Johnny Cash – America: A 200-Year Salute In Story And Song / Ragged Old Flag

It’s always been tempting to dismiss Johnny Cash’s so-called “patriotic-themed” albums — he recorded several for Columbia — as little more than cartoonish curiosities. Who wouldn’t rather hear Cash sing “Big River” or “Folsom Prison Blues” than recite the Gettysburg Address?

Sure, America: A 200-Year Salute In Story And Song, from 1972, has its kitschy moments, particularly Cash’s spoken-word introductions to the disc’s 10 songs. “We the people of the United States,” Cash kicks off the album in his unmistakable voice, “in order to form a more perfect union, had to have men like Columbus, De Soto, Lewis & Clark, Kit Carson, Sam Colt, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Orville & Wilbur Wright, my grandpa, and Paul Revere.” From there, we get a sort of Disney version of American history, including such events as the Revolutionary War, the Battle of the Alamo, the opening of the West, World War I, and the Great Depression.

But America also contains some great songs, including Jimmie Driftwood’s “The Battle of New Orleans” and Cash’s own “Big Foot”, a stirring account of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. Even Cash’s recitation of the Gettysburg Address, spoken over Norman Blake’s plaintive acoustic guitar, has a certain undeniable power. (In the liner notes, Cash thanks Blake and his guitar “for setting the mood for this album.”)

Ragged Old Flag, from 1974, opens with the post-Watergate title song, a campy, jingoistic ditty than must be the precursor to Lee Greenwood’s icky “God Bless The U.S.A.” (Sample lyrics: “She’s gettin’ threadbare and she’s wearin’ thin/But she’s in good shape for the shape she’s in/’Cause she’s been through the fire before/And I believe she can take a whole lot more.”) But the rest of the album holds up well. Cash wrote all of the songs, and they touch on classic themes such as hard work (“King Of The Hill”), family (“I’m A Worried Man”), despair (“Lonesome To The Bone”), and God (“Pie In The Sky”). There’s also a topical number about pollution (“Don’t Go Near The Water”).

Recorded with Cash’s great backing group the Tennessee Three (guitarist Bob Wootton, bassist Marshall Grant, drummer W.S. Holland), along with Carl Perkins on guitar and the pre-“Elvira” Oak Ridge Boys on vocals, Ragged Old Flag — the title track excepted — has that great stripped-down, boom-chukka Johnny Cash sound.

When Cash first auditioned for Sam Phillips in 1954, he pitched himself as a gospel singer, but Phillips convinced him to stick to secular material. After Cash moved to Columbia Records in 1958, his producer, Don Law, allowed him to record Hymns By Johnny Cash, his second album for the label. It’s a fine work with many soul-stirring songs, including “It Was Jesus”, “The Old Account”, and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”. When the hard-livin’, pill-poppin’ Cash sings a line like “Lead me gently home, Father, lead me gently home/If I fall upon the wayside, lead me gently home,” you can’t help but be touched by his sincerity.

Unfortunately, for its re-release, Hymns has been paired with Johnny Cash Sings Precious Memories, from 1975. Produced by Cash himself, it’s all lathered up in syrupy background vocals and swirling orchestrations.

Cash, who has suffered from chronic health problems for a number of years, will turn 70 in February. Fittingly, Columbia is celebrating the occasion by reissuing a number of his titles for the label. I suspect that America and Ragged Old Flag were rush-released to capitalize on the wave of patriotism that has swept over the nation since the attacks of September 11. No matter. They deserve to be available, and so do Cash’s other Columbia albums, the good ones and the bad.