Johnny Cash: A Concert Behind Prison Walls (DVD/CD Set)
Picture: C Sound: B Extras: B Program:
B+
The death of Johnny Cash
really hit the world in a strange way.
People that never really listened to him started to recognize his
achievements and the people that were fans or had been fans revamped their
attention towards the singer/songwriter and his legacy. It is sad that it takes a persons death to
make people recognize how talented and influential they are, but I doubt that
Cash would have cared anyway. He was a
simple man that lived on the edge in terms of how he thought and what he
did. He was also a man of change who
later in his life, despite not caring what others thought, decided to become an
outspoken ‘saved’ man, who believed in God and almost regretted much of what he
did in his life. Johnny Cash: A
Concert Behind Prison Walls includes the talents of Foster Brooks, Roy
Clark, Johnny Cash, and Linda Ronstadt, who appear with Johnny circa 1982.
This is a reissue with the
same DVD as before (reviewed elsewhere on this site), only now we have a CD
included, which runs a total time of 60-minutes.
DVD Tracklisting:
Folsom Prison Blues
Sunday Morning Coming Down
Jacob Green
Desperado
You’re No Good
Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms
That Honeymoon Feeling
Shuckin’ The Corn
Half As Much
Love Has No Pride
Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Hey Porter
Orange Blossom Special
A Boy Named Sue
CD Tracklisting:
Folsom Prison Blues
Sunday Morning Coming Down
Jacob Green
Comedy Routine
Desperado
You’re No Good
Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms
That Honeymoon Feeling
Shuckin’ The Corn
Half As Much
Love Has No Pride
Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Hey Porter
Wreck of the Old Ninety-Seven
Orange Blossom Special
A Boy Named Sue
This is a really terrific
set and a good way to introduce many to Johnny Cash, but you can tell after
seeing the two track listings that there are some songs not included in the DVD
presentation that are on the CD. The
video is in a standard full frame format and does have a dated look to it,
which gives away its early 1980’s appearance.
Colors are not well defined and the analog source is very evidence as
well. The picture is quite soft, but
still manages to get the job done.
Notice the outfit that Ronstadt is wearing and how faded it
appears.
Audio can also be
disappointing as well since this comes in Dolby Digital Stereo and Dolby
Digital 5.1, which does not come close to what DTS would offer. The CD sound is a bit better in terms of
noise reduction as well and the biggest difference with the 5.1 mix is that
more texture is added in the rears, but not enough as some might hope. Bass management is also a problem from time
to time as well, which is where DTS would have helped. It is common for most Dolby only discs to pump
up the bass a bit more in order to try and compensate and sound fuller, but
here we are given a more flatlined performance. Overall the program works, but knowing the limitations of Dolby
and with the CD (with its less compressed PCM signal) to use as a comparison,
it’s pretty hard to fool even and uneducated consumer with certain programs
like this.
As I already mentioned
this is a good introduction to Johnny Cash and maybe even a nice way to get a
decent CD out of it as well, but one should also consider that this is a live
performance, which can be distracting at times, however an artist like Cash is
also quite good in his roughest moments.
For audiophiles this is probably not the best disc for demo material,
but it is hard to get older live material to really shine no matter what is
done.
- Nate Goss
