Johnny Cash: The Great Lost Performance

Released this week is a live performance by Johnny Cash entitled The Great Lost Performance. Recorded on July 27, 1990 (17 years ago this week), this album includes Johnny Cash’s first performance anywhere of his original “What Is Man?,” his only recorded version of country gospel’s “Wonderful Time Up There” and “A Beautiful Life,” and his only concert version of “Life’s Railway To Heaven,” whose studio version by Cash was released only posthumously on the 2006 release Personal File. “Life’s Railway to Heaven” is even obscure on the album Personal File- it is the 48th of 49 tracks. For your listening enjoyment, please click on the links above for sound clips and click below to listen to several complete audio streams from the album.

Streaming audio from Johnny Cash’s Lost Performance CD: “Walk The Line” and “Ring of Fire”

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Related Tags:Johnny Cash The Great Lost Performance June Carter

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Beatles Photos that you Haven’t Seen and Versions of Songs that You Haven’t Heard

My friends at Music You (Possibly) Won’t Hear Anyplace Else feature some nice Beatles covers of the songs “Hey Jude, ” “She’s a Woman,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “I’ll Cry Instead,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Dear Prudence, “George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” “All You Need Is Love,” Let It Be,” “Eight Days a Week,”and John Lennon’s song “Mother.” These covers are by Maynard Ferguson, Chet Atkins, and others. To add to the Beatles love, I found a number of high quality Beatles images for your enjoyment.

John Lennon: John Lennon and wife Cynthia Lennon in an airplane 1964, John Lennon interview 1974

George Harrison: George Harrison standing before crowd of photographers in Los Angeles, Calif., 1974, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar 1967

Ringo Starr: Ringo Starr with his house on fire in the background 1979

Beatles Fans: Boy holding baseball cards and pictures of The Beatles, 1964, Beatles Fan with”Call Paul Button” 1964

Related Tags:John Lennon Beatles Ringo Starr George Harrison Beatles Fans Ravi Shankar Maynard Ferguson Chet Atkins Johnny Rivers

Lost Recordings of Stephen Stills Unearthed

Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, Nash (and sometimes Young) fame just released Just Roll Tape. The music recorded April 26th, 1968 features the original demo versions of some of the most famous Crosby, Stills, and Nash songs including “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping” and “Wooden Ships.” This is really a treat. The solo acoustic sounds and voice of Stills are loud, raw, and clear. These recordings contrasts nicely with the more famous, polished versions of these songs. NPR recently did a story on this which includes an interview with Stephen Stills. Enjoy.

Related Tags: Stephen Stills, Crosby Stills Nash, Neil Young, Just Roll Tape, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Helplessly Hoping, Wooden Ships

Unchained (not so lost) Melody

Unchained Melody is one of the most iconic songs of all time. The writer of this song, Lyricist Hy Zaret, passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 99. In his memory, I found some of the more well known renditions (and there are a lot to choose from):Elvis Presley, Righteous Brothers, U2, The Scene from the movie Ghost, Tom Jones, and Engelbert Humperdinck.

There are two other songs which I had always attributed to others were in fact Zaret originals. These include One Meat Ball (which I had always thought was a Josh White original), as well as one of my favorites-Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun Is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) performed by They Might Be Giants (version 1, version 2). It sounds like a TMBG original! (during my search, I found a ridiculous version lip synced by Sting)
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Related Tags: Unchained Melody, Hy Zaret, Elvis Presley, Righteous Brothers, U2, Ghost, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, One Meat Ball, Josh White, Why Does the Sun Shine?, The SunIs a Mass of Incandescent Gas, They Might Be Giants, TMBG, Sting, The Police music videos obituary