Love, God, Murder [Box set] [Collector's Edition] [Original recording remastered]

Disc: 1

1. I Walk the Line

2. Oh, What a Dream

3. All Over Again

4. Little at a Time

5. My Old Faded Rose

6. Happiness Is You

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. What on Earth Will You Do (For Heaven's Sake)

2. My God is Real

3. It Was Jesus

4. Why Me Lord?

5. Greatest Cowboy of Them All

6. Redemption

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Folsom Prison Blues

2. Delia's Gone

3. Mr. Garfield

4. Orleans Parish Prison

5. When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)

6. Sound of Laughter

See all 16 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
More than a few novelists and literature professors have cited the troika of love, god, and death as the basic subjects of all literary works. It just so happens that most music is about the same stuff, and Johnny Cash's music is especially so. Except in Cash's music, you can tease from the general (peculiarly American?) idea of death the more dramatic, intentional, cruel strain of murder. The distinction is crucial for Cash--and this 48-track, three-CD collection--as the struggle presented throughout this set is to understand the subject of a person's will. The will to love, the will to believe, the will to murder: each involves surrender, and most of Cash's protagonists surrender (or are so vanquished that there's no discernible difference). Barrel chested in its breadth, Cash's voice is as ideal a delivery mechanism for metaphysics as it is for the police blotter, the confessional, and the altar. As for the music, Love, God, Murder goes all out to follow its thematic breakdown, avoiding chronological layout--except for Sun-era classics like "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line" to open Murder and Love, respectively. Murder's inclusion of "Orleans Parish Prison" and its B-side "Jacob Green," both recorded in 1972 at Stockholm, Sweden's Osteraker Prison, testify at once to the American roots and global relevance of Cash's vision. The contrasts between '90s material like Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me Lord" and Cash's own "Redemption" (both from American Recordings) with 1958's "It Was Jesus" and 1959's "Great Speckled Bird" (on God) is inspired, a great way to track the sometimes single-mindedness of Cash in his investigation of human behavior. Sure, the inclusion of short commentaries by Cash, U2's Bono (on God), June Carter Cash (on Love), and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino (on Murder) amounts to very little of substance, but it's always nice to read Johnny on Cash and especially June Carter Cash on Johnny. Fans might question another packaging of Cash hits, but the impeccable logic of the song choices and their thematic placement make this slim box an inarguably good thing for most with a passing interest in--or even a lasting obsession with--Cash. --Andrew Bartlett

Tracks:

I Walk the Line
Oh, What a Dream
All Over Again
Little at a Time
My Old Faded Rose
Happiness Is You
Flesh and Blood
I Tremble for You
I Feel Better All Over
'Cause I Love You
Ballad of Barbara
Ring of Fire
My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You
While I've Got It on My Mind
I Still Miss Someone
One Rose (That's Left in My Heart)

Tracks:

What on Earth Will You Do (For Heaven's Sake)
My God is Real
It Was Jesus
Why Me Lord?
Greatest Cowboy of Them All
Redemption
Great Speckled Bird
Old Account
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
When He Comes
Kneeling Drunkard's Plea
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?
Man in White
Belshazzar
Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy's Prayer)
Oh Come, Angel Band

Tracks:

Folsom Prison Blues
Delia's Gone
Mr. Garfield
Orleans Parish Prison
When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)
Sound of Laughter
Cocaine Blues
Hardin Wouldn't Run
Long Black Veil
Austin Prison
Joe Bean
Going to Memphis
Don't Take Your Guns to Town
Highway Patrolman
Jacob Green
Wall

Amazon.com

More than a few novelists and literature professors have cited the troika of love, god, and death as the basic subjects of all literary works. It just so happens that most music is about the same stuff, and Johnny Cash's music is especially so. Except in Cash's music, you can tease from the general (peculiarly American?) idea of death the more dramatic, intentional, cruel strain of murder. The distinction is crucial for Cash--and this 48-track, three-CD collection--as the struggle presented throughout this set is to understand the subject of a person's will. The will to love, the will to believe, the will to murder: each involves surrender, and most of Cash's protagonists surrender (or are so vanquished that there's no discernible difference). Barrel chested in its breadth, Cash's voice is as ideal a delivery mechanism for metaphysics as it is for the police blotter, the confessional, and the altar. As for the music, Love, God, Murder goes all out to follow its thematic breakdown, avoiding chronological layout--except for Sun-era classics like "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line" to open Murder and Love, respectively. Murder's inclusion of "Orleans Parish Prison" and its B-side "Jacob Green," both recorded in 1972 at Stockholm, Sweden's Osteraker Prison, testify at once to the American roots and global relevance of Cash's vision. The contrasts between '90s material like Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me Lord" and Cash's own "Redemption" (both from American Recordings) with 1958's "It Was Jesus" and 1959's "Great Speckled Bird" (on God) is inspired, a great way to track the sometimes single-mindedness of Cash in his investigation of human behavior. Sure, the inclusion of short commentaries by Cash, U2's Bono (on God), June Carter Cash (on Love), and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino (on Murder) amounts to very little of substance, but it's always nice to read Johnny on Cash and especially June Carter Cash on Johnny. Fans might question another packaging of Cash hits, but the impeccable logic of the song choices and their thematic placement make this slim box an inarguably good thing for most with a passing interest in--or even a lasting obsession with--Cash. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

Amazon Must Not Like This Box Set Very Much.......2005-02-02

Both of the spotlight reviews say that the music in this collection are not so hot. Who listens to country music from the '50s for Stereo? Yeah, so this may not be the best collection of Johnny Cash music, but it comes with fake tattoos. Who doesn't want fake Johnny Cash tattoos? Oh man, they're awesome. You gotta see them. I've got this cool one with a gun on my left bi-cept as I write this. I wish I could show you a picture cus I look really cool. To wrap up- if you are only interested in Johnny Cash's excellent music, you might want to look elsewhere, but if you are in it for the total Johnny Cash experience, you gotta get this set. Don't buy it used unless you can verify you will still get the tats. I wish the new Motley Crux collection came with tats.

