Review by Booklist Review
According to John Carter Cash, what made his father stand out was not only his voice but his words. He was a writer. "His words put him on the path to Forever." Cash began writing as young as 12. The core themes of his lyrics were love and hope accompanied by a dash of humor. He worked his entire life; his last recording session occurred 10 days before his death. This tome collects nearly 600 compositions that Cash wrote or co-wrote, from the 1940s to 2003, including "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line." Comparing their task to an archaeological dig, Cash scholar Stielper scoured notebooks, leather-bound diaries, postcards, hotel stationary, and even scribblings on the bark of a tree trunk. Stielper's essays discuss Cash's lifelong love of gospel music (he was the grandson and great-grandson of Baptist preachers), his concept albums, outlaw songs, and topical songs as well as his late-career collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, which attracted new fans. A must for admirers of the Man in Black.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
This monumental tome compiling the lyrics of iconic blues, country, rock, and gospel musician Johnny Cash (1932--2003) emphasizes his talents as a wordsmith. Music historian and longtime Cash friend Stielper meticulously details themes that appear in Cash's songs, such as sorrow, alienation, fatalism, introspection, redemption, and concern for marginalized people, including prisoners. The hundreds of chronologically arranged entries consist of reproductions of Cash's largely legible handwritten lyrics, supplemented with transcriptions, archival material, and doodles. Written on various scraps of paper (from spiral notebook pages to hotel stationery), the lyrics are mostly final drafts, and readers might mourn not seeing the strikethroughs and insertions that would show how the songs evolved. (Some lyrics from Cash's last decades do appear in less-final forms.) Lyrics are included from Cash's collaborations with his wife, his son, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Paul McCartney. The volume includes all the Cash standards, such as "Man in Black" and "Ragged Old Flag," as are outlier tunes like "Man in White" (also the name of his 1986 novel on St. Paul), plus Cash's interpretations of real events, sonic musings on Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan, and reflections on his own ramblings. VERDICT Essential for country music mavens and pop culture enthusiasts.--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Paying tribute to an expansive musical career. Stielper, a Cash historian, artfully assembles the prolific singer's decorated career through the songwriting that established him as an iconic force in country music. Fronting the book is an introduction from Cash's son, John Carter Cash, who fondly reflects on his father's legacy as an artist best known for his distinctive singing voice, but, noting that poetry and song were his lifeblood, "it was what that voicesaid" that had a lasting impact. John Carter shares obscure details about his father, including how, despite being functionally blind during the final few months of his life, he was still recording music 10 days before his death in 2003. Curating nearly 600 compositions, Stielper scoured Cash's various homes to source material from diaries, notepads, and scrap-paper scribblings found in coat pockets, on tree bark, and even inside the singer's tall black boots. Alongside Cash's career evolution, the author fortifies the singer's oeuvre with insightful essays noting how the unique eras and events occurring throughout Cash's life defined his creative process and his music. The book begins in the 1940s with his first recordings and notes how his hardscrabble south-central Arkansas roots had an immense impact on his future songwriting and his worldview. Cash, who sang as a "way to get what was in my head out," would emerge as an instant standout with music labels for his composing virtuosity. Early hits included "Cry Cry Cry," "Hey, Porter!," "Folsom Prison Blues," and the iconic "I Walk the Line," followed by peak success years from the 1960s through the 1980s. In this trove of song lyrics, Cash lore, images, and poetry, Stielper returns the Man in Black to center stage and crafts a posthumous legacy befitting a legend. For both newcomers and diehard fans, this anthology is an opportunity to experience, in the words of Cash's son, "the very essence of his soul." A comprehensive, must-have collector's item for Cash completists. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
