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List Price: $11.98 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 177701
Released: March 19, 2002 |
| Our Price: $4.00 |
| Used Price: $2.58 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Orange Blossom Special Track Listing:
1. Orange Blossom Special
2. The Long Black Veil
3. It Ain't Me Babe
4. The Wall
5. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright
6. You Wild Colorado mono
7. Mama, You Been On My Mind
8. When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below) mono
9. All Of God's Children Ain't Free
10. Danny Boy
11. Wildwood Flower
12. Amen
13. Engine 143 mono
14. (I'm Proud) The Baby Is Mine
15. Mama, You've Been On My Mind
Editorial Review:
Perhaps this should have been titled The Freewheelin' Johnny Cash in homage to the watershed Bob Dylan album. Though conservative country music and liberal folk shared little audience base at the time, Cash crossed that bridge by covering three Dylan tunes on this 1965 classic (reissued here with three previously unreleased tracks). Cash sounds loose and frisky throughout, as he romps from the harmonica-driven title song through the traditional country of "Long Black Veil," the Irish standard "Danny Boy," and the rousing spiritual "Amen." The stripped-down arrangements give the material plenty of room to breathe, with only the female backing chorus sounding dated. Dylan subsequently crossed this musical bridge from the other side, inviting Cash to duet with him on the country-tinged Nashville Skyline. --Don McLeese
Orange Blossom Special Reviews:
I wore this out.... 
2008-09-07 - ....when I was growing up and my mom bought the album in '65. Through too many moves to count, and newer tapes & CDs to collect, it was lost but never forgotten in 40+ years, so I was extremely happy to be able to download it here and listen to it again. I'm not the biggest fan of older country music, but this will always be in the top 10 of Johnny Cash's contributions as far as I'm concerned.
Odd change from Cash 
2008-07-16 - As the album notes point out, this 1965 LP was significant historically, marking the crossing of the line between hippie folk music and conservative country. Three Bob Dylan songs were included along with a variety of other folk songs, two songs by Cash (there's one more as a bonus track on this CD), and some old-time country. I appear to be in the minority in not really liking the Dylan crossovers much, and in feeling that much of this album wasn't ideal material for Cash, at least not at the time. (I think he handled this kind of material better in later years, with better arrangements too.) Most of the album is enjoyable, but not much if any is close to Cash's best, and there are parts that stick out as more strange than good. I'll try to describe both the good and questionable so you can make your own judgment.
The title song that leads off the album is a good example of an oddity. Written as a showpiece for fiddle, here the fiddle parts for "Orange Blossom Special" are done on harmonica and, for one solo, a saxophone. While the harmonica may sound more like a train whistle (the Special being a train), it doesn't have the bite or, as played here by Charlie McCoy, the traditional vigor that makes the song a showstopper. Boots Randolph's sax doesn't burn the house down either. It's a pleasant, moderately fun rendition, and different from others, to be sure, but no more, nothing like what you might expect from the liner notes, which include a narrative by Cash titled "'Orange Blossom Special' ... tore the house down." That turns out to be about the fiddle version. (Incidentally, that narrative may be a little mixed up fact-wise. I'll include below some notes about it and the mystery voice who does the spoken part with Cash.)
The Dylan covers form a trilogy on parting with women he doesn't love, either because she's too square or cloying or because he's "free-wheelin'," or both. They all include ironic lyrics, and at least a couple appear to be rather sour parodies of traditional folk songs. "It Ain't Me Babe" is done up with close harmony vocals from June Carter (before she was June Carter Cash), harmonica, and mariachi horns. Cash seems to play up the satirical side of the song when he half-shouts the choruses and ends each by practically spitting the final "babe." Or maybe he's just trying to bring it to life. This one makes me cringe, but others find it delightful.
The other two Dylan covers, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Mama You Been on My Mind," are less oddly arranged and sung, though we do get a sax and some odd vocal phrasing in the latter. The last bonus track is an earlier recording of "Mama You Been on My Mind" with Mexican horns and what sounds like occasional straining to get the words into the line, an issue in a few other cuts as well.
About half the songs are relaxed, quiet folk songs, mostly with some of the standard Cash rhythm section, dialed back a little. These are, overall, the most successful cuts, in my view. Like the album as a whole, they have the feel of songs quickly assembled and performed without much rehearsal. That's how Cash preferred to work, and it had its good points, in not smothering spontaneity, and its bad points, including some sloppiness in phrasing and not always getting the most out of a song.
It's fun to hear Cash sing the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower." Like most of the quieter songs, it mainly sounds laid back, with a loping rhythm section.
June Carter duets with Cash on "When It's Springtime in Alaska," with only an acoustic guitar accompanying. I like that one best.