Quintessential Johnny Cash, no need for more.......2003-10-01

Look, if you are like me, you have a couple of Johnny Cash CD's kicking around in your collection. I have both the Prison Cd's, and they are just super. However, I really didn't feel like buying 7 million of his releases to get a broad picture of JC's recordings (lets face it, JC had his first 'best of' in 1965!) so, I bought this set. This set has great packaging and the songs are just incredible and span most of his career.

I highly recommend this release if you have some JC but want more, but don't want to take a small loan out to try and get everything.

The songs are powerful, they are deep and some will make you laugh although most will make you cry.

JC is missed and I must tell you this lessens the longing.

cash makes it all real.......2003-09-03

Unlike the rest of his greatest hits packages, this trio of discs (16 tracks each and themed neatly as Love, Murder and God) were hand-picked by Cash from across the spectrum of his all-encompassing career - from early Sun recordings in the `50s to Rick Rubin-produced comeback discs in the middle of the new country `90s. But familiarity is not an issue: no kidding, one listen to this bunch and poof! you're an instant Cash fan. There's something undeniably magical about his formula for story-telling. It's not country, it's not honky tonk, it's not rock and roll, it's something more primal, like twisted campfire songs sung/spoken by a black-clad bullfrog sitting on the fence between heaven and hell. Themes aside, the imagery of love, God and murder float through all three discs, though Murder was the first stop (don't ask why) and it's the best; packed with black-humoured tales from the Old West (Don't Take Your Guns To Town, Mister Garfield), of hangings, gun fights, prisons (Folsom Prison Blues, Austin Prison), luckless outlaws (Cocaine Blues) and merciless sheriffs, all brought to vibrant life and stamped indelibly with Cash's echoed and haunting baritone, token sound effects and spartan acoustics. The spirit of the Murder set is epitomized in Joe Bean, the tale of an ill-fated bandit who, despite his mother's best efforts at the Governor's office, is hanged on his birthday. Mid-song, Cash and a chorus break in to `Happy Birthday Joe Bean' only to be interrupted by the sound of the gallows creaking open and the audible - gack! - of a freshly hung Bean. Try to stifle the chuckles when the bunch resume singing the birthday refrain. It's dark, twisted - and damn funny, tongue-in-cheek violence that makes Uzi-blasting gangsta rappers sound like the Muppets. From Murder to Love, if only because it has a bevy of familiar tracks (I Walk the Line, Flesh and Blood, Ring of Fire, Oh What a Dream). While not quite as captivating a listen as Murder, it boasts the same brilliant storytelling - bittersweet, gruesome and genuine - and unencumbered acoustic pluck, a steely guitar style so evocative of the Old West the backbeat sounds as if it's been stapled to the front end of a coal-fired express train. No surprise - in Cash's world of Love the roses are faded, the hearts are broken and commitment is more likely to end in fiery destruction than a silver anniversary. Forget chocolates and candles. The love celebrated here is the real goods - the pain, desperation, the doom, the jealousy - not the simpleton sonnets of undying amour espoused in new country aggrandizement. Finally, there's God. With its age-old imagery of fire, brimstone and anticipated salvation, it's a closer companion piece to Murder, a fact played out as Cash's big authoritative baritone resonates like a tent revival preacher, transforming the subject matter - this time a black and white hymn book packed with Old West spirituals - into hypnotically colourful illustrations of heavenly affirmation and Holy fire (It Was Jesus, My God Is Real, Redemption, Belshazzar, The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea). Yes, there may be more to life than love, murder and God. But in dashing his world of outlaws, heartbreak and faith with impossibly human fallibilities, contradictions and twisted consequences, Cash makes it real, so real you'll ultimately feel like celebrating the fact you're alive.

Eminem has nothing on Johnny Cash.......2001-12-29

What struck me the most about this three-disc set are the 16 songs that comprise the "murder" disc. Songs such as "When It's Springtime in Alaska" and "Cocaine Blues" are every bit as stark and brutal as anything you'll hear by modern rap stars. I've always respected Cash as a singer and musician, but hearing this set re-acquainted me with Cash the outlaw. It's interesting to note that Cash was singing about murdering his loved ones (e.g., in "Cocaine Blues") decades before Eminem was rapping about murdering his wife, Kim. But Cash is more than an outlaw, as the "Love" and "God" discs demonstrate. Whether singing original songs or interpreting songs written by others, Cash reveals himself to be a complicated man wrestling with demons while aspring to love people and worship God.

Incomparable.......2001-08-10

A rare thing: every track is important. You listen to the three albums through and just want to start over again. If you are unfamiliar with Cash except as the "man in black" this is a fantastic way to get to know the depth and the breadth of his career.

Music Album:

Music Album