The Chicken In Black
Posted by Ben Milne on 23 June 2008 - 5:27pm.
To carry on a theme started by Mr Hepworth, this is further proof (not that any was needed) that Johnny Cash's career was not all moody poses and being "authentic".
Personally I can't decide whether this is the worst thing he ever did or an act of crazed genius:
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Jesus.
I thought I knew a fair bit about Johnny Cash, but I'd never heard of this. I always thought that it was incredible that an artist of his stature was ever dropped by his record label. Now I can kind of see their point.
I'll defend his appearances on The Muppet Show, I don't think too little of A Boy Named Sue or Daddy Sang Bass. But this is just incredibly awful. I'm lost for words.
He was dropped by CBS because...
...he didn't sell records to the country crowd anymore.
And he was signed by Def Jam because they figured out how he could sell records to the alt rock crowd.
Chicken
I think this was a b-side (I used to have it on 7"), although that doesn't explain why a video was made, so my memory could be playing tricks. I think Cash deliberately recorded it as some kind of terrible self-parody in order to hasten his escape from a record company contract although, to be honest, all of his output around this period was lousy. And for a good few years either side.
Brain Transplant
This was the original title but was changed to annoy the record company.It only partially worked as the song did quite well.Cash left CBS and as Fraser said did nothing of note for a few years.
George Jones also came up with some stinkers during this period too.
The Tune is Bog standard and the lyrics suck.And An Awful video.
Not...
his best, that one.
Two of the greatest voices...
... in music, doing this schtick, sure is tough to take.