The age-old question about which albums you would take with you on a deserted island is an interesting way to peek into someone’s all-time favorite music, and Johnny Cash’s deserted island album list is no different. Some of the Man in Black’s selections are understandable—predictable even. But other musicians who made the list are more surprising.
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So, how many albums do you have in common with this country superstar?
Johnny Cash’s “Desert Island” Album List
In his 1997 memoir Cash, Johnny Cash pondered which albums he would take with him if he were stuck on a desert island. “Assuming your cell phone didn’t make it through the surf, but your solo-powered CD player did,” Cash wrote, “I’d say that Freeweheelin’ [Bob Dylan] would have to be on the list. So would Merle Travis’s Down Home, which has “Sixteen Tons” and all those other great songs on it and was the first country concept album.”
“Then, I’d have to include Jimmie Davis’s Greatest Gospel Hits, Emmylou Harris’s Roses in the Snow, my daughter Rosanne’s The Wheel, an album of Rosetta Tharpe’s gospel music, something by Beethoven, and You Are There by Edward R. Murrow. I’d be entertained and inspired quite nicely, I think.”
Selections like Jimmie Davis and Merle Travis make sense, coming from a country icon like Cash. The fact that he would include his daughter Roseanne Cash’s music is as sweet as it is unsurprising—what father wouldn’t capitalize on the opportunity to keep their kid close by on their hypothetical desert island? The fact that Cash included the Romantic composer Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the more surprising choices on his list and an interesting look into the vast range of musical interests Cash had.
The Country Star’s Connection To His Favorite Bob Dylan Album
Johnny Cash discussed his all-time favorite albums for his desert island stay shortly after sharing a touching story about his connection to Bob Dylan’s iconic Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. When the album first came out in May 1963, Cash was an instant fan, having started following the Minnesotan singer-songwriter since his eponymous debut the year before.
Cash said he listened to the record “almost constantly,” even when he was working. “I had a portable record player I’d take along the road, and I’d put on Freewheelin’ backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off. After a while at that, I wrote Bob a letter telling him how much of a fan I was. He wrote back almost immediately, saying he’d been following my music since “I Walk the Line.””
Cash’s admiration of Dylan—and the mutual respect and reverence Dylan had for him—would later lead to the musicians collaborating on Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline. Their working together completely changed the face of country music, ushering in a new wave of country fans escorted by their beloved troubadour vagabond.
After Cash’s death in 2003, Dylan penned a heartfelt statement about his colleague and friend. “In plain terms, Johnny was and is the North Star. You could guide your ship by him—the greatest of the greats then and now. Truly, he is what the land and country is all about, the heart and soul of it personified and what it means to be here, and he said it all in plain English.”
Photo by Michel Linssen/Redferns
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