So we're flipping through the channels on Thanksgiving, waiting for the first of three terrible football games, when we come up on PBS and see Roy Orbison singing Crying. Next segment was Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell duetting on Long Black Veil, followed by Neil Young on guitar doing The Needle And The Damage Done. No messing around, just very brief introductions (if any at all), and then the songs, performed beautifully. We thought, damn, this is good. What the hell are we watching?
Well, it was Johnny Cash: A Man And His Vision, a compilation of the best moments from The Johnny Cash Show, which aired from 1969-71. We were tempted to keep watching until the public television people came on and tried to sell us stuff, but instead we looked to see if we could get it a DVD ourselves, for a less exhorbitant price. (But, of course, without the satisfaction that comes from supporting public broadcasting.) Sure enough, Amazon has a 2-DVD set called The Best of The Johnny Cash Show, for a very reasonable $25.97. We'll spare the sales pitch (and no, none of us are related to Johnny Cash, we won't get this money) but, to give you an idea, these are the first six performances on just the first DVD:
- Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire
- Bob Dylan - I Threw It All Away
- Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash - Girl From The North Country
- Kris Kristofferson - Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
- Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash - Blue Yodel #9
- Stevie Wonder - Heaven Help Us All
Pretty damn good, right?
