Johnny Cash's final album

[KiwiCoromandel]

Having already tapped into startling contemporary material such as Hurt and Mercy Seat, as well as drawing on his beloved country, folk and church songs, Johnny Cash didn't need to shock anymore when he recorded his last album in 2003 in the months before he died.

Although he did cover a Bruce Springsteen song - the simultaneously defiant and optimistic Further On (Up The Road) with lyrics such as "Where the road is dark and the seed is sowed/Where the gun is cocked and the bullet's cold ... I'll meet you further on up the road" - the emphasis this time was a little more on more traditional material.

Those who came across Moby's album Play, which heavily sampled pre-WII American music, will recognise part of God's Gonna Cut You Down. The song is a traditional spiritual which shares the "run on" hook with Run On For A Long Time that was sampled for Moby's Porcelain.

While the spiritual brings God to the table, in Rod McKuen's Love's Been Good To Me, Cash brings more earthly pursuits to the fore, reflecting on affairs of the heart which had warmed him. As with the rest of the album, Cash seems prepared for his death, satisfied with the balance of his long life.

source:www.smh.com.au