Just got a two-DVD compilation from Legacy Recordings, The Best of the Johnny Cash TV Show 1969-1971. Four hours of gold!
Bob Dylan, Marty Robbins, Carl Perkins, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Waylon Jennings, Tammy Wynette, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Linda Ronstadt, Derek and the Dominos, Glen Campbell, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong – and more. Just amazing stuff, and it was all played live.
There are quite a few performances here of songs that also appear in the GD/Garcia book: “Big River,” of course, and also: “Blue Yodel #9” (the last song Jerry recorded), here performed by Johnny Cash and Louis Armstrong! Marty Robbins does a medley that includes both “El Paso and a bit of “Big Iron” (from the first Kingfish album); George Jones doing “The Race Is On”; Pete Seeger and JC do “Worried Man Blues” (from Robert Hunter’s 1988 album Liberty); Johnny and Joni Mitchell do “Long Black Veil”; Derek and the Dominos perform “It’s Too Late”; and Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash do “Sing Me Back Home.”
UPDATE: According to my contact at Sony, there is an audio CD – it’s a PBS exclusive premium through December pledge drives, then in stores Jan 2008. Here is the track list…
1. The Johnny Cash Show – open/Johnny Cash – I Walk The Line (2:55)
2. Johnny Cash – Flesh and Blood (3:02)
3. Tammy Wynette – Stand By Your Man (2:48)
4. George Jones – medley: She Thinks I Still Care, Love Bug, The Race Is On (3:48)
5. Johnny Cash and Lynn Anderson – I’ve Been Everywhere (2:16)
6. Bobby Bare – Detroit City (3:24)
7. Ray Charles – Ring Of Fire (3:52)
8. Derek & The Dominos – It’s Too Late (4:14)
9. Kris Kristofferson – Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again) (3:25)
10. Roy Orbison – medley: Only The Lonely, Oh, Pretty Woman (4:00)
11. Johnny Cash with The Carter Family and The Statler Brothers – Belshazzar (2:37)
12. Waylon Jennings – Brown Eyed Handsome Man (2:47)
13. Joni Mitchell and Johnny Cash – Girl From The North Country (3:45)
14. James Taylor – Fire And Rain (3:48)
15. Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, The Statler Brothers, Carl Perkins and The Tennessee Three – Daddy Sang Bass (2:24)
16. Johnny Cash – closing monologue/I Walk The Line (reprise) (2:13)
I ran home and bought this DVD yesterday and it is well worth it. Make sure you get the Deluxe 2-DVD version. Seeing Johnny and Louis Armstrong do Blue Yodel # 9 is worth the price alone. There is supposed to be a comapnion CD on Legacy, but I haven’t seen it yet…Jeremy
‘Tis good news for everybody – (no slight, “holiday cheer” note to the proceedings)
The show was poised on a classic crossroads of time – Much can be made of this set of circumstaces. I expect a good essay explaining much of this long standing mystery.
THe Dead neverappeared?
I think they’d have made it (eventualy).
I was spelbound as a boy, by this show…I have written elsewhere about the recollections…Black And White memories.
Was/is it in color?
No “Man In Black” comments please.
Enjoy, and when you finished send it right over! JK
MA