It is 35 years since one of the best albums in rock history was released, Darkness On The Edge Of Town is number 2, (some days it has the top spot) on my list of favorite albums.
Today I think it is the best rock album ever released!
It came out three years after the incredibly successful Born To Run, and three years was an awful long time between albums in the 70s. Bruce Springsteen had been tied up in a legal battle with his former manager Mike Appel but reached a final settlement in this year-long litigation with Mike Appel on May 28, 1977.
Darkness on the Edge of Town (Houston, 1978):
This meant that for the first time in a long time Bruce Springsteen was allowed into a studio. And he did. The recording of what was to become Darkness On The Edge Of Town began in June 1977 in New York City. He had a lot of material in various state of completion. Many of the songs were written or finished over the course of the sessions. He was in the studio for a long time.
Adam Raised a Cain (Paramount Theatre, 2009):
The material that didn’t make the album seeped out on a lot bootlegs through the years, it is of an incredibly high quality both sound wise and artistic. in 2010 we finally got a Darkness box that in many ways ended the need for Darkness bootlegs . There must still be a few unreleased gems in the vault, as of 2011, only 33 of more than 70 songs have been officially released.
It consisted of 6 discs with the following content:
1: Darkness On The Edge Of Town (remastered ) 2. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Paramount Theatre, Asbury Park, NJ, 2009) 3:Thrill Hill Vault (1976-1978) + Houston ’78 Bootleg: House Cut 4 and 5: The Promise (double album with outtakes and alternative takes)
6: The Promise: The Making of “Darkness on the Edge of Town”
I love to see the cottonwood blossom
In the early spring
I love to see the message of love
That the bluebird brings
But when I see you walkin’ with him
Down along the strand
I wish I were blind
When I see you with your man
I love to see your hair shining
In the long summer’s light
I love to watch the stars fill the sky
On a summer night
The music plays you take his hand
I watch how you touch him as you start to dance
And I wish I were blind
When I see you with your man
We struggle here but all our love’s in vain
And these eyes that once filled me with your beauty
Now fill me with pain
And the light that once entered here
Is banished from me
And this darkness is all baby that my heart sees
And though the world is filled
With the grace and beauty of God’s hand
Oh I wish I were blind
When I see you with your man
From Human Touch.
Herning, Denmark 2013 05 16, Wish I were blind:
Wonderful performance!
From songmeanings.net:
it’s basically about a guy who’s hung up on a woman he can’t have and it’s taken all of the good out of life. This song’s playing on the same ideas as ‘Man’s Job’. In that song he’s obsessed with a woman who is being taken out by another guy. In both songs he sees them dancing and in both songs all his dreams get brought down. In man’s job he sings ‘all my illusions slip away’. In this song he sings ‘these eyes that once filled me with beauty now fill me with pain’.
…Always, the choice of material is a revelation. The Beast In Me (written by former son-in-law, Nick Lowe) could be autobiographical. And while writers like horrorpunk figurehead Glenn Danzig or Tom Waits probably would never have figured on his radar were it not for Rubin; time and again the duo found songs that were, in Cash’s hands, to take on new life. This willingness to experiment was to set a precedent: Subsequent albums were to see him work magic on material from Nine Inch Nails to U2 and Depeche Mode. But Johnny Cash’s final road to redemption and artistic fulfillment starts here…
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)
American Recordings did something very important — it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he’d been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)
#1 – Delia’s Gone
Wikipedia:
Released
April 26, 1994
Recorded
May 17, 1993 – December 7, 1993
Genre
Country, country folk, americana, folk rock
Length
42:45
Label
American/ Sony
Producer
Rick Rubin
American Recordings is the 81st album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in April 1994, the first album issued by American Recordings after its name change from Def American, the album being named after the new label. In 2003, the album was ranked number 364 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin’s American Recordings label, better known for rap and heavy metal than for country music. Under Rubin’s supervision, he recorded the album in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. For years Cash was often at odds with his producers after he had discovered with his first producer, Sam Phillips, that his voice was better suited to a stripped-down musical style. Most famously he disagreed with Jack Clement over his sound, Clement having tried to give Cash’s songs a “twangy” feel and to add strings and barbershop-quartet-style singers. His successful collaboration with Rick Rubin was in part due to Rubin seeking a minimalist sound for his songs.
#3 – The Beast In Me:
The songs “Tennessee Stud” and “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” were recorded live at the Viper Room, a Sunset Strip, Los Angeles nightclub owned at the time by Johnny Depp. “The Beast in Me” was written and originally recorded by Cash’s former stepson-in-law Nick Lowe.
The video for the first single, the traditional song “Delia’s Gone” (directed by Anton Corbijn, featuring Kate Moss), was put into rotation on MTV, and even appeared on Beavis and Butt-head, Beavis asking if Cash was Captain Kangaroo. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be Cash’s finest album since the late 1960s, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as Tom Waits and Glenn Danzig (who penned a song called “Thirteen” specifically for Cash, in just twenty minutes) helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards. The album cover was photographed whilst Cash was visiting Australia, at Werribee near Melbourne.
Johhny Cash & Rick Rubin in studio
#5 – Why Me Lord:
Track listing:
“Delia’s Gone” (Karl Silbersdorf, Dick Toops) – 2:18
Originally recorded by Cash for The Sound of Johnny Cash (1962)
“Let the Train Blow the Whistle” (Cash) – 2:15
“The Beast in Me” (Nick Lowe) – 2:45
Originally recorded by Lowe for The Impossible Bird (1994)
“Drive On” (Cash) – 2:23
“Why Me Lord” (Kris Kristofferson) – 2:20
Originally recorded by Kristofferson for Jesus Was a Capricorn (1972)
“Thirteen” (edit) (Glenn Danzig) – 2:29
Full-length version appears on Disc 5 of the Unearthed Box Set. Written by Glenn Danzig for Cash. Later recorded by Danzig for Danzig 6:66 Satan’s Child (1999)
“Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy’s Prayer)” (John Lomax, Alan Lomax, Roy Rogers, Tim Spencer) – 3:52
Originally recorded by Cash for Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965)
“Bird on a Wire” (Leonard Cohen) – 4:01
Originally recorded by Cohen for Songs from a Room (1969)
“Tennessee Stud” (live) (Jimmy Driftwood) – 2:54
Originally a hit single for Eddy Arnold (1959)
“Down There by the Train” (Tom Waits) – 5:34
Written by Waits for Cash. Later released by Waits on his Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards rarities collection.
“Redemption” (Cash) – 3:03
“Like a Soldier” (Cash) – 2:50
“The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” (live) (Loudon Wainwright) – 5:03
Originally recorded by Wainwright for Attempted Mustache (1973)
Personnel:
Rick Rubin – producer
Johnny Cash – acoustic guitar, vocals, main performer, liner notes