One of the folky songs, "Danny Boy," has a 2-minute spoken introduction in which Cash talks about family history that he ties into the song. It's a pleasure to hear Cash talk about anything, especially something close to him, though if you listen to the album frequently you may not want to hear it each time (no convenient way to skip it). The song itself will affect different people differently. The arrangement is simple, mainly just Cash singing with an acoustic guitar, with occasional women's chorus and a flute. I enjoy the doleful, rough quality Cash brings to it, and at the same time am slightly put off by what seems to be a struggle to hit some of the notes, which some will find all the more affecting, some hard to listen to.
"All of God's Children Ain't Free" is a protest song Cash wrote that must have stood out at the time, when country music wasn't doing protest songs. It sounds like what you might expect a Johnny Cash version of a Pete Seeger song to sound like, with the usual rhythm section and women backing him on each occurrence of the title line. The sentiment of the lyric is similar to that of "Man in Black" (which suits him better, I think).
The spiritual "Amen" that ended the LP is more rousing than the other cuts, with a good driving beat, lively piano, choir and banjo (!?). It isn't one of the most rousing versions I've heard of what can be a roof-raiser, but it's got some spirit.
All in all, the CD is a mixed bag, good for fans who are just happy hearing Cash sing, and especially for seekers of musical history and curiosities.
A few notes about the original liner notes. Cash tells a story of Ervin T. Rouse, one of the writers of the "Special," as some called it, finding Cash backstage at a show. According to another account by Cash and an account given by Randy Noles based on eyewitness testimony (in his book on the song), Cash had spoken to Rouse on the phone and had invited him to meet him there, Rouse was driven there in a car, and he had already made reacquaintance with Mother Maybelle Carter outside the hall, all contrary to what the liner notes appear to imply. Rouse was actually 48 when Cash says he was probably over 60. Noles also settles, apparently on good authority (he spoke with at least one person who was there), who did the spoken dialogue with Cash on this song. It wasn't Pop Staples but a custodian and courier named Ed Grizzard, whom he had similarly employed on "The Legend of John Henry's Hammer."
Hey man... When you goin' back to Florida?
2005-12-12 - If you're lookin' for fast paced grabbers like "Ring of Fire" or "One piece at a time" you may be a newbie to Cash, and might want to start with a Greatest Hits comp. for now, as there are tons taylored pretty much to anyone's fancy... Orange Blossam Special is a mid-paced folkier record, and this with Bob Dylans country treat "Nashville Skyline" equals a really neat glance at how these artists friendships and influences could produce some awesome country magic. I recommend both. And if you don't think OBS is for you, but are still a Cash fan looking for an album that yeilds instant satisfaction, "Live at San Quentin" is AMAZING!!!
Six stars--no, seven...
2005-12-07 - Besides the excellent Dylan covers, the cool thing about this CD is that, without being self-conscious about it, it includes an example of just about everything Cash was famous for. You got your old-timey country (Orange Blossom Special and Wildwood Flower), your contemporary country (Long Black Veil, which sounds old-timey but was written in 1959, and I'm Proud the Baby is Mine, which is very contemporary), a prison song (The Wall, a classic), a train song (Engine 143--actually, Orange Blossom Special is kind of a train song too), a protest song (All God's Children Ain't Free), one of those funny country songs that ends in a kind of punch line based on the catchphrase in the chorus (When It's Springtime in Alaska), a gospel song (Amen, that song from the Sidney Portier movie Lilies of the Field), an unusual choice for a cover song (the old Irish chestnut Danny Boy, which he sings with so much soul you forget how many times you've heard it before), and, foreshadowing the American Recordings that revived his career in the 80s, You Wild Colorado, just Cash and his guitar (actually there are two like that- Engine 143 is also Cash and his guitar, in that case a 12-string). There are two duets with June Carter (It Ain't Me Babe and When It's Springtime in Alaska) and even some spoken word (Danny Boy has a two minute intro where Cash talks about his dad being in the First World War, coming back to Arkansas to be a sharecropper, courting him mom, and the Irish immigrant he worked with who sang the song). It's true what the Amazon guy says, the female choruses are a little dated, and the occasional bit of mariachi horns don't always seem entirely appropriate, but generally the arrangements are tasteful and, at times, beautiful. And once Cash starts singing you can't really hear anything else. What a presence.
Three Dylan covers and many other great songs
2005-04-28 - In the sixties, when this album was recorded, Johnny was at his most commercially successful. Fans will always argue over which period was his best, but he certainly recorded some great albums back then, of which this was one.
The set opens with Orange blossom special, a song about a train journey, utilising harmonica to produce a sort of train whistle effect - it works really well, even if doesn't sound much like an old steam train whistle.
Among the other songs are three Dylan covers - It ain't me babe, Don't think twice it's all right and Mama, you've been on my mind. It was around this time that Bob Dylan began gaining widespread recognition and maybe these covers helped. It ain't me babe was a huge American pop hit for Johnny.
There are many other wonderful songs, too numerous to go into detail, on this classic album, which is essential for all of Johnny's fans.
