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Liner Notes I got so excited writing the songs in this album that you'd think I just started in the music business. It's something I always wanted to do, write an album of all my own songs and for some reason, I just never got around to it. One reason, I suppose, is that I have so many friends that are good song writers and their songs just kept on coming along.
But it seemed like in the last year or two, these songs started bubbling out of me more than ever and I started putting down everything that came out. I sang them for my family and my friends, and all they had to do was say they liked one and I'd go write another one. I've been doing things I did twenty years ago, jumping up in the middle of the night, grabbing a piece of paper in the dark, writing down a line or two so I wouldn't forget it tomorrow, and I found myself actually finishing all the songs that I started. It was like I was about to audition my own songs for the first time and I'd grab every passing thought, every catchy phrase and put it down. And there were times I even took my guitar to the; supper table. I was working so hard on a song, I didn't want to give it up even for a few minutes. So while I ate with my family, I worked on the song at the same time and they cut my songs to pieces. I have an understanding with my wife and girls. They shoot straight with me on what they like and what they don't like concerning my songs.
Some of them came easy, within a matter of minutes or an hour at the most. But on some of them, I wrung my mind, I bit the pen and I walked the floor and the songs didn't want to come. But they finally did, they all came together. So I guess you'd say they are some of my most profound, passing thoughts.
There was one of them, "Ragged Old Flag," that I didn't even have any control over. It came out faster than I could write it down. You've heard of people who write songs in ten minutes. "Ragged Old Flag'? was one of those songs. Then I recorded it at a Columbia luncheon at the House of Cash and the applause is from the Columbia Record people who were in convention there. Chuck Cochran arranged the most unusual orchestration (and Earl Scruggs played the banjo).
On the other eleven songs, we went into the studio with the Tennessee Three, Carl Perkins, Larry McCoy, Ray Edenton, and I talked the Oak Ridge Boys into coming and singing on a couple of them. No wild, weird sounds, no extra icing, I recorded them the way I felt them.
And I sang them for you, making believe that you were one of those that were sitting down to dinner with me when I took my guitar to the supper table. Top Of Page
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Info Personnel
Additional personnel
Recorded:
ChartsAlbum - Billboard (North America)
Singles - Billboard (North America)
Info It's a little hard to recover from the over-the-top patriotism of the opening title cut on this mid-'70s release, with its overbearing spoken narrative and shamelessly melodramatic orchestral production. Actually, however, that song is not typical of this release, which otherwise finds Cash backed only by the Tennessee Three (Carl Perkins, Larry McCoy, and Ray Edenton), with the Oak Ridge Boys singing backup on a couple of tracks. "Don't Go Near the Water" is, in contrast to the title song, rather radical for a country singer in its ecological protest, with its chorus: "Don't go near the water children/See the fish all dead upon the shore/Don't go near the water/'Cause the water isn't water anymore." The rest of the album is agreeable low-key Cash country, though with something of a more-of-the-same feeling that makes it a middle-of-the-pack Cash release at best; "All I Do Is Drive" sounds like a hybrid of old Sun singles like "Cry, Cry, Cry" and "Big River," for instance. The songs go over familiar Cash territory like drifting, loneliness, and the struggle to keep your head above water. But none of them rate among his best, though "Please Don't Let Me Out" puts a twist on his prison stories by taking the viewpoint of a prisoner who wants to stay put as he now considers jail his home. Re-Release Info Reissue producer: Al Quaglieri. Engineers: Charlie Bragg, Roger Tucker, Freeman Ramsey. Recorded in 1974. Originally released on Columbia (32917). Includes liner notes by Johnny Cash. All tracks have been digitally remastered. This is part of Columbia Records "Legacy" series. As the title track--with its martial drum intro, bold strings, and patriotic narrative--indicates, RAGGED OLD FLAG is another of the Man in Black's mid-'70s song cycles about American national identity. But while this track leans toward melodrama, the album, as a whole, is more in keeping with Cash's up-close-and-personal songwriting tradition than the elaborate history lesson of 1972's AMERICA. Here, narratives of working-class hardship predominate. "All I Do Is Drive" tells the story of a truck driver's life, while "Southern Comfort" and "King of the Hill" spin tales of jobs in a tobacco factory and a cotton mill, respectively. There are songs about alienation ("Lonesome to the Bone"), domestic bliss ("While I've Got It on My Mind"), and the anomalous but affecting environmental protest song, "Don't Go Near the Water." Cash's facility with the point-of-view story-song is strong as ever, and with rich backing from the Oak Ridge Boys and the Tennessee Three, RAGGED OLD FLAG is a worthwhile addition to any fan's collection. ***
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Lyrics 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
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