Johnny Cash - The American Recordings

[Ojai Sam]

Johnny Cash - American Recordings (1994)

Over three evenings in Rick Rubin's living room (December 5, 6 and 7, 1993 for those keeping score) Johnny Cash recorded 33 songs (plus numerous alternate takes) with just his guitar. Thirteen of them (including "Thirteen") made it to his first album on Rubin's American Recordings label. More than thirty years later, these simple performances remain unmatched in Cash's vast recorded output.

 

[Ojai Sam]

After posting this last night, I did some further research which led me down yet another rabbit hole. With the invaluable assistance of

https://countrydiscoghraphy2.blogspot.com/2018/06/johnny-cash-part-1.html

https://countrydiscoghraphy2.blogspot.com/2018/06/johnny-cash-part-2.html

I was able to create a full discography of the 27 sessions Johnny Cash did for Rick Rubin between 1993 and 2003. They were released on 6 main albums, a box set and several promos and bootlegs. In this thread, I will explore as many of these releases as I can find. They tell a story far more complex and deliberate than the legend that Cash just showed up in Rubin's living room and started singing.

It turns out that I was passing along some false information about the first album. Here are the 13 songs along with their actual provenance:

Oh Bury Me Not [On The Lone Prairie]
This was the first song recorded at Johnny's first "living room" session on May 19, 1993. But even this was the second take.

Tennessee Stud
The Man Who Couldn't Cry
These two songs were recorded at L.A.'s hipster hangout, The Viper Room on December 3, 1993. Between May and December, Cash had returned to Rubin's house for several days in June and July as well as Ocean Way Recording in Santa Monica during September. One of the Ocean Way sessions included a full band. During October and November, Rubin held studio sessions in Hendersonville, Tennessee. However, only a few stray tracks from this time period emerged on comps years later. Most remain in the vault. Sadly, that is true of the superb Viper Room show as well, with a further dozen songs before a rabidly appreciative crowd that have yet to see the light of day.

All of the remaining songs were recorded in early December in the living room:

Delia's Gone
Let Her Blow
The Beast In Me
December 5

Drive On
Bird On A Wire
Redemption
Like A Soldier
December 6

Why Me Lord
Thirteen (edited)
Down There By The Train
December 7

Interestingly, Cash also tried "Tennessee Stud" and "The Man Who Couldn't Cry" again, but Rubin opted for the Viper Room versions instead.

 

[Ojai Sam]

These sessions came at a crucial time for Rick Rubin, too. On August 27, 1993, he staged a funeral for the word "def". The calendar on SongFacts.com refreshes our collective memories:

"Rick Rubin, deciding the word "def" has been played out now that it has a listing in Webster's Dictionary, changes the name of his label from Def American Recordings to American Recordings and stages a funeral to "bury" poor Def.

The ceremony is officiated by the Reverend Al Sharpton and attended by Tom Petty, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Kerry King of Slayer, all of whom throw items with the Def American logo into a casket that is taken through Hollywood Memorial Park in a procession and buried.

'Def died of terminal acceptance,' Sharpton says. 'We knew it was sick when we could go into offices and see crew-cutted executives refer to something as Def.'

Finding success in the transition from Run-D.M.C. to a 61-year-old country singer proved Rubin to be one of the most farsighted and adaptable figures in music history. This career move also speaks volumes about Johnny Cash's artistic growth in the years after his arrival on the scene at Sun Records as a 22 year old from the cotton fields of Dyess, Arkansas.


"A turbaned Rick Rubin in 1993 and the Reverend Al Sharpton, escorted by Black Panthers, attend LA's Chapel of the Psalms for the funeral of Rubin's Def American Records, which then became American Recordings."

- Spin Magazine