The Last Gunfighter Ballad Explained

The Last Gunfighter Ballad
Type:Album
Artist:Johnny Cash
Cover:JohnnyCashTheLastGunfighterBallad.jpg
Released:January 1977
Recorded:February 21, 1975 – October 6, 1976
Studio:House of Cash Studios (Hendersonville)
Length:30:23
Language:English
Label:Columbia
Chronology:Johnny Cash
Prev Title:One Piece at a Time
Prev Year:1976
Next Title:The Rambler
Next Year:1977

The Last Gunfighter Ballad is an album by American country singer Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in 1977. Notable tracks include the title track, "Far Side Banks of Jordan" and "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine", the latter of which features Cash's brother Tommy Cash. The title track was the album's only single, reaching #38 on the country charts; it tells the tale of an aging gunslinger who finds himself unable to deal with the modern way of life.

"Ballad of Barbara" is a new recording of a song that had first appeared as the B-side of Cash's 1973 single "Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup", while "City Jail" is a studio version of a track first released on the live album På Österåker. "Far Side Banks of Jordan", a duet featuring Cash and his wife, June Carter Cash, is a remake of a track first recorded in 1975 for a planned gospel album that was recorded in full, but for reasons unknown was never released (the 1975 version of the song, along with the other tracks, would not be released until 2012). The song is noted for its lyrics which feature June pondering the possibility of dying before her husband (she would in fact die several months before Cash in 2003).[1]

Personnel

Additional personnel

Charts

Album - Billboard (United States)

Singles - Billboard (United States)

Notes and References

  1. Gregg Geller, "Producer's Note", Johnny Cash, Bootleg Vol. IV: The Soul of Truth. Columbia/Legacy Records 88697985382, 2012