Cash The Ragged Flag

Recorded July 28, 1990 at The Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Recorded July 28, 1990 at The Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Recorded July 28, 1990 at The Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Compiled and designed in the manner of Love, Murder, and God, three thematically compiled Johnny Cash anthologies released to wide acclaim in the spring of 2000, Life brings together 18 songs from Cash's back catalog that in one way or another deal with the nuts and bolts of many people's existence – home, nation, work, family, surviving hard times, and celebrating good times. Of course, the nature of this theme is broader and not nearly as cleanly defined as the themes of the three previous sets, and a few of these songs might have fared better elsewhere – "Where Did We Go Right" and "You're the Nearest Thing to Heaven" would have fit nicely on Love, while "I Talk to Jesus Everyday" and "Lead Me Gently Home" would not feel out of place on God. But as a summation of the broad and idiosyncratic worldview of Johnny Cash, Life fares very well indeed; Cash could set a protest song like "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" or "Man in Black" next to the fiercely patriotic "Ragged Old Flag" and see no contradiction, and celebrate the importance of hard work ("Country Trash") while savoring the sweet prospect of punching out the boss ("Oney").

A study in contrasts, and all the more American because of it, Johnny Cash holds a unique place in pop music history. His fans span generations, and fit in across the cultural spectrum, from teenaged punks to gray-haired congressmen, from Merle Haggard to Snoop Dogg, and seemingly all points in between. His music has always been instantly recognizable no matter what genre – country, rockabilly, gospel, folk – he was working in, and given the sheer volume of material he recorded, it's amazing how uniform it all is, adding up in the end to, well, Johnny Cash. This two-disc set includes Chris Cooper's Johnny Cash's America documentary DVD on the singer along with a second disc featuring the soundtrack from the film, which includes fine performances of "Big River," "Folsom Prison Blues," and "Five Feet High and Rising," among others.