Easy Rider: The Best of the Mercury Recordings

マーキュリー時代のジョニー・キャッシュの音源による初のベスト・セレクション。

30年近く在籍したコロムビア・レコーズを離れたカントリー・ミュージックのレジェンド、ジョニー・キャッシュは、1986年にマーキュリー・レコーズからの第1作となる『Class Of '55』を発表した。それは、サン・レコーズの同窓生であるRoy Orbison、Jerry Lee Lewis、そしてCarl Perkinsとのコラボレーションによる作品だった。そして7年後、リック・ルービンのアメリカン・レコーディングスと契約する前にマーキュリーで最後にレコーディングしたのも、U2とのコラボレーション曲「The Wanderer」であった。ジョニー・キャッシュがこの2曲にまたがる期間に、マーキュリーでリリースした計6作のアルバムのハイライトとなる楽曲による新コンピレーション作品。

「Get Rhythm」、「Tennessee Flat Top Box」、レアなシングルB面曲「Veteran's Day」、エルヴィス・コステロ曲のカヴァー「The Big Light」、そしてU2とのコラボレーション曲「The Wanderer」ほかを収録。

マーキュリー所蔵のオリジナル・マスター・テープを基にした初リマスター音源。

音楽ライター Scott Schinder による最新ライナーノーツ付。

Its widely acknowledged that Johnny Cashs time at Mercury didnt find the Man in Black at either his commercial or creative peak. Cash moved to the label in 1986, just after he departed his longtime home of Columbia, and he stayed there through 1991, a half-decade stint that resulted in only one Country Top 40 hit (1988s That Old Wheel, which charted thanks to the momentum of Cashs duet partner, Hank Williams, Jr.) and has subsequently been framed as the wilderness years before he righted himself on Rick Rubins American Recordings. The 2020 box set The Complete Mercury Albums 1986-1991 and its accompanying single-disc sampler Easy Rider: The Best of the Mercury Recordings provide the first opportunity to challenge this conventional wisdom, a place where its possible to concentrate on the relative merits of the handful of LPs he recorded for the label. As heard on Easy Rider, this era sounds much better than its reputation suggests. Even the cuts from Classic Cash: Hall of Fame Series, a 1988 collection of re-recordings of his old hits, is livelier than its description suggests, benefitting from Cash sounding spry and invested in the material. That none of these LPs generated hit singles at the time can be chalked up to a matter of age. Cash was on the other side of 50 when he made this music and hed been a hitmaker for 30 years. He was a known property who couldnt fit into the sound of modern country radio, which happened to be running away from veterans like him in the first place. Which isnt to say he wasnt embraced by modern musicians: Elvis Costello wrote the rousing hangover anthem The Big Light for him and U2 had him sing The Wanderer on their 1993 Zooropa, a cut that isnt quite in step with the rest of this collection but is nevertheless a welcome addition, since it isnt on any other Cash comp. All these personal and cultural changes doomed Cashs Mercury records to commercial failure, and while the albums still have a distinct gloss endemic to the 80s, each of them has its share of moments, and many of them are here. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine