Well, you wonder why I always dress in black - why you never see bright colours on my back

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts.

26/09/71 : Man In Black - Johnny Cash

Our second visit with the original MIB (and the last one was over five years ago!) - I'd struggle to say I'm a fan, but I admire the man for his dedication over the years, so I'm happy to listen to this.

To my surprise, I didn't mind this at all! It's pretty straightforward guitar-based US country/folk, but it's well done - earnest but not overly so. And I actually liked the title track and "Look For Me" - the addition of June Carter Cash on the latter definitely lifts it. It's also nicely different from everything else we've heard so far this year, so that made for a pleasant change. And it's a pretty cool album cover as well.

We're all the way down at #18 in the charts this week (skipping over a LOT of compilation albums) on his third week of a seven week run, with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were Rod Stewart, Deep Purple, TOTP Volume 19 (a new entry), James Taylor and The Who and the next highest new entry was Cat Stevens (#8).

Wikipedia doesn't tell us which of his albums this is, but it seems to be about his 22nd (out of something like 130 in total, from '57 to '24) and the title "refers both to Cash's tendency to wear black at live shows and to the tumultuous times in which the song was created" - he only became known as The Man in Black later. The album is interesting in that it features five guitarists (including Carl Perkins) but I'd have to say I'm not entirely sure what they do on it - it also features Billy Graham preaching on the opening track. There's no word on the critical reception but it got to #1 in the US country chart and #56 in the overall chart.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent original version for four quid, but it you want to splash out you'll have to go for the crystal clear 180gm vinyl reissue from '24 which will set you back £34.53 precisely! I found this to be an enjoyable slice of history - he doesn't have the world-weariness that he developed in his later (older) years and so it was surprisingly light (despite some pretty heavy subject matter).

19/09/71 - Remarkably average
03/10/71 - Not great

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