition, small center, picture disc also available on Compact Disc: Johnny Cash - The Man In Black Vol.3 1963-1969 (6-CD Box LP-size) Bear Family BCD15588
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Now Here's Johnny Cash (LP)
Johnny Cash: Now Here's Johnny Cash (LP) Art-Nr.: SLP5240

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(Sundazed) 12 tracks - original SUN masters From the minute he walked into Sun Studios, Johnny Cash began a career that would see him become one of the biggest and most influential musicians of our time. Though only on Sun from 1955-58,...
$32.76
Lovin' Locomotive Man - I Got Stripes (7inch, 45rpm, PS)
Johnny Cash: Lovin' Locomotive Man - I Got Stripes (7inch,... Art-Nr.: 45SR39

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Two early 'Columbia' cuts by Johnny Cash
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Christmas - There'll Be Peace In The Valley (LP)
Johnny Cash: Christmas - There'll Be Peace In The Valley (LP) Art-Nr.: LPSNY536196

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(Sony) 14 tracks 1960s/70s. The Man in Black offers up his season's greetings once again with Christmas: There'll Be Peace In The Valley, a sublime fourteen-track affair which finds Cash's golden baritone lending spirit and grace to...
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American VI - Ain't No Grave (CD)
Johnny Cash: American VI - Ain't No Grave (CD) Art-Nr.: CD1003001

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(American Recordings) 12 tracks, digipack, incl. 14 page booklet. The recordings for "American VI" were made at the same time as "American V". The songs were recorded between the death of his wife June in May and Cash's death in...
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Playlist: The Very Best Johnny Cash Duets (CD)
Johnny Cash: Playlist: The Very Best Johnny Cash Duets (CD) Art-Nr.: CDSNY53702

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(Sony Music) 14 tracks (43:18) 1964-2002 with 14 page booklet. - With four major hits to their credit, Johnny Cash and June Carter rank with country music's all—time duet teams. Being a man of vision. however, Cash viewed duets not as...
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The Legend (5-CD+DVD, Deluxe Edition, Limited, Numbered)
Johnny Cash: The Legend (5-CD+DVD, Deluxe Edition, Limited,... Art-Nr.: CD0503003

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The first 4 CDs contain 104 songs, 7 of which are previously unreleased hits. Each CD is structured chronologically as well as thematically: CD 1 "Win, Place and Show" contains 27 hits which occupied places 1 - 3 of the C&W charts from...
$147.06 $203.65
Bear's Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash, At the Carousel Ballroom, April 28, 1968 (2-LP, Ltd.)
Johnny Cash: Bear's Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash, At the... Art-Nr.: LPBMG75139

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(BMG Rights) 22 tracks - Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set with: an old Johnny Cash comic book, colour double vinyl, concert poster (reproduction) and more. Bear's Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash, At The Carousel Ballroom, April 24 1968, an...
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