Bob Dylan turned 85 the other day! In this regard, we recall one of the most interesting musical stories of friendship and cooperation. This is the story of a lifelong friendship between Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. And one day they even recorded an album together!
In the spring of 1962, John Hammond of Columbia, Cash’s label, gave Johnny Dylan’s first album. He was looking for ideas to restart his career, which had faded due to substance abuse, regain a place on the charts, and start writing songs. Johnny liked the record and listened to it God knows how many times. He wrote a letter to Dylan, who replied, and they began to correspond. They first met in person at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, a year before Bob caused a scandal there by playing an electric program (“Play it fuckin’ loud!”) after the acoustic one.
Cash recorded the single “It Ain’t Me Babe” as a duet with June Carter, and for the next album, “Orange Blossom Special” (1965), he also recorded “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” (and later wrote his song “Understand Your Man” with the same harmony) and “Mama, You’ve Been on My Mind”, the last was not included in the original LP, but was released only in the 2000s.
Johnny Cash – Mama You Been on My Mind
In 1969, they tried to record a country album together, but there was no high-quality material and the studio rejected the recording. However, the duet “Girl Of The North Country” was subsequently performed at the Johnny Cash Show and included in Bob’s next album Nashville Skyline (its melody is borrowed from the medieval English ballad “Scarborough Fair”). If Dylan had previously sung in a nasal croaking voice, then a change took place on Nashville Skyline: listeners were impressed by pleasant soft voice of a crooner. Other tracks were released on bootlegs in the 1970s.
Dylan & Cash – Girl Of The North Country
As for the joint session, it took place on February 17-18, 1969 at Columbia Studios in Nashville.
Dylan & Cash – Nashville Sessions (1969)
02 I Still Miss Someone
03 Careless Love
04 Matchbox
05 That’s Alright Mama
06 Big River
07 Girl Of The North Country
08 I Walk The Line
09 You Are My Sunshine
10 Ring Of Fire
11 Guess Things Happen That Way
12 Just A Closer Walk With Thee
13 T For Texas
14 Living The Blues
15 One Too Many Mornings
Download or listen online to Dylan & Cash – Nashville Sessions (1969) (mp3, 84 Mb)
It was actually an unsuccessful attempt by Dylan and Cash to record an album together, and although it gave birth to several interesting versions of songs, the session as a whole should be considered rather boring. In fact, it’s more like a recording of Johnny Cash and his band (by the way, Carl Perkins, who was the guitarist in Cash’s band at the time, is present here), although Dylan is undoubtedly having a good time as well. Only two of the songs here are performed by Dylan himself, and both are also old. The rest is Cash’s long-standing repertoire, songs familiar to both of them, plus, for completeness, “Matchbox”, a great tune by Carl Perkins. Bob and Johnny also performed a new song together, “Wanted Man”, written by Bob specially for Johnny, which was released on the live album “At San Quentin”, recorded a week after this session. The studio version of Wanted Man appears on the soundtrack of the 1971 film Little Fauss and Big Halsy.
The most successful versions are: Girl From North Country, One Too Many Mornings, Big River, Careless Love. Blues Yodel No. 5 is a treat for Dylan, who finally gets the chance to sing yodeling!
Dylan & Cash – One Too Many Mornings
The rest of the tracks are mostly improvised jams that never came together, despite Johnny’s sincere attempts to get Bob to open up a little more. Dylan himself seems quite happy singing along to something like “harmony” on Cash’s lead vocals. Dylan’s variations are quite limited, and it would sound better if he didn’t try to sing along at all. The songs mentioned above as relatively successful are those where the lead vocal parts alternate. For example, “One Too Many Mornings” changes key (like “Walk The Line”) with each new verse depending on who is singing. The effect is pleasant and helps to dilute the monotony of the “boom-chicka-boom” sound that Cash is famous for.
Despite some funny moments, this is not the best opportunity to explore the work of both Dylan and Cash, their solo albums are many times stronger and better. And here the guys had a lot of fun. That’s what we wish for!
